The Iraqi Christians have suffered over the past two years since the Islamic State emerged to control a significant part of Iraq. In the summer of 2014 the world was riveted on the rapid advances that the Islamic State made in Iraq. Much of the news reporting focused on the capture of Mosul – the second largest city in the country. Less attention was given to the desperate situation of minority sectors (Turkomen, Yazidis, Christians, and others) of the Iraqi population suffering from the atrocities of the Islamic State.
Most of the Iraqi Christians that lived in Mosul and on the Nineveh Plains of Iraq fled to Kurdistan – many to refugee camps in or near Erbil. Some of the Iraqi Christians have left Iraq seeking refuge in Europe or elsewhere but most have remained living in abandoned buildings, tent cities, and churches waiting for the opportunity to return to their homes located in territory currently controlled by ISIS.
Lela Gilbert, an American correspondent living in the Middle East, provides us with an informative article on the plight of Christians in “Eyewitness Accounts From Persecuted Iraqi Christians”, The Algemeiner, November 15, 2016.
