According to Middle East Concern, Islamic State (IS), the militant group controlling Mosul, summoned Christian leaders to a meeting on July 17 to notify them of Islamic rules to be applied to non-Muslims, including the imposition of jizya, a protection tax (IS is imposing strict shari’a law over the territories it has taken by force).
When Christian leaders failed to attend, IS announced that remaining Christians should leave Mosul or face execution by July 19. They were ordered to leave all their property behind. Earlier, IS reportedly marked houses belonging to minorities with the phrase ‘property of the Islamic State’. The houses of Christians were marked with ‘N’ for Nazarite.
End to Christianity?
Even before that, observers believed that as few as 50 Christian families remained in Mosul. Many had already fled to areas of northern Iraq under Kurdish control. It is believed that most of the remaining Christians have now left. According to reports, IS militants stopped some fleeing families at checkpoints and confiscated their belongings, including money, jewellery and mobile phones.
Release investigators returned from Iraq in late July. Most of the Christians they interviewed despaired of ever returning to their country, and many just wanted to leave the Middle East. Many church leaders could see no future for Christians in Iraq and feared that within a generation Christianity would be extinct in the land.
Firestorm of fear
Ahead of the invasion by the IS militants, videos of public beheadings, mass executions and public crucifixions of enemies were distributed. Such was the firestorm of fear that the largely Shia Iraq army deserted in droves, leaving their weapons and the territory to the militants. IS has now declared a Caliphate in Iraq and Syria and has become an umbrella group for various armed factions willing to pledge allegiance to the self-proclaimed Caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The coming of Islamic State is just the latest tightening of the screw on Christians. Persecution has been relentless since the downfall of the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein. Christians have been killed, car-bombed and gunned down in their churches. Christians say low-level persecution and harassment continued under the rule of the Iraqi Prime Minister Nour al-Malaki, and his Shia-dominated Iraqi army. Many Christians see persecution under the Sunni ISIS militants as a continuation of the process. For many, being driven from their homes yet again is the end of the line. All they want is to get out of Iraq.
Safe haven
One ray of hope is the affirmation by Kurdish leaders that Christian refugees are being offered a safe haven in Kurdistan and will be welcomed, protected and free to practise their religion.
Ainkawa is a mainly Christian district of Erbil, the Kurdish capital. Religious affairs spokesman Mariwan Naqshbandi said: ‘In 2003 we had around 2,000 families living in Ainkawa; now we have 6,000 families’. Most of these are from Christian areas of Iraq. ‘Kurdistan is the only country in the Middle East where you can see the numbers of Christians rising’, he added. ‘We have no persecution of Christians and we don’t have the terrorist groups here.’
The region’s newly-appointed Religious Affairs Minister Kamal Muslim gave this assurance: ‘Kurdistan will always be a safe haven for those leaving their places of terror’. He also affirmed that Christians would be free to practise their beliefs in Kurdistan.
Kurdish government spokesmen offered two reasons for their open-handed policy towards Christians: they know what it is like to be persecuted, having been targeted by Saddam with chemical weapons; and, although most are Sunni Muslim, they say they value their nationality – for which they have fought for many years – above their religious identity.
However, Christians in Kurdistan face restrictions, and Muslim background believers especially remain at risk. Christians have also been persecuted under the Kurds in Syria. Christians make up just 2% of the population of Kurdistan.
Qaraqosh
World Watch Monitor reported that IS armed jihadists took over Iraq’s largest Christian town, Qaraqosh, and nearby Christian settlements early on August 7, forcing thousands of Christians to flee to Kurdish-controlled areas.
The US President Barack Obama authorised two operations to prevent genocide in Iraq. One operation was targeted airstrikes to protect US personnel and the other a humanitarian effort to help the thousands of displaced Iraqi civilians, mostly religious minorities, who have been forced out of their homes by the IS.
As many as a quarter of Iraq’s remaining Christians are reported to be on the run. Louis Sako, patriarch of the Chaldean Church in Iraq, told Agence France-Press that the advancing Sunni militants have occupied churches, ripped down crosses and destroyed manuscripts.
