Over the past few months, hundreds of Christians have packed up their belongings and left their homes in Iraq. This latest exodus adds to the hundreds of thousands of Christians who have abandoned their country in recent decades. It’s not something they do lightly, but many feel they have no choice.
Although more than 97 percent of the Iraqi population is Muslim, there have been a Christian community there since the first century – widely believed to have been founded by the Apostle Thomas.
Attacks on Christians continue: against their skills, their jobs, the seizure of their property
In the 1990s, there were approximately 1.5 million Christians in Iraq. A combination of factors, including the rise of attacks and the brutal Islamic State (ISIS) saw that number drop to around 153,000. Since then, the question has been asked repeatedly: “Can Christianity survive in Iraq?”
Ousted
Last month, Cardinal Louis Sako, head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Iraq’s largest religious denomination, sounded the alarm. He warned of “a new migratory flow,” adding that in recent months alone, around 100 families from the Christian town of Qaraqosh had left.
Why are they leaving? There are several possible answers but, primarily, it is because Christians in Iraq feel excluded from public life – or, to put it another way, they no longer feel like they “count.”
Last week, hundreds of Christians took to the streets to protest a court ruling declaring the eleven seats reserved for minorities in the Kurdistan Region’s parliament (an autonomous region in northern Iraq) “unconstitutional.” Of these eleven seats, six seats were reserved for Christians. According to protesters, this would prevent Christian candidates from occupying a seat in Kurdistan’s parliament.
Meanwhile, Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid revoked a 2013 decree recognizing Cardinal Sako as patriarch of the Chaldean Church. Today, in the eyes of the government, Sako and his bishops have neither position nor legitimate voice to defend the interests of the people they represent.
Intolerance and persecution
It is understandable why the Iraqi government would not want to grant legitimacy to someone like Cardinal Sako. He clearly highlighted how minorities, like Christians, are marginalized. As he explains, “attacks on Christians still continue against their skills, their jobs, the seizure of their properties”.
He also described “cases of forced conversion by ISIS or others, the Islamization of minors, the non-preservation of their rights, the attempt to deliberately erase their heritage, their history, their religious heritage, the expressions of hatred in certain religious speeches as well as in educational books.
It is this constant “drip by drip” of intolerance and marginalization that sends the message: “You are no longer welcome” to a people who have lived in the region for almost 2,000 years.
Hundreds of Christians pack up their belongings and leave their homes in Iraq
In September 2023, a fire at a Christian wedding in Qaraqosh killed more than 130 people and made headlines around the world. It was an accident, but it was still very revealing. The fire was partly due to the government’s lack of compliance with safety regulations. For many people in Qaraqosh, this lack of concern for the safety and well-being of Christians is further confirmation that no one cares about them.
Pray for change
Iraq is currently 16 years oldth on the Open doors’ Global Watch List, which ranks the nations where life for Christians is most difficultt. It has moved up two places since last year, demonstrating that things are getting tougher for Christians there.
Open Doors partners work hard to give Christians a reason to stay by providing training and providing microloans to help people earn a living and thrive in their home towns and villages, against all odds. waiting.
However, many Christians feel abandoned. They must know that they have not been forgotten. Please pray for our brothers and sisters in Iraq, so that each of them knows what God wants from their lives. When a person knows he is called by the Lord to be in a certain place, he will stay there.
