ICC Note: Iraq’s Christian community is fighting for its survival. The fight is taking place not so much on the front lines of the battle where coalition forces are bombing ISIS militants and the Peshmerga and Iraqi forces are slowly retaking ground, but in abandoned buildings, crowded church halls, and overcrowded apartments where thousands of Christians have been forced to find shelter. They have been driven from their homes and now see very little hope for the future. They struggle to get aid just to stay warm and fed during the winter and so for many they see leaving the country as their only option.

01/05/2015 Iraq (Rudaw) The Christians of Nineveh in northwestern Iraq were among the first victims of the Islamic State (ISIS) when it blitzed across the province in June 2014 and imposed its draconian rules on its inhabitants. They were ordered to pay a special tax (Jizya) or face death. Their places of worship were either desecrated or demolished.
Consequently those who could fled ISIS’s takeover. Many of them to the nearby Kurdistan Region which remains home to a thriving Christian community whose lot in life is in stark contrast to the hardship and dangers faced by their kinsmen across Iraq.

“The Christians of Nineveh plains have had to leave their homes which were overrun by Islamic State (ISIS). More than 125,000 had to move to Kurdistan Region for sanctuary,” says Stivan Shany, a journalist and member of the Chaldean Diocese of Erbil. “Baghdad militias terrorize them and intimidate them into leaving. Which they have done in droves. If these current trends continue we will have no Christians in Iraq in just a short few years,”

Shany has closely followed the plight of Christians in Iraq and talked with many displaced Christians. While he sees some hope for the future of Christians in the Kurdistan region he is quite cynical about the rest of Iraq.

As is the case with other minorities who fled ISIS’s onslaughts many Christians are now “living in very cramped camps and caravans for over 18 months. Living in such conditions for nearly two years has a negative psychological effect, especially for larger families with little to do and little privacy in their day-to-day lives,” Shany said.

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