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.
ISIS burns Christian books
ISIS has released a video purporting to show its religious police burning hundreds of Christian books, according to . The video footage shows a militant throwing pamphlets, bearing a cross on the front cover, onto a bonfire. It was posted on 13 March by its news agency, Amaq, with the […]
Iraq’s Christian homes ‘grab’ continues
Homes and businesses left behind by Iraq’s Christians are being illegally taken, as hostile forces continue to scrape off the last vestiges of two millennia of Christian presence in the country. “ISIS has displaced 120,000 Christians from Mosul and the Nineveh Plains, destroying monasteries, churches and homes to erase their memory. […]
Assyrians seek world support vs. Turkish bombings
A coalition of Assyrian organisations in Europe has urged Turkey to stop bombing Assyrian villages in northern Iraq “under the pretext of fighting the Kurdish PKK”, on 26 Jan. The aerial bombardment by Turkey was part of an intensified campaign, ongoing since late August 2015, according to a statement by […]
IS’s finances lead to auction of Christian homes
Islamic State has started to auction Christian properties that it seized in Mosul to ease its deepening financial crisis, according to Arabic media. Its jihadis went on patrol in Iraq’s second largest city, announcing the sale of over 400 homes, 19 commercial buildings and 167 shops, stores and garages, several […]
Oldest Christian monastery in Iraq destroyed
Satellite images have confirmed that the oldest Christian monastery in Iraq has been destroyed, . It is thought that St. Elijah’s, which stood on a hill near Mosul and was constructed 1400 years ago, was destroyed in the summer of 2014, shortly after the area was taken over by the […]
Iraqis who fled Mosul and IS flee Turkish bombing
The Turkish air force has bombed the Assyro-Chaldean Christian village of Upper Sharanish in northern Iraq. Condemning what he called the “unjust act”, Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako urged Ankara to “respect the lives and properties of the inhabitants and not to displace them under the pretext of fighting” the Kurdish […]
Thinking of home this Christmas, displaced Iraqi Christians look ahead with hope
This nativity picture hung inside Nissan’s caravan. The family wished to keep their own photos private.World Watch Monitor Back at home in their Nineveh Plain town of Qaraqosh, the children learnt ‘Aboun Bashmayo‘, or ‘Our Father…,‘ in their original Syriac tongue. Now, as refugees, they were singing ‘Forgive us […]
Christian women in Baghdad face intimidation to veil
The offensive poster is aimed squarely at Christian women The few Christians still holding out in Baghdad have found themselves on the receiving end of another barrage of intimidation. Posters appeared on the morning of 13 Dec. – a Sunday – near Christian places of worship with a message […]
Erbil airport closure delays Christians leaving Iraq for Europe
Fr Douglas reveals news that a flight taking displaced Christians from Iraq to Slovakia is delayed, Dec 2015World Watch Monitor We know that some Eastern European countries have been specifying that they are happy to take Christians direct from Iraqi IDP camps, and months of work had started to […]
Iraqi Patriarch challenges ‘identity law’
The Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Iraq renewed his opposition this week to an article in the nation’s new national laws requiring minority-faith children to become Muslims if one parent converts to Islam. Describing the new law as both unconstitutional and “unacceptable,” Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako has called on President […]