'Vicar of Baghdad': 'Iraqi refugees must be allowed into Britain'

Canon Andrew White

A plea to Britain to allow Iraqi refugees into the country was made today by Canon Andrew White, known as the ‘vicar of Baghdad’. In an exclusive interview with Britain’s largest Christian broadcaster, Canon Andrew said that the plight of Christian Iraqis was now desperate and that Britain should open its doors to them as an urgent priority.

“Britain has rejected any Iraqis coming in at all,” he told Premier Christian Radio. “But now things are desperate…it’s a life and death situation. We really need people to be allowed in here.”

The first of a series of Premier’s ‘Pray for Iraq’ interviews was broadcast today when Cannon Andrew claimed that Iraq was now the focus of a world-wide persecution of Christians.

“Iraq is at the centre of the persecution of the Christian faith in the world at the moment,” he said. “Christians around the world must realise that we are one. We must realise that these are not just people in a far off place…they are our people.”

Asked by Premier interviewer Marcus Jones why Sunni militants – the Islamic State in Iraq [Isis] – were so violent towards Christians, Cannon Andrew said: “They hate us because they hate. They hate because they’re evil. They’re like this because they’re evil. They are terrorists. They don’t know God at all. These people simply don’t know God.”

And he predicted that they’ll target Christian countries in the West saying: “They will do it like they’re doing in Baghdad.
They have what’s called Isis cells…individuals who can do radical, extreme things.”

But he said the Christian faith in Iraq is growing stronger in Iraq, despite the wholesale slaughter. “They say that their faith is getting stronger and they’re taking great courage from what we know and what we read about in the Scriptures. The prayers of our people have done everything…without them we would not be surviving now.”

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