Do the Christian indigenous people of Kurdistan and Biafra deserve our support in their fight against Islamic extremists? While supplying weapons to some insurgents fighting for freedom in Syria, why has the Obama administration not supplied support and weapons to those in Kurdistan or Christian Nigeria fighting for their survival? Why has the administration refused to give support to the independence of these beleaguered peoples?
As ISIS expands its grip on lands in Iraq and turns its attention to Kurdistan, Prime Minister Maliki has finally sent in air support to the Kurds to stem the tide of the ISIS advance. Fearful that ISIS might capture Iraq’s largest dam currently under the control of Kurdish fighters, Maliki sent Iraq’s air force to bomb ISIS targets in Sinjar. But neither Maliki or the Obama administration have been willing to provide much needed ammunition and weapons to the Kurdish fighters.
With the Kurds in a legal fight with Maliki over giving the revenue from the sale of the crude oil in their region to Baghdad, the Obama administration has refused to support the Kurds in fear of justifying any partition of Iraq. But with Christians throughout Iraq seeking refuge in Kurdistan, is it not time to consider the calls for freedom coming from these war-torn regions?
After all, in 2010, President Obama joined the 145 countries who had supported the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. It affirms that “Indigenous peoples have the collective right to live in freedom, peace and security as distinct peoples and shall not be subjected to any act of genocide or any other act of violence.”
It’s time for the peoples of Kurdistan and Biafra to call on the world to go beyond words to actually support their cause. It’s time for President Obama to stop retreating from leadership in this region and use the weight of his office to act.
In the final of three interviews with Nnamdi Kanu, the Director of Radio Biafra, hear him explain what people craving freedom want and need from America. Radio Biafra is not alone in calling for independence. In a recent sermon, Nigerian Pastor Emmanuel Bosun confirms the critical need to fight for freedom now before the Islamic Hausa and their Boko Haram killers can take full control of Biafraland.
The United States has always made economic development, military aid, and diplomacy a central tenet of its national security policy in supporting strategic developing countries. It’s time to take a stand. Kurdistan and Biafra have long-standing histories to justify their existence as independent nations. Is it their majority Christian faith that is holding Obama and the world back from supporting their call for independence? Are Christians the only people around the world we won’t support?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said in defending his stand against his homeland in Germany, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
Ben Carlson, in his column on “The Spreading Scourge of Anti-Christian Persecution,” challenged all Americans to support action, “We have an obligation as Americans to denounce these acts of persecution. Even those who do not worship a higher deity should be concerned. For when we stand up to such intolerance, we are defending the root of freedom.”
