IRAQ: The Chaldean Patriarch warns against voting for the alleged ‘Christian’ Babylon Movement
By Willy Fautré, director of Human Rights Without Frontiers
HRWF (10.11.2025) – Until the eve of the parliamentary elections, Cardinal Sako, the Patriarch of the Chaldean community has repeatedly warned Christians against voting for armed groups’ proxy candidates, in particular the so-called Babylon Movement pretending to represent Christians.
On 11 November, over 21 million Iraqis out of a population of 46-47 million will participate in the sixth legislative election since the 2003 ouster of the Baath regime of Saddam Hussein.
The voters will choose the 329 members of the Council of Representatives of Iraq (parliament).
The country is divided into 18 electoral districts (each governorate is one district) and the candidates number 7,754, including 2,250 women.
There are reserved seats for minorities (including Christians) and for women.
Five seats reserved for Christians
In the parliamentary election system of Iraq, nine seats are reserved for minorities. Five are granted to the Christian community (Chaldean/Syriac/Assyrian) They are distributed across five governorates: Baghdad, Nineveh, Kirkuk, Erbil, and Duhok. Nineteen candidates are competing for the five seats. The other seats are to be shared between Yezidis, Shabaks, Mandeans and others.
The election system for the minorities is vulnerable to political manipulations and hijacking of the minorities’ voters by larger political parties as the votes can be cast by all voters and not only the minority members. Among Christians, this is the case with the controversial Babylon Movement led by Rayan al‑Kildani, claiming to represent the Christians/ Chaldeans. Many observers argue that it is a proxy of a larger Shia armed group rather than genuinely representing the Christian community.
A “Christian Alliance” is also competing. It includes e.g. the Chaldean National Congress, Syriac Assembly Movement, Chaldean Democratic Union Party, Armenian Association, Iraqi Chaldean League Global Organization.
The controversial ‘Christian’ Babylon Movement of Rayan al-Kildani
Rayan al-Kildani is known to have viciously usurped the political representation of the Iraqi Christians by defaming the Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, the historical and legitimate representative of the Christian community, and by manipulating the Iraqi national election system with the assistance of Shia political activists.
Born on 3 September 1989 in Iraq, Rayan al-Kildani is the commander of the paramilitary Babylon Brigades, a so-called ‘Christian’ militia, that was formed as part of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) also known under the names of People’s Mobilization Committee (PMC) and Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).
The PMF is an Iraqi state-sponsored umbrella organization composed of approximately 67 different armed factions. According to various sources, the number of their fighters ranges from 60,000 to 120,000. They are mostly Shia Muslims, including Khomeinist organizations as well as some Sunni Muslim, Christian and Yezidi groups. The PMF is at odds with Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani, the leader of Iraq’s Shias.
Some of the PMF component militias which pledge allegiance to Iran are considered terrorist groups by some states, while others have been accused of promoting hatred and violence between religious communities.
Pro-Iran Khomeinist organizations in the PMF have been engaged in political and ideological conflicts with pro-Sistani activists.
On 18 July 2019, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned the leader of the Babylon Brigades, Rayan Al-Kaldani, for alleged human rights violations.
US Magnitsky Law: Sanctions against Rayan al-Kildani
On 18 July 2019, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated two militia figures, Rayan al-Kildani and Waad Qado, and two former Iraqi governors, Nawfal Hammadi al-Sultan and Ahmed al-Jubouri, for sanctions based on the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act targeting perpetrators of corruption and serious human rights abuse.
They were held accountable for serious human rights abuse, including persecution of religious minorities, and for exploiting their positions of public trust to line their pockets and hoard power at the expense of their citizens.
Many of the corruption- and abuse-related actions committed by these sanctioned individuals occurred in areas where persecuted religious communities are struggling to recover from the horrors inflicted on them by ISIS.
As a result of today’s actions, all property and interests in property of these individuals, and any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50 percent or more by these individuals, that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons were blocked and reported to OFAC.
Photo: Cardinal Sako (in the middle) during a visit in Brussels several years ago. Nail Beth Kinné, member of HRWF board, on the left. Credit: Nail Beth Kinné
