Thepersecution of Christians by the Islamic State involves the systematic mass murder[1][2][3] of Christian minorities, within the regions ofIraq,Syria,Egypt,Libya,Democratic Republic of the Congo,Mozambique andNigeria controlled by the Islamic extremist groupIslamic State. Persecution of Christian minorities climaxed following the Syrian civil war and later by itsspillover but has since intensified further.[4][5][6] Christians have been subjected to massacres,forced conversions, rape, sexual slavery, and the systematic destruction of their historical sites, churches and other places of worship.
According to US diplomatAlberto M. Fernandez, "While the majority of the victims of the conflict which is raging in Syria and Iraq have beenMuslims,Christians have borne a heavy burden given their small numbers."[7]
The depopulation of Christians from the Middle East by the Islamic State as well as other organisations and governments has been formally recognised as an ongoing genocide by theUnited States,European Union, andUnited Kingdom. Christians remain the most persecuted religious group in the Middle East, and Christians in Iraq are “close to extinction”.[8][9][10] According to estimates by theUS State Department, the number ofChristians in Iraq has fallen from 1.2 million 2011 to 120,000 in 2024, and the numberin Syria from 1.5 million to 300,000, falls driven by persecution by terrorist groups and repression by authoritarian regimes.[6]
The mass flight and expulsion of ethnicAssyrians from Iraq and Syria is a process which was initiated during the start of the2003 invasion of Iraq by theUS and theMulti-National Force and later it was initiated during the start of theSyrian civil war and thespillover. 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 ofBaghdad andBasra, and that Sunni insurgent groups and militias have threatened Assyrian Christians.[11] Following the campaign of theIslamic State in northern Iraq in August 2014, one quarter of the remaining Assyrians fled the jihadists, finding refuge in neighboring countries.[12]
After thefall of Mosul, IS demanded that Assyrian Christians living in the cityconvert to Islam, payjizyah, or face execution, by July 19, 2014.[13][14][15][16] IS leaderAbu 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.[16] This resulted in a complete Assyrian Christian exodus from Mosul, marking the end of 1,800 years of continuous Christian presence.[17] A church mass was not held in Mosul for the first time in nearly 2 millennia.[18]
In October 2014, a release put out by theAssyrian International News Agency stated that 200,000 Assyrians had been driven from their homes by the violence and become displaced.[19]
IS has already set similar rules for Christians living in other cities and towns, including itsde facto capitalRaqqa.[20][21]
IS had also been seen marking Christian homes with the letternūn forNassarah ("Cultural Christian").[22][23] Several religious buildings were seized and subsequently demolished, most notablyMar Behnam Monastery.[24]
By August 7, IS captured the primarilyAssyrian towns ofQaraqosh,Tel Keppe,Bartella, andKaramlish, prompting the residents to flee.[25] More than 100,000 Iraqi Christians were forced to flee their homes and leave all their property behind after IS invaded Qaraqosh and surrounding towns in theNineveh Plains Province of Iraq.[26]
On February 12, 2015, the IS released a report in their online magazineDabiq showing photos of 21 EgyptianCopts migrant workers that they had kidnapped in the city ofSirte, Libya, and whom they threatened to kill to "avenge the [alleged] kidnapping of Muslim women by the Egyptian Coptic Church".[27] The men, who came from different villages in Egypt, 13 of them from Al-Our,Minya Governorate,[28] were kidnapped in Sirte in two separate attacks on December 27, 2014, and in January 2015.[29]
In February 2015, in response to a major Kurdish offensive in theAl-Hasakah Governorate, IS abducted 150Assyrians from villages nearTell Tamer in northeastern Syria, after launching a large offensive in the region.[30][31]
According to US diplomat Alberto M. Fernandez, of the 232 of the Assyrians kidnapped in the IS attack on the Assyrian Christian farming villages on the banks of theKhabur 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."[7]
On 8 October 2015, IS 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.[32]
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.[33] In April 2021, Islamic State gunmen executed a Christian businessman who was kidnapped in Egypt'sSinai.[34]
On 2 and 3 August 2014, thousands of Assyrians of thediaspora protested the persecution of their fellow Assyrians within Iraq and Syria, demanding a United Nations-led creation of a safe haven for minorities in theNineveh Plains.[35][36]
The same month,David Greene, a radio journalist atNPR, stated that around 1,000 Christians had been killed "in areas where Islamic State fighters are targeting religious minorities", without specifying a source.[38]
Chaldean Catholic priestDouglas Al-Bazi, who was tortured by the Islamic State, has urged the US to recognise the killings as genocide.[39]
On February 3, 2016,European Parliament unanimously voted to recognize the persecution of religious minorities, including Christians, by the Islamic State asgenocide.[40][41][42]Lars Adaktusson, aSwedish member of the European Parliament, said of the vote: "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."[43]
TheUnited States House of Representatives followed suit on March 15, 2016, declaring that these atrocities against minorities were genocide.[44] Already in December 2015, at a town hall event, the 67th United States Secretary of State,Hillary Clinton, called the systematic persecution a genocide.[45]
On April 20, 2016, theBritish Parliament unanimously voted to denounce the actions against minorities as genocide.[46]
^ab"Convert, pay tax, or die, Islamic State warns Christians".Reuters. 18 July 2014.Archived from the original on 26 May 2019. Retrieved2 July 2017.It said that Islamic State leaderAbu 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.
Territory of the Islamic State
Iraq
Egypt
Syria
Libya
Nigeria
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Mozambique
Islamic State
CJTF–OIR
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