ICC Note: Syrian Christians fear that the forces of ISIS will lead to the extinction of Christians in the nation of Syria. In Raqqa, IS stronghold, only a handful and sick and elderly Christians remain living under the threat of execution or conversion. Syrian Christians for Peace is working hard to help these last few escape, but the threat of total annihilation for Christianity remains a very clear and immanent threat.

05/11/2016 Syria (Fox News): Only a handful of mostly sick or elderly Christians remain in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, and Syrian Christians fear the forces that have brought that city’s population of Gospel followers to the brink of extinction could do the same for the entire nation.

An estimated dozen Christian families are still in the northern city, forced under threat of execution to convert, pay an “infidel” tax or go into hiding. Forbidden from leaving, they also face death from attacks directed at ISIS by Damascus, Russia and the U.S.-led Western coalition.

“We are trying to help them escape or stay safe, in hiding,” said Ayman Abdel Nour, executive director of Syrian Christians for Peace. “Their life is horrible. The people of Raqqa are being forced to live like it was 1,400 years ago.”

The plight of Christians in Raqqa is the eye of a storm that threatens to engulf all of the embattled nation whose ties to Christianity are as old as the faith itself. Terror, bombings and systematic persecution designated as genocide by the U.S. has left the close-knit community of Syrian Christians fearing for their future.

“We are facing terrorist action in the whole geography of Syria,” the Rev. Ibrahim Nseir, pastor of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon and the Presbyterian Church in Aleppo, told FoxNews.com from the conflict-torn city. “They are destroying our churches, killing and kidnapping Christians, stealing our homes and our businesses.”

Even for many with the means and ability to flee, leaving is not an option when it means abandoning not just their homes, but also their faith.

“We are rooted in this country,” Nseir said. “Any picture of Syria without Christians in it is the true destruction of Syria.”

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