Persecution of Christians by the Islamic State

The persecution of Christians by the Islamic State involves the systematic mass murder^[1][2][3] of Christian minorities, within the regions of Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Libya controlled by the Islamic terrorist group Islamic State. Persecution of Christian minorities climaxed following the Syrian civil war and later by its spillover.^[4][5]

Persecution of Christians by ISIL
Part of Syrian civil war War in Iraq (2013–2017) Sinai insurgency Terrorism in Egypt
Location	Iraq  Egypt  Syria  Libya
Date	Ongoing
Target	Christians (mostly Assyrians, Arab Christians, Armenians, Copts, Citadel Christians, and other groups)
Attack type	Genocidal massacre, religious persecution, ethnic cleansing, human trafficking and forced conversions to Sunni Islam.
Perpetrators	Islamic State
Defenders	Christian militias in Iraq and Syria  Iraqi Armed Forces  CJTF–OIR Syrian Armed Forces Egyptian Armed Forces

According to US diplomat Alberto M. Fernandez, "While the majority of the victims of the conflict which is raging in Syria and Iraq have been Muslims, Christians have borne a heavy burden given their small numbers."^[6]

On February 3, 2016, the European Union recognized the persecution of religious minorities, including Christians, by the Islamic State as genocide.^[7][8][9] The vote was unanimous. The United States House of Representatives followed suit on March 15, 2016, declaring that these atrocities against minorities were genocide.^[10] On April 20, 2016, the British Parliament unanimously voted to denounce the actions against minorities as genocide.^[11]

Background

The mass flight and expulsion of ethnic Assyrians from Iraq and Syria is a process which was initiated during the start of the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the US and the Multi-National Force and later it was initiated during the start of the Syrian civil war and the spillover. Leaders of Iraq's Assyrian community estimate that over two-thirds of the Iraqi Assyrian population may have fled the country or been internally displaced during the U.S.-led invasion which lasted from 2003 until 2011. Reports suggest that whole neighborhoods of Assyrians have cleared out in the cities of Baghdad and Basra, and that Sunni insurgent groups and militias have threatened Assyrian Christians.^[12] Following the campaign of the Islamic State in northern Iraq in August 2014, one quarter of the remaining Assyrians fled the jihadists, finding refuge in neighboring countries.^[13]

Timeline

Northern Iraq (2014)

Main articles: Fall of Mosul, Northern Iraq offensive (August 2014), and Assyrians in Iraq

After the fall of Mosul, ISIL demanded that Assyrian Christians living in the city convert to Islam, pay jizyah, or face execution, by July 19, 2014.^{[14][15][16][17]} ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi further noted that Christians who do not agree to follow those terms must "leave the borders of the Islamic Caliphate" within a specified deadline.^[17] This resulted in a complete Assyrian Christian exodus from Mosul, marking the end of 1,800 years of continuous Christian presence.^[18] A church mass was not held in Mosul for the first time in nearly 2 millennia.^[19]

In October 2014, a release put out by the Assyrian International News Agency stated that 200,000 Assyrians had been driven from their homes by the violence and become displaced.^[20]

ISIL has already set similar rules for Christians living in other cities and towns, including its de facto capital Raqqa.^[21][22]

ISIL had also been seen marking Christian homes with the letter nūn for Nassarah ("Christian").^[23][24] Several religious buildings were seized and subsequently demolished, most notably Mar Behnam Monastery.^[25]

By August 7, ISIL captured the primarily Assyrian towns of Qaraqosh, Tel Keppe, Bartella, and Karamlish, prompting the residents to flee.^[26] More than 100,000 Iraqi Christians were forced to flee their homes and leave all their property behind after ISIL invaded Qaraqosh and surrounding towns in the Nineveh Plains Province of Iraq.^[27]

Libya (2015)

Main articles: 2015 kidnapping and beheading of Copts in Libya and Copts in Libya

On February 12, 2015, the ISIL released a report in their online magazine Dabiq showing photos of 21 Egyptian Copts migrant workers that they had kidnapped in the city of Sirte, Libya, and whom they threatened to kill to "avenge the [alleged] kidnapping of Muslim women by the Egyptian Coptic Church".^[28] The men, who came from different villages in Egypt, 13 of them from Al-Our, Minya Governorate,^[29] were kidnapped in Sirte in two separate attacks on December 27, 2014, and in January 2015.^[30]

