The ancestors of the people in these Christian communities certainly were there before Islam was even created.
With ISIS an hour away, one of the only remaining Christian communities makes its ‘last stand in Iraq’
BY NATIONAL POST STAFF OCTOBER 6, 2014 11:21 AM
A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter stands guard near the Mullah Abdullah Bridge, located on the road between Irbil and Kirkuk, 290 kilometres north of Baghdad, Iraq on Sept. 27.
IRBIL, Iraq — With extremists flying the black flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham less than an hour down the road, the future of one of the last Christian communities in the Middle East is at grave risk of assimilation or annihilation.
An estimated 100,000 Iraqi Christians fled the Plain of Mosul in several panicked waves that began in June as ISIS swept east from the Syrian border, murdering, raping and kidnapping as it went. Every place ISIS conquered, it immediately issued an ultimatum to Christians that repeated the stark choice they had given to Syrian Christians when they seized large parts of that country during the past two years. Christians had to either pay a huge ransom for their freedom, convert to Islam or be killed.
Continue reading at:
http://www.canada.com/business/fp/With+ISIS+hour+away+only+remaining+Christian+c
With ISIS an hour away, one of the only remaining Christian communities makes its ‘last stand in Iraq’
BY NATIONAL POST STAFF OCTOBER 6, 2014 11:21 AM
A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter stands guard near the Mullah Abdullah Bridge, located on the road between Irbil and Kirkuk, 290 kilometres north of Baghdad, Iraq on Sept. 27.
IRBIL, Iraq — With extremists flying the black flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham less than an hour down the road, the future of one of the last Christian communities in the Middle East is at grave risk of assimilation or annihilation.
An estimated 100,000 Iraqi Christians fled the Plain of Mosul in several panicked waves that began in June as ISIS swept east from the Syrian border, murdering, raping and kidnapping as it went. Every place ISIS conquered, it immediately issued an ultimatum to Christians that repeated the stark choice they had given to Syrian Christians when they seized large parts of that country during the past two years. Christians had to either pay a huge ransom for their freedom, convert to Islam or be killed.
Continue reading at:
http://www.canada.com/business/fp/With+ISIS+hour+away+only+remaining+Christian+c
