ICC Note: Mosul, Iraq, a once prominent community with religious variety, has become a city of destruction in the wake of the ISIS takeover. Until last month, a Christian orphanage overlooked the city, run by two Sisters. When ISIS took over, they were forced to flee with the children as the kidnappings and murders of Christians worsened. They left a week ago, and no one has heard from them since. Unfortunately, this level of persecution does not stop there. Christians are being eradicated from Iraq at levels that point to the disappearance of Christianity permanently from the region. Many are beginning to ask, “Is this the end of Christianity in Iraq”?

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ICC has launched a campaign to provide aid to the Iraqi church to assist those in need who have fled from the attacks. Go here to find out more and donate: Iraqi Crisis Response

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07/11/14 Iraq (Global Post) – Until last month, Sister Miskintah and Sister Utoor Joseph ran an orphanage in Mosul. Then, on June 10, Sunni militants from the Islamic State (IS) attacked and seized the city.

The sisters fled, taking the children with them, as they had heard numerous accounts of kidnapping and even murders of Christians in Syria at the hands of IS. But from the safety of the Kurdish city of Zakho they heard a different story from Christians who remained in Mosul. Assured IS had not harmed any Christians, they decided to return to collect supplies for the children. They took with them two of the older girls and a 12-year-old boy.

That was a week ago. No one has heard from them since. Christian leaders believe they have been kidnapped by IS, also known as ISIL or ISIS.

“We still don’t have any information about where they are,” said Father Yousif Thomas Mirkis, Archbishop of Kirkuk, a city standing on the edge of the IS frontline. “We hope we can negotiate with the kidnappers, but I think they don’t need money. They took all the wealth of Mosul so what can we give them that they want?”

Muslim extremists have targeted Christians with increasing frequency since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Churches and homes have been bombed. Families have been threatened and bullied. Individuals have been kidnapped and murdered or held for ransom. But to Iraq’s dwindling Christian population, this new Islamic force represents a threat of a different scale.

“This is the biggest threat ever,” said Canon Andrew White, Vicar of St. George’s Church in Baghdad. “There has never been anything like this. We’ve had our problems in the past but not like this. This is a major threat to the future of Christianity here.”

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