ICC Note: About 50 percent of the Christian population has left Syria while approximately 80 percent of the Christian population of Iraq has left. The remaining Christian are reportedly being disproportionately targeted by their Muslim counterparts. According to Open doors UK in 2011 the Syrian Christians numbered 8 percent of the 22 million population.

10/19/2016 Middle East (WWM): The Middle East, the historic cradle of Christianity, is today witnessing an accelerated “targeting” of its remaining Christians, according to a report aiming to rally world attention to threats facing ancient communities in Syria and Iraq.

“Civil war in Syria and Iraq has unleashed a tidal wave of violent persecution. This has targeted the highly vulnerable Christian population, to the extent that this targeted persecution is now widely recognised around the globe,” the report says. It was presented by Christian charity Open Doors UK to a group of British MPs on 12 October.

An estimated 50% and 80% of Christians have left Syria and Iraq respectively.

We are faced with significant evidence Christians are suffering disproportionately.

According to the report, before 2011 Syrian Christians numbered about 8 per cent of the population of 22 million. Today about half are believed to have left the country. Quoting a Syrian aid worker, it says that in parts of north-east Syria, “houses, stores, businesses … have been left by the Christians”.

In neighbouring Iraq, there were around 1.5 million Christians before 2003. Today, estimates hover between 200,000 and 250,000. Christians make up a disproportionate number of Iraqi refugees. There were more than 250,000 registered Iraqi refugees in Syria between 2004-2010. Of these, 44% were Christian.

“We are faced with significant evidence that Middle Eastern Christians are suffering disproportionately, and, in many cases, being targeted because they are Christians,” concluded the report.

‘Purely Islamic’

Drawing from extensive consultations with community leaders and church members in both countries, the report notes cases of Christians taken hostage; church leaders assassinated; Christian homes, businesses and churches commandeered or destroyed; and women and girls raped and forced into sexual slavery.

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