Syria (2015)

Main article: Assyrians in Syria

On 23 February 2015, in response to a major Kurdish offensive in the Al-Hasakah Governorate, ISIL abducted 150 Assyrians from villages near Tell Tamer in northeastern Syria, after launching a large offensive in the region.^[31][32]

According to US diplomat Alberto M. Fernandez, of the 232 of the Assyrians kidnapped in the ISIL attack on the Assyrian Christian farming villages on the banks of the Khabur River in Northeast Syria, 51 were children and 84 were women. "Most of them remain in captivity, with one account claiming that ISIS is demanding $22 million (or roughly $100,000 per person) for their release."^[6]

On 8 October 2015, ISIL released a video showing three of the Assyrian men kidnapped in Khabur being murdered. It was reported that 202 of the 253 kidnapped Assyrians were still in captivity, each one with a demanded ransom of $100,000.^[33]

Egypt (2018)

Main articles: Terrorism in Egypt and Sinai insurgency

On 2 November. 2018, Islamic State gunmen killed at least seven Coptic Christian pilgrims in Egypt on Friday and wounded at least 16 in an attack.^[34] In April 2021, Islamic State gunmen executed a Christian businessman who was kidnapped in Egypt's Sinai.^[35]

Reactions

 

Demonstration in Sydney urging Australia to help save Iraqi Christians

On 2 and 3 August 2014, thousands of Assyrians of the diaspora protested the persecution of their fellow Assyrians within Iraq and Syria, demanding a United Nations-led creation of a safe haven for minorities in the Nineveh Plains.^[36][37]

In October 2014, Kurdish-Danish human rights activist Widad Akrawi dedicated her 2014 International Pfeffer Peace Award "to all victims of persecution, particularly the Yazidis, the Christians, and all residents of the Kobanê region."^[38] Chaldean Catholic Father Douglas Al-Bazi has spoken out strongly against the genocide.^[39]

In December 2015, at a town hall event, the 67th United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, called the systematic persecution a genocide.^[40] The same month, David Greene, a radio journalist at NPR, stated that around 1,000 Christians had been killed "in areas where Islamic State fighters are targeting religious minorities", without specifying a source.^[41]

In February 2016, Lars Adaktusson, a Swedish member of the European Parliament from the EPP Group, said of the unanimous vote to recognize atrocities as genocide: "It gives the victims of the atrocities a chance to get their human dignity restored. It's also a historical confirmation that the European Parliament recognized what is going on and that they are suffering from the most despicable crime in the world, namely genocide."^[42]

See also

• Armenian genocide
• Boxer Rebellion
  • Mass Killing and Persecution of Christians Killed, in odium fidei, during the Boxer Rebellion in China 1899-1901
• Assyrian genocide
• Christianity and Islam
• Christianity in the Middle East
• Collaboration with the Islamic State
• Genocide of Yazidis by the Islamic State
• Iraqi Turkmen genocide
• Great Famine of Mount Lebanon
• Greek genocide
• Human rights in Islamic State-controlled territory
• Late Ottoman genocides
• Persecution of Shias by the Islamic State
• Syrian Civil War spillover in Iraq
• Persecution of Copts

References

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8. JOINT MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION, European Parliament
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40. Thomas, George (2 February 2016). "'It's Genocide,' Europe Says of Christian Slaughter by ISIS". Christian Broadcasting Network. "I'm sure now we have enough evidence that what is happening is genocide, deliberately aimed at destroying, not only the lives but wiping out the existence of Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities in the Middle East in territory controlled by ISIS," she said.
41. "As Christians Flee, Governments Pressured to Declare ISIS Guilty Of Genocide". NPR. 24 December 2015. At least a thousand Christians have been killed. Hundreds of thousands have fled.
42. Kaplan, Michael (February 4, 2016). "ISIS Genocide Against Christians, Yazidis? European Parliament Recognizes Islamic State Targeting Religious Minorities". International Business Times. The European Parliament characterized the persecution as "genocide" Thursday.