Once home to one of the largest Christian communities in the Middle East, Iraq today is in danger of losing Christianity completely. The Islamic State group forced thousands of Christians to flee after it stormed through the Nineveh Plains in 2014. Some have now returned, following IS’s military defeat. But even with IS gone, in many areas of Iraq daily life is governed by Sharia (Islamic law) and Muslims are forbidden to leave Islam.
Christian forgiveness of IS goes viral
Two videos of Christians forgiving members of the so-called Islamic State for atrocities committed against their families have gone viral on social media. In the first, a 10-year-old Iraqi girl named Myriam says she forgives IS for forcing her family out of their home in Qaraqosh. The second features an […]
Iraqi Christians still held by Islamic State ‘against their will’
More news has emerged about the situation of Christians who are still being detained in Islamic State after ten elderly Christians, some with disabilities, managed to escape. The group, eight men and two women, were ‘expelled’ by IS militants for refusing to convert to Islam. They spent two days travelling […]
10 more Christians flee Mosul
On Jan. 7, ten elderly Chaldean Christians and Syrian Catholics arrived in Kirkuk, Iraq after Islamic State militants expelled them from Mosul for their refusal to convert to Islam. The group spent two days travelling to Kirkuk, an area now under the control of Kurdish Peshmerga Forces, after being forced […]
‘Ethnic cleansing’? No. It’s genocide
Thousands of people belonging to Christian groups gathered in Berlin on Aug. 17 to protest ongoing violence in Iraq and Syria by ISIS fighters. Carsten Koall / Getty Images ANALYSIS By Yonas Dembele A senior United Nations human-rights official who recently visited Baghdad and Kurdistan has said the actions taken […]
Iraqi Yazidi couple flees ISIS to freedom
Rescue operations began Dec. 19 in northern Iraq for thousands of Yazidi villagers trapped for the past four months on Mount Sinjar and its surrounding villages. Aided by a barrage of coalition air strikes, Kurdish Peshmerga forces began a military offensive on Dec. 17 to break the siege imposed upon Sinjar’s […]
Iraqi Christians in Jordan in need
According to Agenzia Fides, there are now more than 7,000 Iraqi Christian refugees in Jordan, and funds to care for them are running low, according to Wael Suleiman, director of Caritas Jordan, a Catholic charity. “We [Caritas Jordan] find ourselves in difficulty. We support the rents of Christian families, we distribute […]
Analysis: Distinction between ‘moderate Islamists’ and ‘militant extremists’ is misleading for Western governments
The fight against Islamic State is now a top-priority of the international community. Islamic State was seriously underestimated, not only by the US. It took the international community so long to acknowledge the threat of Islamic State and to confront them, that they now seem already rather well settled […]
Heavy rain in northern Iraq floods refugee camps
Heavy rain on Thursday in the Kurdistan region of Iraq has flooded the refugee camps where many Christians live after fleeing Islamic State militia. It has forced the refugees to look elsewhere for accommodation, which will put further pressure on other camps and Christian homes already housing relatives and friends. […]
Vicar of Baghdad leaves Baghdad
Saying the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” is operating in Baghdad, the Anglican Vicar of Baghdad, Andrew White, has abandoned the capital city. White made the announcement on on Oct. 7, after a discussion with the head of the Anglican Church, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. “He has agreed for me to […]
Assyrians on patrol
When World Watch Monitor on the renewed fervor for the creation of a Christian-governed province in Iraq’s Nineveh Plains, we noted how some Christian refugees from the violence of the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” had formed paramilitary units to help Kurdish Peshmerga forces. Now an up-close look at two Assyrian Iraqis […]