Shafaq News/ A group of religious leaders expressed concern about the targeting the Iraqi Christians and caused them to leave their country of origin, . They pointed out that the population of other religious groups such as Izidis and Mandaeans Sabean witnessed a significant decrease also these religions lost more than 80 % of its members because of the displacement.

The leaders of the representatives of religions, Christians, Jews, met last Thursday the Ambassador of Iraq to the United Nations, Hamid al-Bayati, and expressed concern about reports of an exodus of Christians from Iraq, noting the lack of involvement of Christians enough inside Iraq in the process of building their country, expressing also concern on whether the Iraqi government is doing all it can to protect religious minorities or not.
Among those who attended the meeting held by the President of the New York Board of Rabbis, Rabbi Yaakov Krmir and School Head of Theology in New York, Dr. Paul de Vries, and several other people.
According to a recent study conducted by the International Group for the rights of minorities, about 500 000 Christians remained  in Iraq while they were between 800 000 and 1.4 million Christians living in Iraq in 2003.
The head of the New York Board of Rabbis, Rabbi Yaakov Krmeyera said "all of us as Americans to pray for Iraq to become a beacon of light not only for his people but to the entire Middle East in pluralism and democracy."
The head of the Divinity School in New York, Dr. Paul de Vries said "due to the desire of (Bayati), to promote and share the visions, including efforts in the Middle East, the evangelical leaders and the Jews will follow up the matter in a productive way by future meetings that can create good solutions for today's Iraqi leaders including Ambassador and can also be moved further from our prayers for Iraq and our brothers and sisters of Iraqi Christians. "
For his part, Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations confirms that the situation is not as bad as it seems and that Iraq with the traditions of religious tolerance and has a great opportunity to become an oasis of peace and tolerance in the region, but this would require "the elimination of extremism."
Bayati demonstrated that he "This often associated with Muslim extremism, but in fact Muslims, Jews and Christian lived side by side in Iraq,"
According to Al-Bayati the case was "complex and many of the people who emigrate from Iraq are doing so not only because of a threat to their security, but also to search for better economic opportunities."
He explained, that the extremists know that the targeting of Christians would create a backlash in the West, "they are trying to move the media to show Iraq as unsafe country for Christians, this is not true," persisting "I think that every one of us suffers from stereotypes when they are not fair. "
It is said that Syria is still so far is the largest safe haven for Iraqi refugees in the region, despite the deterioration of the situation in it , after the violence between the regime and pro-democracy demonstrators, as it is the host country for the largest number of Iraqi Christians in the region after many of them were  forced to migrate to it.