Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon Louis Sako boycotted the National Conference on the Protection of Peaceful Coexistence, the Ban of Hatred and the Fight against Terrorism and Extremism held in the Iraqi parliament Feb. 7. Sako thought it was “useless to participate in conferences of slogans and mere talk that do not result in effective measures on the ground.”
Sako, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, seemed angry at the government's failure to take steps to protect Iraq’s Christians, 120,000 of whom were displaced and whose properties in Islamic State-controlled Mosul were confiscated in June 2014. The Christians’ plight was also overlooked in Baghdad, where influential parties took over their residences.