Christianity was finished in Iraq even before the advent of ISIL

IRBIL — In the part of his Sept. 10 speech on confronting the Islamic State that probably drew the least attention, President Obama mentioned the need to help Christians and other minorities, expelled from cities and villages in northern Iraq, return from where they came. “We cannot allow these communities to be driven from their ancient homeland,” he said.

Iraqi Christians who fled Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) in Mosul, in Irbil on Sept. 6.  / Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters
Iraqi Christians who fled Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) in Mosul, in Irbil on Sept. 6. / Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters

Obama got that wrong. Christians, of whom around 120,000 have taken refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan, will not be going home even if their tormentors suddenly disappear. I spent 10 days talking with Christian refugees in Irbil, the capital of the northern autonomous region of Kurdistan, this month, and they are adamant they will not be returning to Mosul and nearby towns on what is known as the Nineveh Plain.

It is not simply that these Christians have gone through tremendous trauma. It is not only because they lost everything, including their homes and businesses, and in some cases spent days and even weeks in detention while being badgered to convert to Islam, where they saw babies taken from mothers’ arms to be held for ransom and busloads of young people ferried off into the unknown. Nor is it because their neighbors, in Mosul but especially in the countryside, welcomed and even joined fighters from the Islamic State, pointed out the homes of minorities and let them know which ones were wealthy.

No, it is because, for Christians in Iraq, the past three months have been the climax of 11 years of hell. … Attacks on lay Christians were continuous. Women received threatening messages demanding that they stop working. Families received death threats attached to demands for money called “daftar,” slang for $10,000. Children were taken and held for ransom. Both Sunni and Shiites, though busy with what amounted to a civil war, found time to attack and expel Christians from the Baghdad suburb of Dora. …

One priest, himself ransomed for $85,000 in Baghdad seven years ago, said a Muslim acquaintance once warned him, “Saturday’s gone. Why are you still here on Sunday?” His meaning was that Jews, who worship on Saturdays, had fled Iraq long ago, so why were the Christians still there?

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