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Whatsapp Christian refugees from Mosul found refuge in Tilkef, a partly Christian City close to Mosul

As international attention focuses on Gaza and MH17, the brutal sectarian conflict in Iraq continues unabated. With ISIS gaining strength, Christians have fled the city of Mosul and other areas in their tens of thousands. Alex McClintock and Scott Spark report on the ongoing humanitarian crisis.

When Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003, there were more than 1.2 million Christians in Iraq. However, with the uncertain security situation and persecution at the hands of ISIS jihadis, the Patriarch of Iraq’s Chaldean Catholic church says that number may drop to as low as 50,000.



They lost everything, they lost houses, they lost cars, they lost property, they lost money, they lost mobiles: whatever they had.

In Mosul, ISIS fighters have daubed the letter ‘N’ for Nazarene, or Christian, on the walls of Christian-owned houses before rounding up the residents and stripping them of their money, jewellery and even mobile phones.

‘It's a very difficult time, Mosul is empty of Christians,’ says Father Andrzej Halemba, Middle East coordinator for Aid to the Church in Need. ‘Two thousand years of beautiful history, where the Christians and Muslims for centuries had helped each other, but now it’s the end of Christianity in Mosul. It's dreadful news.’

Read more: How real are claims of an Islamic caliphate?

Christians were reportedly given a choice by ISIS militants: convert to Islam, pay an undisclosed tribute to their new rulers or be ‘put to the sword’. Up to 30,000 elected to flee to safer Kurdish-controlled areas, mainly on foot and often without access to fresh water. According to Father Halemba, even more radical Sunni clerics are arriving from the Gulf states, and they are urging militants to cut off water to Christian villages. Appalling photos of decapitated Muslims and actual crucifixions of Christians in ISIS controlled areas are emerging on social media today.

‘They lost everything,’ he says. ‘They lost houses, they lost cars, they lost property, they lost money, they lost mobiles: whatever they had.’

‘In Kurdistan we have so many parishes and not only Christians are coming, but also Muslims, because we open the doors to everybody: moderate Sunnis and Shia are persecuted as well. They are treated sometimes worse than Christians because they are considered heretics and a fatwa is on them.'

Listen: The Shia and Sunni in Iraq

With intermittent communication and a scarcity of witnesses, it’s difficult to substantiate how many Christians have been killed, or even whether religious sites have been destroyed.

‘We wouldn't know [if religious sites have been destroyed], because there is nobody to witness,’ says Father Halemba. ‘But we know from Syria that they destroy any site that is a Christian site. If they destroy Shia mosques as well in Mosul it means that Christian sites will not be spared.’

Christians have been a religious minority in Iraq for nearly 2000 years, with the majority belonging to Syriac branches of the faith. According to the Patriarch of the Chaldean church, Louis Raphael I Sako, Christians have traditionally played a moderating role in Iraqi politics.

‘I think the problem is regional and also international,’ he says. ‘Muslims now feel that there was no project of citizenship in the beginning [in Iraq] ... now the jihadis are looking for some kind of caliphate. An Islamic caliphate as it was in the seventh century is not possible in our modern society.’

The last Christians flee Mosul in Iraq Listen to this episode of the Religion and Ethics Report.

‘I am Iraqi, it doesn't matter [that] I am Christian. I have duties and I have rights. I am equal to a Muslim or an Arab or a Kurd. Why am I considered in a second category because of my faith?’

Yet the patriarch is not optimistic about the outlook for Iraq, asking for Australians to pray for Iraqi Christians and saying that any intervention by the west would only bring further bloodshed.

‘Really it would be a miracle [if Iraq can be put back together], because the risk is a civil war and the division of Iraq. What we need is a political solution, and security is linked with the political solution.’

The Religion and Ethics Report is your window into the world of religious affairs and ethical issues in Australia and around the globe.



