As Amir Harrak watched the news this summer, the Toronto scholar saw a history, culture and language that he devoted his life to understanding being turned to dust. Churches, monasteries, mosques blown up, libraries full of ancient manuscripts burned and the people who still speak and live according to the language of Jesus and his Apostles dispersed. The news out of Iraq could not have been worse.

WASHINGTON - Iraqi-American Catholic leaders, who have persistently advocated for the embattled Christian minority in Iraq, are now going to bat for a smaller ethnic group that likewise traces its origins to the troubled region.