Persecution of Christians by ISIL

The persecution of Christians by ISIL involves the systematic mass murder[12][13][14] of Christian minorities, within its region of control in Iraq, Syria and Libya by the Islamic extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Persecution of Christian minorities climaxed following its takeover of parts of Northern Iraq in June 2014.[15]

Persecution of Christians by ISIL
Part of 2014 Northern Iraq offensive and War in Iraq (2013–2017)
Location Iraq
 Syria
 Libya
DateOngoing
Targetmostly Assyrians, Arab Christians, Levantines, Armenians, Copts, and all Non-Muslims.
Attack type
Genocidal massacre, religious persecution, ethnic cleansing, human trafficking and forced conversions to Sunni Islam.
DeathsThousands[1]
Victims135,000 Assyrian refugees[2]
Perpetrators Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Defenders Assyrian/Syriac forces Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve
 United States
Syrian Armed Forces
Lebanese Armed Forces
Syrian Democratic Forces
Peshmerga
MotiveAnti-Christian sentiment in the Middle East
Wahhabi-Salafi extremism
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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."[16]

On February 3, 2016, the European Union recognized the persecution of Christians by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as genocide.[17][18][19][20] The vote was unanimous. The United States followed suit on March 15, 2016, declaring that these atrocities were genocide.[21] The vote was unanimous.[22] On April 20, 2016, the British Parliament unanimously voted to denounce these actions as genocide.[23] However, a similar motion failed in Canada when it was opposed by the majority of the MP's in Justin Trudeau's Liberal government.[24]

Background

The mass flight and expulsion of ethnic Assyrians from Iraq is a process which initiated with the start of the Iraq War in 2003 and continues to this day. 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 from the U.S.-led invasion in 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.[25] Following the campaign of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in northern Iraq in August 2014, one quarter of the remaining Iraqi Assyrians fled the jihadists, finding refuge in Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan.[26]

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.[27][28][29][30][31] 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.[30][31] This resulted in a complete Assyrian Christian exodus from Mosul, marking the end of 1,800 years of continuous Christian presence.[32] A church mass was not held in Mosul for the first time in nearly 2 millennia.[33]

ISIL has already set similar rules for Christians living in other cities and towns, including its de facto capital Raqqa.[34][35] However, on 29 March 2016, ISIL issued a decree preventing Christians from leaving Raqqa.

ISIL had also been seen marking Christian homes with the letter nūn for Nassarah ("Christian").[36][37] Several religious buildings were seized and subsequently demolished, most notably Mar Behnam Monastery.[38]

By August 7, ISIL captured the primarily Assyrian towns of Qaraqosh, Tel Keppe, Bartella, and Karamlish, prompting the residents to flee.[39][40] 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.[41]

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".[42] The men, who came from different villages in Egypt, 13 of them from Al-Our, Minya Governorate,[43] were kidnapped in Sirte in two separate attacks on December 27, 2014, and in January 2015.[44]

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.[45][46]

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."[16]

On 8 October 2015, ISIL released a video showing three of the Assyrian men kidnapped in Khabur being executed. It was reported that 202 of the 253 kidnapped Assyrians were still in captivity, each one with a demanded ransom of $100,000.[47]

Reactions

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.[48][49]

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."[50] Chaldean Catholic Father Douglas Al-Bazi has spoken out strongly against the genocide.[51]

In December 2015, at a town hall event, the 67th United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, called the systematic persecution a genocide.[52]

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."[18]

See also

References
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  2. "Increasing Calls for Military Intervention to Save Assyrians and Yazidis". Aina.org. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  3. MFS Media Center (7 July 2019). "بيان تأسيس المجلس العسكري السرياني الاشوري ، إتحاد MFS و MNK". Youtube. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
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  5. "Assyrian Female Fighters Joined Battlefronts Against ISIS in Northeastern Syria". Retrieved 19 June 2016.
  6. "The revolutionaries of Bethnahrin: cooperation between Christians and Kurds – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal". Retrieved 19 June 2016.
  7. SyriacMilitaryMFS (29 October 2018). "#Syriac Military Council, MFS also is sending special forces as reinforcements with the SDF amid ongoing hard battle against ISIS in the various fronts in the Deir ez Zor region for the total liberation of the area and safety of the population with @coalition & @CENTCOM.pic.twitter.com/qbQlPVeZnZ". Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  8. Glioti, Andrea (20 June 2013). "Syriac Christians, Kurds Boost Cooperation in Syria". Al Monitor. Archived from the original on 2015-04-06. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
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  10. "Christian Security Forces Growing Stronger In Iraq". NPR. 2008-10-06. Retrieved 2012-04-08.
  11. "Christians reclaim Iraq village from ISIS". CBS News. United States. Associated Press. 13 November 2014. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  12. Rodriguez, Meredith (August 8, 2014). "Chicago-area Assyrians march against ISIL, others protest airstrikes". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on August 9, 2014. Retrieved August 8, 2014.
  13. Bowcott, Owen; Jones, Sam (August 8, 2014). "Isis persecution of Iraqi Christians has become genocide, says religious leaders". The Guardian. Archived from the original on August 9, 2014. Retrieved August 8, 2014.
  14. McQuade, Romsin (July 30, 2014). "Iraq's persecuted Assyrian Christians are in limbo". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on August 9, 2014. Retrieved August 8, 2014.
  15. Levs, Josh (August 7, 2014). "Will anyone stop ISIS?". CNN. Archived from the original on August 7, 2014. Retrieved August 7, 2014.
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  17. Moore, Jack (February 4, 2016). "European Parliament Recognizes ISIS Killing of Religious Minorities as Genocide". Newsweek.
  18. 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.
  19. JOINT MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION, European Parliament
  20. MEP's call for urgent action to protect religious minorities against ISIS, European Parliament
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  50. Kelly, Linda (22 October 2014). "Dr. Widad Akrawi Receives the Pfeffer Peace Award". Fellowship of Reconciliation. Archived from the original on 19 October 2015. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
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  52. George Thomas (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.
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