The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 Dear Mr. President: As president of Christian Freedom International, an interdenominational Christian human rights organization active around the world, I am writing to you to express my concerns for Iraq's minority Christian population. There are at least 700,000 Christians in Iraq and many are worried about the growing assertiveness of Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority whose fundamentalists are prone to religious intolerance. I urge you to do everything in your power to ensure that the next government of Iraq guarantees religious freedom and human rights for all Iraqi citizens, especially minority Christians. Further, under Saddam's Baath Party, Christian schools were nationalized. Official discrimination was perpetuated in marriage rules, requiring Christians to convert to Islam in order to marry Muslims. Discrimination also persisted in hiring, job promotion, and other areas. I further urge you to encourage the next Iraqi government to recover confiscated Christian schools and associated property-some 30 schools in Baghdad alone-and establish equal rights for Christians in a new constitution. Thank you for your attention to this extremely important and timely matter. Sincerely, Jim Jacobson President