Christianity Faces Extinction in Iraq Within Five Years: Report

report backed by U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron that was mentioned in Newsweek

American Magazine.

The report, which looks at the persecution of Christian groups around the world and was

compiled by U.K. charity Aid to the Church in Need, was presented to the House of Lords on

Tuesday. In comments reported by the Catholic Herald, Cameron backed the report and

deplored the fact that "Christians are systematically discriminated against, exploited and

even driven from their homes" every day in some countries.

The report highlights the plight of Christians in Iraq, where political instability since the 2003

war and persecution by ISIS has reduced the population to around 260,000, from a peak of

about 1.4 million during the rule of Saddam Hussein. It references an exodus from Iraq of

Christians fearing ethnic-cleansing and potential genocide and warns that "Christianity is on

course to disappear from Iraq within possibly five years – unless emergency help is provided

on a massively increased scale at an international level."

In June 2014, ISIS took control of Iraq's second city of Mosul, and members of the city's

Christian population were told to convert, pay a special tax or be put to death, according to

the report. Thousands fled to the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq, but ISIS overran the area

in August last year and forced around 125,000 Christians to flee.

Some 100,000 Christians reportedly sought refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan, an autonomous region

in northwest Iraq that is governed by the Kurdistan Regional Government, with many living

in tents in Christian suburbs.

Aziz Emmanuel al-Zebari, a Chaldean Catholic and professor at Salahaddin University in Irbil,

the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, says that persecution from ISIS is not the only reason many of

his fellow Christians are leaving the country.

Al-Zebari tells Newsweek: "To be a Christian in Iraq, you have no future. There is no

security...The economic situation, with no salaries, no job opportunities, no educational

opportunities, people are just waiting for nothing so they decide to leave the country."

Iraqi Christians have looked abroad for assistance in their plight. Bashar Warda, the

Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Irbil, addressed the House of Lords in February and pleaded

for the U.K. to send troops to Iraq to prevent the Christian population from being wiped out.

The U.K. is presently conducting air strikes in Iraq as part of a U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS,

but has not committed any ground troops to the operation.

A 4,000-strong Christian militia called the Nineveh Plains Protection Units was formed in Iraq

earlier this year in a bid to protect the communities from further destruction at the hands of

ISIS.

Al-Zebari says the urgent priority must be the establishment of a safe haven for Christians

displaced from the Nineveh Plains, while he also raises concerns that ISIS sleeper cells could

strike Christians in Kurdistan at any time.

"There are 500 members of ISIS who come from Kurdistan," Al-Zabari says. "They are

Kurdish people and they have joined ISIS, which means that there are sleeping cells here

inside the province and once they have an opportunity, they would create havoc here."

Douglas Bazi, a Chaldean Catholic priest assisting Christians displaced from Mosul and the

Nineveh Plains at the Mar Elias Church in Ainkawa, says that Christians have been

persecuted in Iraq for many years and are losing their sense of belonging to the country.

"I'm in love with my country, I'm in love with my church there but believe me, my country is

not proud [that] I am part of it," Bazi says.

Hundreds of Christian refugee families are living in cramped conditions in caravans around

Bazi's church. Bazi himself was kidnapped by Islamist militia in 2006 and suffered a broken

back at the hands of his captors.

Christianity is traditionally believed to have come to Iraq through two of the 12 apostles of

Jesus. The main communities are Chaldeans—an eastern Catholic church independent of

Rome but that recognizes the pope's authority—and Assyrians.

According to al-Zebari, the extinction of Christianity in Iraq would have a dramatic impact on

the country's wider society.

"For Christianity to disappear from the Middle East and Iraq would be the end of

enlightenment and tolerance and democratic values and human values, because although

we are a minority we have left our fingerprint in every aspect of life here," al-Zebari says