More than 15,000 Iraqi Christians, or 2,500 families, have been driven out of Mosul over the past two weeks, officials said.
The number skyrocketed from last week’s estimate of some 3,000 Christians that fled the northern Iraq city, which is said to be the last urban stronghold of Al-Qaeda.
Officials in Mosul also reported that some 13 Iraqi Christians have been killed in the past four weeks and at least three Assyrian Christian homes were bombed on Saturday alone, according to the Assyrian International News Agency.
It is still unclear who is behind the anti-Christian campaign, although some believe the militants are Al-Qaeda affiliated. But a spokesman for Iraq’s interior ministry said Wednesday that there is no evidence to support the link to the infamous terrorist group.
Another Iraqi member of parliament has accused the Kurds of organizing the campaign to shift the demographic balance of Mosul in their favor, according to AINA.
A spokesman for Iraq’s defense ministry said on Friday that police have arrested six men suspected of carrying out the attacks on Assyrian Christians in Mosul. Four of the suspects are residents of the Kurdish region and are affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party in northern Iraq, according to AINA.
But regardless of what group is responsible for the violence, the World Council of Churches and Washington-based International Christian Concern have called for a stop to the persecution of Christians, which has led to the mass exodus from Mosul.
WCC called on the United Nations and the Iraqi government “to quell the violence” and urged member churches and partners worldwide to “pray for peace and reconciliation” in the country.
"We have heard that people are being killed, houses bombed, thousands are fleeing their homes, and churches and church properties are being destroyed," WCC general secretary the Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia wrote in a letter to the churches in Iraq. He also expressed "anguish and great concern" about the "terrible acts of violence in Mosul during the past week.”
But Kobia encouraged Iraqi Christians, in so far as it is possible, to remain in their country and to “bear witness there.”
“Your presence in the land is an assurance that Christianity continues to endure; you are a sign of hope to people of faith everywhere,” Kobia wrote.
Others who have condemned the violence targeted at Christians in Iraq include the Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Bakir al-Nassiri of Iraq, who said aid should be given to the Christians fleeing Mosul and the Iraq government should do all that is necessary to protect them.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dated Friday, Oct. 17, asked her for a briefing on the situation of the Christian community in Mosul and what the State Department is doing to ensure the Iraqi government is protecting Iraqi Christians and other religious minorities.
RSS
To blame the persecution of our fellow Believers on US political policy is naive. Is that why much worse and extensive persecution occurs in India and China (I've been there and seen it personally)? The US policies have caused no more "suffering & death around the world" than the policies of other countries themselves. In fact, balanced view would suggest that the US on balance in total dollar value of humanitarian contributions to the rest of the world FAR exceeds such contributions of other countries outside of their own borders. Not jingoism, just hard data.
Perhaps it is because we are not in control (nor should we be) in Iraq as they are taking more control, that this is occurring. This would seem to be the reason that fits more closely with what we see across the world with respect to Christians being persecuted.
Only on Presidential candidate spoke of unintended consequences of America' foreign policy. He under estimate the blowback from his pointing out the blowback. Christians in America have too long been silent about their country's policies that cause much suffering & death around the world.
Being Christian, it is painful to see fellow Christians killed or displaced en-masse in a society like Iraq. Assyrian Christians are Iraqi Heritage and descendents of Prophet Jonah, even Muslims of Iraq must respect that fact of Biblical times. But I do not mean to blame persecution upon Muslim majority in Iraq, the blame must go to terrorists who have killed more Sunni and Shia Muslims than to mention few Christians in Mosul.
Reconciliation in Iraq among different religious and communal groups is only possible when a central Iraqi government is powerful enough to administer equal justice and provides freedom of religion to every citizen of Iraq. It is shame to see the persecution against Christians happening right under the military administration of United States Military.
The Invasion / Liberation of Iraq has brought more miseries to the people of Iraq and it is time that Iraqis are left to settle their form of democracy which atleast safeguarded minorities before the Iraqi occupation.