Iraqi Christians flee after ISIS threatened to kill them
Written by : Mohamed Abdel Fattah
Jul 19, 2014
Iraqi Christians are fleeing Mosul after Islamist insurgents threatened to kill them unless they converted to Islam or paid a "protection tax".
Christians who do not agree to ISIS demands were also given the option to leave Mosul. According to a message from ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, non-complying Christians were permitted to "evacuate themselves only from the caliphate state" by 12 p.m. local time on Saturday or their "only option is the sword."
The families were also warned not to take any of their belongings with them, threatening to harm them if they did so. Signs branding their homes were found throughout the city, including the writing: “it is the property of the Islamic State.”
“Christian families are on their way to Dohuk and Arbil,” in the neighboring autonomous region of Kurdistan, Patriarch Louis Sako told AFP. “For the first time in the history of Iraq, Mosul is now empty of Christians.”
Iraq is home to one of the world's most ancient Christian communities but its population has dwindled from over 30,000 to just a few thousand amid growing sectarian violence since the US-led invasion in 2003.
A YouTube video shows ISIS militants removed the cross from St. Ephrem’s Cathedral, the seat of the Syriac Orthodox archdiocese in Mosul, and put up the black ISIS flag in its place.
They also destroyed a statue of the Virgin Mary, according to Ghazwan Ilyas, the head of the Chaldean Culture Society in Mosul, who spoke by telephone on Thursday from Mosul but seemed to have left on Friday.
Isis has control of large parts of Syria and Iraq and said last month it was creating an Islamic caliphate.
ISIS militants kidnapped two Nuns and along with a number of church staff just a few days after capturing Mosul and asked for $33 Million to free them, but so far the Nuns are still held by ISIS.
Sources
Al Alarabiya.
nytimes.com
BBC
Jul 19, 2014
Iraqi Christians are fleeing Mosul after Islamist insurgents threatened to kill them unless they converted to Islam or paid a "protection tax".
Christians who do not agree to ISIS demands were also given the option to leave Mosul. According to a message from ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, non-complying Christians were permitted to "evacuate themselves only from the caliphate state" by 12 p.m. local time on Saturday or their "only option is the sword."
The families were also warned not to take any of their belongings with them, threatening to harm them if they did so. Signs branding their homes were found throughout the city, including the writing: “it is the property of the Islamic State.”
“Christian families are on their way to Dohuk and Arbil,” in the neighboring autonomous region of Kurdistan, Patriarch Louis Sako told AFP. “For the first time in the history of Iraq, Mosul is now empty of Christians.”
Iraq is home to one of the world's most ancient Christian communities but its population has dwindled from over 30,000 to just a few thousand amid growing sectarian violence since the US-led invasion in 2003.
A YouTube video shows ISIS militants removed the cross from St. Ephrem’s Cathedral, the seat of the Syriac Orthodox archdiocese in Mosul, and put up the black ISIS flag in its place.
They also destroyed a statue of the Virgin Mary, according to Ghazwan Ilyas, the head of the Chaldean Culture Society in Mosul, who spoke by telephone on Thursday from Mosul but seemed to have left on Friday.
Isis has control of large parts of Syria and Iraq and said last month it was creating an Islamic caliphate.
ISIS militants kidnapped two Nuns and along with a number of church staff just a few days after capturing Mosul and asked for $33 Million to free them, but so far the Nuns are still held by ISIS.
Sources
Al Alarabiya.
nytimes.com
BBC
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