A Christian woman inspects a home in the town of Bartella east of Mosul, Iraq, after it was liberated from Islamic State militants, November 23, 2016. (Photo: Reuters/Khalid al Mousily)
ishtartv.com - christianpost.com
By Stoyan Zaimov ,
Christian Post Reporter
May
4, 2017
As
many as 1.5 million Christians, or close to 75 percent of all followers of
Christ in Iraq, have fled the country since 2003, according to an Iraqi
Christian lawmaker.
"The number of Christians living in the country now stands at between
500,000 and 850,000," Josef Sleve told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday.
"This
means that over the past 14 years, some 1.5 million Christians have emigrated
to other countries."
Sleve
noted that the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 to topple dictator Saddam
Hussein began the mass exodus, but said that the Islamic State terror group's
conquests in the northern and western parts of the country since mid-2014 have
also played a huge part.
The
terror group has specifically said that it wants to wipe out Christians, and
has beheaded, executed, tortured and enslaved thousands of people throughout
its captured territory, which extends into Syria and other regions.
Iraqi
Christians of the Chaldean community have been caught up in a "furious
debate" over whether they should risk staying in their homes, or
flee to other countries for safety, reports last year said.
Mark Arabo, national spokesperson for the American-Chaldean community and
founder of the California-based Minority Humanitarian Foundation, argued that
Christians simply have no choice but to flee as refugees if they want to live.
"You
cannot preserve a culture when the people are being systematically
exterminated," he stated. "During genocide, politics must be an
afterthought to the lives of Christian families."
But
Baghdad-based Patriarch Sako warned that the exodus will lead to Christianity
disappearing from its ancestral lands.
"A
Christian community that was born in these lands cannot organize exodus trips
that will mark its distinction," Sako positioned.
Melkite
Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregorios III made similar warnings in 2015, when he
asked: "Given this tsunami of emigration ... what future is left for the
Church? What will become of our homeland? What will become of our parishes and
institutions?"
Archbishop
of Canterbury Justin Welby recently met with Iraqi Christians during a visit to
Jordan and reflected that the refugees have had their lives
"torn apart."
"People
are divided from their children and families and have no idea what will happen.
One woman has children in both Germany and the Netherlands, but has been
refused entry to both so she doesn't know when or if they will ever be
reunited," Welby revealed.
"Young
men are vulnerable to being recruited to extremist causes because their
community and networks have been stripped away," he added.
The
leader of the Anglican Communion urged efforts to support the refugees that
have managed to escape as well as ensure that Christians in the Middle East are
not erased.
"The
Iraqi Christians I met yesterday say they feel the world has forgotten them,
because the focus of the international community is now on Syria. Iraqis, they
say, are at the bottom of the list when it comes to resettlement or
support," Welby said.
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