Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Canberra for bringing this motion to the attention of the House. Around the world, there are currently 37 ongoing conflicts, including in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, the Central African Republic, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali and Afghanistan just to name a few. The International Institute for Strategic Studies reports that around 167,000 people died in armed conflicts around the world in 2015. One in three of these deaths occurred in Syria. These conflicts turn entire towns and cities to rubble. They destroy people's lives, as people have to flee their homes. They decimate national economies. Worst of all, they lead to widespread acts of brutality, torture and sexual violence, as we've heard from the member for Canberra in her contribution. These acts of violence are most often committed against children and women, and they are committed against men as well.

ISIS have particularly targeted minority ethnic and religious groups, including Christians, Yazidis and minority Muslim communities. ISIS have also waged a war on the Kurds. Early in my time as a member of this House, I had representations from the local Kurdish community, many of whom had relatives who'd been raped, tortured and even killed by ISIS. One of the most horrific elements of the campaign of ISIS in seizing lands in Syria and Iraq is the immense level of suffering they've inflicted on these populations. In a single act in August 2014, Islamist militants massacred 80 Yazidi men and abducted women and children in a community in northern Iraq. ISIS has repeatedly executed Shiah Muslim civilians in Iraq, and Human Rights Watch reported the killing of at least 40 Shiah Turkmen civilians, including children, in a single day. ISIS marked the doors of houses belonging to religious and ethnic majorities, defining them as Christian, Shiah Shabak or Shiah Turkmen, and levied a jizya, or special tax, on them.

Like all Australians, I deplore the persecution of innocent people, particularly on the basis of their religious or ethnic minority status. I particularly want to focus my contribution on the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, not only in areas currently controlled by ISIS but in other parts of the Middle East as well, and to draw attention to this persecution. Some of the earliest Christian communities in the world were in the Middle East. The Middle East, of course, is the birthplace of the three Abrahamic monotheisms, and descendants of all three of those monotheisms live in my electorate. I'm proud of the Maronite community around St George church in Thornleigh and the Coptic community around St Mary and St Sidhom Bishay church in Dural.

The position of Christians in the Middle East is particularly important, and acts of persecution and discrimination have escalated against them in the past 15 years. It's now estimated that Christians comprise only three to four per cent of the Middle East population, down from around 20 per cent of the Middle East only a century ago.

I want to particularly note the position of Chaldean Christians in the Middle East. Previously numbering around a million people, today they number less than 200,000. The persecution of Chaldean Christians was so great that, at the outbreak of the Iraq war in 2003, many fled Mosul, including the Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul, Archbishop Nona, who became the Archbishop of Sydney. Of course, as ISIS has been in retreat, the position of Chaldean Christians has improved. In particular I want to note the work of Archbishop Warda, who's the Archbishop of Erbil. He has commenced a Catholic university there in order to try to train the next generation of Iraqi Christian leaders in that area, and he has had a lot of help from around the world, including from Australia, in his work there.

I also want to look at the position of Egypt, which has the largest population of Christians in North Africa. Approximately nine million people, or 10 per cent of Egypt's population, are Copts. They too have suffered at the hands of extremists committing acts of violence against religious minorities. In February 2015, the world witnessed 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians martyred. These were construction workers lined up along the Libyan shore and beheaded by ISIS militants. In April 2017 at least 44 people were killed in two bombings, in Alexandria and Tanta, as Coptics celebrated Palm Sunday. I note that Pope Tawadros is currently in Australia, and I hope that his visit will help draw attention to some of the continued violence that occurs against Copts.

Many Christian leaders and others have drawn attention to this, not least of all Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the former Nuncio in Australia, who has become the Vatican's foreign minister. He has noted that there is a very important role for Christians to maintain in these societies in contributing to their social cohesion, which is vitally important to the future of the region.

I'm pleased to support the member for Canberra's motion and, in particular, to draw attention to the plight of Christians in the Middle East.

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