In a recent TV interview, Syrian Orthodox Archbishop Nikodimos Daoud, the diocese of Mosul and the Kurdistan region, said that the Christians had instilled culture in the Arabs and Muslims, but "they sold us out for nothing." Baghdad, he said, is ruled by mafias, as the result of the "mistaken policies" of the U.S. and the West. "When Western evil is fused with Arab stupidity, nations die," said the archbishop, in the Mayadeen TV interview which aired on August 18, 2014.

Following are excerpts:

Archbishop Nikodimos Daoud: We don’t even have knives. How can we defend ourselves if we don’t have weapons of any kind? When those [ISIS] takfirists come to get you... They reject the other, and say that they want to die in order to get their 72 virgins and eternal boys.

We don’t have concepts of this type. We have pens, paper, culture, and knowledge. We don’t have anything to fight with. A Christian cannot live where law does not prevail. We can only live in a place governed by law. Where there is no law to protect us and guarantee our rights, we cannot live, because we have no weapons, and we were not brought up – by our religion, society, and family – on the culture of blood, killing, and plunder.

We don’t have such a culture, you have to understand this. The others do have this culture. Now we must defend ourselves against these beasts. They are beasts. We are not beasts. We represent true humanity. We do not know how to slaughter. We do not know how to kill. All we know is how to write and how to instill culture in those around us – just as we instilled culture in the Arabs and Muslims in the past, when they came here as conquerors... I don’t know if we should call them conquests or raids.

When they entered our lands, we – the Syriac Christians in particular – instilled culture in them. History will curse us for educating them and for translating books for them. We have been instilling culture in them to this very day, but they sold us out for nothing. The countries for which we were willing to die spat us out.

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I used to live in Australia, but I returned because I missed Mosul, but the Mosul I had missed drove me out, humiliated me, and damaged my honor and the honor of my flock. What is left today of my love for this land? I say this with tears in my eyes.

Why did we come to Kurdistan? We have come for one reason and one reason only: There is law here. People, you have to realize that there has been no law in Iraq for 10 years. Baghdad is ruled by mafias: looting, plundering, oppression, militias, and sectarianism...

All this is the result of the mistaken policies of the U.S. and the West. When Western evil is fused with Arab stupidity, nations die. So here we are, dying before the eyes of the world.

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We will never agree to live as dhimmis, as I have said time and again. A dhimmi is a slave. We are not, and will never agree to be, dhimmis. Anyone who agrees to be a dhimmi is better off dead. We don’t want to be anybody’s dhimmis. Allah created us free, and free we shall die.

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