ICC Note: In the face of genocide and extinction, the leaders of the Chaldean church in America seem to be divided. The Chaldean Church is the Iraqi branch of the catholic church whose followers have suffered immense persecution and genocide in the past two years. American leaders of this sect, who advocate on their behalf, seem to disagree on what should happen next. Patriarch Sako, who hold much influence in the US Detroit area, has urged his people to hold fast to their bloody homeland. Oppositely, Bishop Sarhad Jammo, who presides over the Southern California Chaldean community has urged that Iraqi Christians flee the Middle East for their own survival.

07/25/2016 United States (Fox News): The persecution of Christians in Iraq and Syria has exposed a rift among the half-million Chaldeans in the U.S., igniting furious debate as to whether the religious minority — subjects of ongoing genocide at the hands of ISIS — should remain in their ancestral home or seek asylum abroad.

According to leaders within the Chaldean community, which is an Iraq branch of the Catholic Church, there are two opposing factions within the religious community. One is led by Baghdad-based Patriarch Sako, who closely aligns under the governance of Pope Francis and holds particular influence among the 250,000 Chaldeans located in the Detroit area. Sako urges Chaldeans to hold fast to their bloody homeland.

Then there is the other side helmed by Bishop Sarhad Jammo, who until last week presided over Southern California’s 150,000-plus Chaldean community. Jammo advocated for Chaldeans to flee the war zone for their own survival. The two metropolitan regions host roughly 80 percent of American Chaldeans.

As ISIS began its onslaught, Jammo joined forces with Mark Arabo, a national spokesperson for the American-Chaldean community and founder of the California-based Minority Humanitarian Foundation, to work closely with the White House and Congress to advocate for Christians to be resettled in the U.S. as the ISIS threat spread. The two also sought to facilitate safe passage for the religious minority out of the war-ravaged region.

“We wanted to ensure that people who wanted to leave had the means to do so, but we also supported those who wished to stay,” Arabo told FoxNews.com.

Yet Sako has forcefully disagreed with such a stance on multiple occasions.

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