Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to speak to this very important motion.
The so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, ISIL, and jihadi terrorists have declared war on us and pose a real threat. They have targeted Canada specifically, are urging supporters to attack disbelieving Canadians in any manner, vowing that we should not feel secure, even in our own homes.
As a government, we know that our ultimate responsibility is to protect Canadians from those who would do us and our families harm. That is why Canada is not and will not sit on the sidelines. ISIL has committed heinous acts of brutality against religious minority communities in Iraq and the region. The world watched in shock and horror as tens of thousands of Yazidis were stranded on Mount Sinjar last August after fleeing ISIL en masse under threat of torture, enslavement and death. While many of those Yazidis have since been relocated to safety, ISIL continues to seek out and violently persecute the region's diverse and ancient minority religious communities.
Just recently, ISIL abducted over 220 Assyrian Christians in eastern Syria. Their fate is still unknown and their disappearance, coupled with the worsening state of safety and security in the region, has forced over 1,000 Assyrian Christian families to vacate their homes in fear. This is part of a much wider campaign by ISIL to expel or destroy all those who oppose its warped ideology of division and hate, including Shia and moderate Sunni Muslims.
This extends into ISIL's destruction of Iraq's religious and cultural heritage, where it has targeted sites of shared significance to the Christian, Muslim and broader Arab communities in Iraq. ISIL has sought to destroy the inherent religious diversity Iraq has maintained for hundreds of years and to erase the history of a region known as the cradle of civilization.
Earlier this year, ISIL desecrated the ancient city of Hatra, a UNESCO world heritage site. It ransacked and vandalized the Mosul Museum, destroying hundreds of irreplaceable Assyrian artifacts. Last July, it demolished Jonah's Tomb in Mosul, a site revered by both the local Christians and Muslim communities.
The realities faced by Iraqi Christians epitomizes the severity of ISIL's brutal campaign of persecution. Hundreds of thousands of Christians have fled their homes, joining an estimated 2.4 million now displaced by the violence. By some estimates, the near total disappearance of Christians from the region is unfolding. Should ISIL's campaign against Iraq's religious minorities continue unencumbered, the fate of the Christian population in Iraq could mirror that of the Jewish community in Iraq, which dwindled from approximately 135,000 in 1948 to less than 100 today.
From an estimated population of 1.3 million Christians in Iraq in 2003, some estimates now put the number of Christians remaining in Iraq at approximately 130,000. ISIL threatens to wipe out the region's pluralism, rooted in the presence of faith communities of diverse creeds living together side by side for millennia. The maintaining of such diversity is crucial for lasting stability.
Without tolerance and respect for religious diversity in Iraq, the chance of building a democratic country grounded in the rule of law is greatly diminished. Iraq's religious minorities have also been targeted under a horrific campaign of sexual and gender-based violence. Unspeakable acts of rape, sexual enslavement and forced marriage against women, girls and boys have been perpetrated by ISIL in the territories it holds.
Canada has been a strong supporter of international efforts to end sexual violence and conflict. Such barbaric acts are an affront to human dignity and Canadian values, and add to the urgency of the call to stop ISIL and re-establish peace and security in the region. The twisted, hateful ideology that motivates ISIL is spreading like a cancer. It is fuelling violence in East Africa, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and throughout the Middle East.
While our government has rightly directed the Canadian military to support our friends and allies in stopping ISIL's advance on the ground, military force alone cannot root out the long-term threat posed by jihadi extremism. Extremism flourishes in an environment without respect and tolerance for religious diversity and religious difference. Legal and social restrictions on religious freedoms, including the prohibitions against blasphemy and apostasy that we have been seeing elsewhere in Muslim-majority countries cannot be allowed to take hold in Iraq; not just because they infringe on the rights of Christians and other minorities to practise their faith, but because they discourage the liberalizing voices within Islam that are crucial to countering the influence of the extremists in the long term.
This is precisely why the government has committed to advancing freedom of religion as a central component of our response to the situation in Iraq. Through the Office of Religious Freedoms, we will be working over the medium and long term to promote interfaith dialogue, to encourage understanding and respect among Iraq's religious communities, and to help build a political and social framework that allows all Iraqis to express their faith freely and without fear.
To that end, the Office of Religious Freedoms has been working diligently to identify and implement initiatives to assist in these efforts. Through the religious freedom fund, the office is supporting a two-year project with minority rights groups internationally that will increase the capacity of local Iraqi civil society organizations to monitor and respond to violations of religious freedom, as well as assist religious communities of all faiths to access vital services.
We will also continue reaching out to our friends and allies to build recognition for the important role religious freedom will play in ensuring long-term sustainable peace in Iraq. Our Ambassador for Religious Freedom, Dr. Andrew Bennett, continues to conduct outreach with Canadian Iraqi religious leaders to identify how best to help Iraq's religious communities under threat and support longer-term religious tolerance and freedom. Ambassador Bennett has also held fruitful discussions in the region with a number of faith-based organizations to explore opportunities for partnership with Canada on the ground.
As a multicultural and multi-faith society, Canada is uniquely qualified to promote the peaceful coexistence of Iraq's various religious and ethnic communities. We have a rich and proud tradition of diversity, respect, and tolerance, a tradition that has yielded peace and prosperity for Canadians. Through our engagement in Iraq, we will honour this tradition by acting against hate and persecution, by championing the values of pluralism and religious freedom and ultimately keeping Canadians safer here at home.