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.
Sunni militants push Christians out of Qaraqosh
Armed jihadists of the so-called “Islamic State” took over Iraq’s largest Christian town, Qaraqosh, and surrounding towns early Thursday, forcing thousands of Christians to flee further into Kurdistan. Widespread news reports said Sunni militants moved into the area overnight, after Kurdish defense forces withdrew. The militants also have seized Mosul Dam, […]
IS invades monastery, steals ‘everything’ from Iraqi Christians
After every known Christian is reported to have left Mosul, Islamic State fighters, IS, have now taken over a monastery near the largely Christian town of Qaraqosh, 32 miles southeast of Mosul. According to Agence France Presse IS expelled its three resident monks, a cleric and a few families living there, ordering […]
ISIS orders last Christians out of Mosul
The Islamist militants controlling the Iraqi city of Mosul have ordered all remaining Christians to leave town immediately or face execution, according to news sources. Middle East Concern, a London-based association of Christian-rights agencies with operations in the Middle East, reported Friday that the militants controlling Mosul had summoned Christian […]
Mosul’s two kidnapped Chaldean nuns released
Update (15 July) Two kidnapped nuns who managed an orphanage for girls in Mosul, and two women and a boy, who were kidnapped on 28 June have been released. According to ankawa.com no ransom was paid for the release of the five Assyrian victims who are in good health and […]
First time in 1600 years no Mass said in Mosul, Iraq, says Chaldean Archbishop
The Chaldean Catholic Church’s Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, in Kurdish-governed Northern Iraq, is reported as saying that for the first time in 1600 years there was no Mass said in Mosul on Sunday June 15th. This is the city taken over days before by ISIS forces. Reports say the […]
Fewer Christians left to flee
Over the years, the Christian town of Alqosh, Iraq, has served as a refuge to Christians of Mosul who have fled various waves of violence in their home city. Now, with the jihadist ISIS in control of Mosul, most of those fleeing the city for comparative safety in Alqosh are […]
Why Christians are under pressure to exit Iraq
Internally displaced Iraqi girl holding a children’s Bible. Kurdistan, November 2007.World Watch Monitor BBC reports have described ISIS ambitions to create an Islamist caliphate spreading from northern Iraq across to north-west Syria. If ISIS can hold Mosul and consolidate its presence there, it will have taken a giant step […]
Mosul Christians tell of ISIS forces’ Iraqi takeover
The radical Sunni Islamist ISIS forces continue their takeover of cities in Iraq. Many have fled possible clashes between ISIS and the Iraqi army, and the feared violence ISIS has already shown in places it controls, such as Syrian city Raqqa. Thousands are now in Erbil, 88km (55 miles) east […]
Up to 1000 Christian families flee Iraq’s second city
Christian families fled Mosul in February 2010 successive to at least 12 people being killed in anti-Christian violence. Some of the refugees gathered in this monastery in Al Qosh.World Watch Monitor A mass exodus is underway from Iraq’s second largest city Mosul after its seizure by the ISIS, the […]