Da'esh and the compassion imperative

Last week Assyrian priest Fr Aprem Pithyou, of the Ancient Church of the East in Wellington, challenged New Zealand to take on refugees displaced by the atrocities currently escalating in the Levant. I am not quite a pacifist, but I am no fan of the George W. Bush approach to international relations, either. To be honest I’m not sure what the political and military response should be when a terrorist group act in the way Da’esh are acting. I suspect they are hoping to provoke a western ground troop reaction, hoping that will garner further sympathy from Sunni governments, and that this heightened sympathy will translate into increased military aid to their aims.

As it happens I doubt Da’esh will succeed in that outcome, and they have probably pushed too far too fast even by the standards of Sunni-favouring governments. International Islamic leaders have spoken out against their atrocities, and the major Arab nation most antagonistic to the West, Iran, is a Shi’ite nation alienated and angered by Da’esh executions of Shi’ite believers. Nations such as Nigeria or Morocco, potentially sympathetic to Da’esh’s Sunni claims, are likely to be the melting pots of dangerous but disorganized hatred rather than responding as unified political and military units.

We might ask whether a united military response to Da’esh will achieve anything but more hatred. Logistical and military support to Turkey and the Kurds is the best response, but leaders like Obama have access to far more information than I do, and even Key may know a thing or two I don’t. If he is merely chest-beating (the Thatcher technique, perfected in the Falklands) then he deserves total scorn, but I cannot yet be sure of that.

What I am sure of is that Fr. Aprem Pithyou is right. Whether or not we spend tax-payers’ dollars on SAS involvement in the Levant, we should be spending money to host the refugees, the must vulnerable of God’s people. Fr. Aprem has pleaded for a far greater international (and NZ) response to the growing humanitarian crisis now no longer limited to Syria but across the Plains of Nineveh, as fierce northern winters approach. Many of the refugees have fled at gunpoint, leaving everything.

Many of those fleeing are Christian, and while this should not alter our compassion it reminds the xenophobic in our communities, especially amongst the NZ Christian right wing, that this is no mere bleeding heart wish, but a gospel imperative.

Let’s spend more energy and money on compassion than on militaristic chest-beating or pissing contests. Let’s open our hearts to the needy—and probably be surprised at the talent and rich diversity they might bring.