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.
Iraqi Archbishop calls on West to ‘open eyes’ to Christians’ Middle East exodus
Louis Raphael I Sako.Lee Stranahan / Flickr / Creative Commons The Archbishop of Baghdad, Louis Raphael I Sako, has called on the West to help put an end to the “mortal exodus” of Christians from the Middle East. Sako, who is also Patriarch of Babylon, told a conference in […]
Northern Iraq no longer safe for Christians
The Kurdish capital of Erbil is one of a number of cities where bombings have left Christians feeling unsafe.Tom Blackwell / Flickr / Creative Commons An increase in violence against Christians in northern Iraq has increased the flow of Christians leaving the country. The north, generally considered a relatively […]
Body of kidnapped Assyrian discovered
The body of Salem Dawood Coca, an Assyrian from Batnaya in northern Iraq, was found on July 8 in the truck he was driving when he was kidnapped on May 27. The Assyrian International News Agency reports the truck was rigged with explosives, prompting speculation Coca was being forced to […]
Iraq: Christian affairs adviser hurt
The adviser on Christian affairs to the Governor of Nineveh province in northern Iraq, Maajid Ibrahim Hannaa, has been injured in a suicide bombing near Mosul, which also killed three of his bodyguards.
Iraq’s children ‘neglected’
UK charity War Child has called the situation of children in Iraq “one of the world’s most neglected crises”.