Iraqis fleeing from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) at a Kurdish security checkpoint enroute to Irbil. (Hussein Malla/AP)
“They are our own flesh and blood,” Mahdi said after regaining his composure. “Some of them have left for Sweden or Germany. Who does (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) think it is to drive out our fellow countrymen?”
The Asia TV program was aired in Iraq in late July, according to a video and translation provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
“This is one genuine Iraqi we have here,” another panelist commented at the sight of Mahdi in tears.
“I want to take the people of Mosul and the government to task,” Mahdi went on to say. “They must take immediate measures to help these people. Our country is like a rose, and its petals are the Christians, the Arabs, the Kurds, the Sabians, the Shabak people. These are all our countrymen. I don’t know what to say about this (ISIS).”
“The Christians have done nothing wrong,” the other panelist on the show, identified in the MEMRI video as Iraqi poet Abu Al-Hassanein Al Rub'I, added.
“They haven’t hurt a soul,” he said, “On the contrary, they are peaceful people who love all sects. They are honorable people with high moral values. They always maintain their sense of justice. We stand a hundred percent in solidarity with them.”
Tens of thousands of Christians have been forced to flee Iraq as ISIS continues to seize Christian towns. ISIS has told Christians that they must convert to Islam or pay a fine (jizya). Otherwise they face death at the hands of ISIS, which has vowed to reestablish the caliphate and threatened Americans for engaging in airstrikes against it: “We will drown all of you in blood.”