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.
Iraq: children wounded in Easter Monday explosion
Four children were wounded on Easter Monday when a bomb exploded outside a medical complex in Bartella, east of Mosul, according to Iraqi News. No group has claimed responsibility but it is believed that Islamic State militants were behind it, a source told the news site. Despite its military defeat, […]
Iraq’s Assyrian Christians: persecution and resurgence
Samir Gedhya never wanted to leave his home in Qaraqosh for the unknown, even when the Islamic State group was almost at his doorstep, sweeping through the towns of Iraq. As the menace to Qaraqosh loomed, his eldest son Faraj, then 16, decided to flee to France, entering by a […]
Easter in Qaraqosh – for many their first since returning home
On Sunday, many of Iraq’s Christians celebrated their first Easter since returning to their homes. With the help of local churches and other organisations, people in the country’s largest Christian city, Qaraqosh (also known as Baghdida), have restored their homes and are now attempting to recover the lives they lost […]
Palm Sunday celebrations mark revival of life in Qaraqosh
For many Christian families in Qaraqosh, this Easter is particularly special, as they will be celebrating it at home for the first time since fleeing the city in 2014. The city, located in northern Iraq’s Nineveh Plains, was occupied by the Islamic State group for over two years before its […]
Iraq’s young people must lead its rebuilding, says archbishop
The rebuilding of Iraq should be guided by its young people, says an archbishop who took in 700 students from Mosul University after the occupation of the city by Islamic State in June 2014. Bishop Yousif Thoma Mirkis of Kirkuk, 170km southeast of Mosul, recently visited the university and reunited […]
Iraqi archbishop nominated for 2018 Nobel Peace Prize
Archbishop Louis Raphaël I Sako, the head of the Iraq-based Chaldean Church, one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, has been nominated for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, reports Asia News. Following his nomination, the archbishop said receiving the prize “would be an important and significant gesture, because it would […]
Mosul still ‘extremely dangerous’, says returning Christian woman
Nadia Butti, a Christian woman from Mosul, found the churches of her city desecrated or demolished after returning home for the first time since the liberation of the city from the Islamic State group in July 2017, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) reports. She told ACN there were […]
Iraq: Christian family stabbed to death in Baghdad
An Assyrian Christian family of three were murdered in their home in a predominantly Shia neighbourhood in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, last Thursday (8 March). Dr. Hisham Shafiq al-Maskuni, 61, a radiologist at a nuns’ hospital, his wife Dr. Shaza Malik Dinno, gynaecologist at the same hospital, and her elderly mother, […]
Mass grave of Christians found in Iraq
A mass grave holding the remains of 40 Christians has been found in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, reports Iraqi News. Iraq’s second city was held by the Islamic State group for three years until its liberation by government forces in 2017. After capturing the city in 2014, IS […]
Iraq archbishop invites Muslim nations to rebuild Christian villages destroyed by IS
The Archbishop of Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan has called for Muslim nations to help rebuild the Christian and Yazidi villages destroyed by Islamic State (IS). Archbishop Bashar Warda said: “It is not enough to say ‘ISIS does not represent Islam’. We need more.” Helping to rebuild what IS destroyed would […]