The persecution of Christians by the Islamic State involves the systematic mass murder[1][2][3] of
Christian minorities, within the regions of
Iraq,
Syria,
Egypt and
Libya controlled by the
Islamic terrorist group
Islamic State. Persecution of Christian minorities climaxed following the Syrian civil war and later by its
spillover.[4][5]
According to US diplomat
Alberto M. Fernandez, "While the majority of the victims of the conflict which is raging in Syria and Iraq have been
Muslims,
Christians have borne a heavy burden given their small numbers."[6]
On February 3, 2016, the
European Union recognized the persecution of religious minorities, including Christians, by the
Islamic State as
genocide.[7][8][9] The vote was unanimous. The
United States House of Representatives followed suit on March 15, 2016, declaring that these atrocities against minorities were genocide.[10] On April 20, 2016, the
British Parliament unanimously voted to denounce the actions against minorities as genocide.[11]
Background
The mass flight and expulsion of ethnic
Assyrians from Iraq and Syria is a process which was initiated during the start of the
2003 invasion of Iraq by the
US and the
Multi-National Force and later it was initiated during the start of the
Syrian civil war and the
spillover. Leaders of Iraq's
Assyrian community estimate that over two-thirds of the Iraqi Assyrian population may have fled the country or been internally displaced during the U.S.-led invasion which lasted from 2003 until 2011. Reports suggest that whole neighborhoods of Assyrians have cleared out in the cities of
Baghdad and
Basra, and that Sunni insurgent groups and militias have threatened Assyrian Christians.[12] Following the campaign of the
Islamic State in northern Iraq in August 2014, one quarter of the remaining Assyrians fled the jihadists, finding refuge in neighboring countries.[13]
After the
fall of Mosul, ISIL demanded that Assyrian Christians living in the city
convert to Islam, pay
jizyah, or face execution, by July 19, 2014.[14][15][16][17]ISIL leader
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi further noted that Christians who do not agree to follow those terms must "leave the borders of the Islamic Caliphate" within a specified deadline.[17] This resulted in a complete Assyrian Christian exodus from Mosul, marking the end of 1,800 years of continuous Christian presence.[18] A church mass was not held in Mosul for the first time in nearly 2 millennia.[19]
In October 2014, a release put out by the
Assyrian International News Agency stated that 200,000 Assyrians had been driven from their homes by the violence and become displaced.[20]
ISIL has already set similar rules for Christians living in other cities and towns, including its de facto capital
Raqqa.[21][22]
ISIL had also been seen marking Christian homes with the letter nūn for Nassarah ("Christian").[23][24] Several religious buildings were seized and subsequently demolished, most notably
Mar Behnam Monastery.[25]
By August 7, ISIL captured the primarily
Assyrian towns of
Qaraqosh,
Tel Keppe,
Bartella, and
Karamlish, prompting the residents to flee.[26] More than 100,000 Iraqi Christians were forced to flee their homes and leave all their property behind after ISIL invaded
Qaraqosh and surrounding towns in the
Nineveh Plains Province of Iraq.[27]
On February 12, 2015, the ISIL released a report in their online magazine Dabiq showing photos of 21 Egyptian
Copts migrant workers that they had kidnapped in the city of
Sirte, Libya, and whom they threatened to kill to "avenge the [alleged] kidnapping of Muslim women by the Egyptian Coptic Church".[28] The men, who came from different villages in Egypt, 13 of them from Al-Our,
Minya Governorate,[29] were kidnapped in
Sirte in two separate attacks on December 27, 2014, and in January 2015.[30]
On 23 February 2015, in response to a major Kurdish offensive in the
Al-Hasakah Governorate, ISIL abducted 150
Assyrians from villages near
Tell Tamer in northeastern Syria, after launching a large offensive in the region.[31][32]
According to US diplomat Alberto M. Fernandez, of the 232 of the Assyrians kidnapped in the ISIL attack on the Assyrian Christian farming villages on the banks of the
Khabur River in Northeast Syria, 51 were children and 84 were women. "Most of them remain in captivity, with one account claiming that ISIS is demanding $22 million (or roughly $100,000 per person) for their release."[6]
On 8 October 2015, ISIL released a video showing three of the Assyrian men kidnapped in Khabur being murdered. It was reported that 202 of the 253 kidnapped Assyrians were still in captivity, each one with a demanded ransom of $100,000.[33]
On 2 November 2018, Islamic State gunmen killed at least seven Coptic Christian pilgrims in Egypt on Friday and wounded at least 16 in an attack.[34] In April 2021, Islamic State gunmen executed a Christian businessman who was kidnapped in Egypt's
Sinai.[35]
Reactions
On 2 and 3 August 2014, thousands of Assyrians of the
diaspora protested the persecution of their fellow Assyrians within Iraq and Syria, demanding a United Nations-led creation of a safe haven for minorities in the
Nineveh Plains.[36][37]
In December 2015, at a town hall event, the 67th United States Secretary of State,
Hillary Clinton, called the systematic persecution a genocide.[40] The same month,
David Greene, a radio journalist at
NPR, stated that around 1,000 Christians had been killed "in areas where Islamic State fighters are targeting religious minorities", without specifying a source.[41]
In February 2016,
Lars Adaktusson, a
Swedish member of the European Parliament from the
EPP Group, said of the unanimous vote to recognize atrocities as genocide: "It gives the victims of the atrocities a chance to get their human dignity restored. It's also a historical confirmation that the European Parliament recognized what is going on and that they are suffering from the most despicable crime in the world, namely genocide."[42]
^
ab"Convert, pay tax, or die, Islamic State warns Christians". Reuters. 18 July 2014.
Archived from the original on 26 May 2019. Retrieved 2 July 2017. It said that Islamic State leader
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whom the group has now named Caliph Ibrahim, had set a Saturday deadline for Christians who did not want to stay and live under those terms to "leave the borders of the Islamic Caliphate". "After this date, there is nothing between us and them but the sword," it said.
^Thomas, George (2 February 2016).
"'It's Genocide,' Europe Says of Christian Slaughter by ISIS".
Christian Broadcasting Network. "I'm sure now we have enough evidence that what is happening is genocide, deliberately aimed at destroying, not only the lives but wiping out the existence of Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities in the Middle East in territory controlled by ISIS," she said.
Ethno-linguistic group(s) indigenous to the
Middle East with various additional/alternate self-identifications, such as Syriacs, Arameans, or Chaldeans