EXTREMISTS occupying large swaths of Iraq
and Syria have issued a threat to Iraqi Christians in the city of Mosul to
accept Islam, pay extra taxes to Islamic Sharia courts or face death.
The letters from the Islamic State in Iraq
and Syria, or ISIS, were distributed recently to leaders of the dwindling
Christian minority in Iraq’s second largest city.
The message added that ISIS leader
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has agreed to allow Christians who do fail to convert or
pay extra taxes to leave the embattled city by noon Saturday. After that, the
message said, “the only option is the sword.”
According to Mark Ellis in Godreports, an
online journal, a report received by Christian Aid Mission from a ministry
partner working in Mosul that has established churches and converted many
quoted a Christian as saying:
“Please pray for us. We are scared. Last
night they came in our church building and started breaking everything they
saw,” the email to Christian Aid stated.
The ISIS invaders were bent on destruction.“They took our pulpit down and removed the cross. Then they threw
gasoline on it and burned everything.”
Christians who hid in the basement were
forced out by fire. “We had to go out because of the smoke. As we started
running out they saw us and started shooting at us. Some did not make it, but
those who did ran in all directions.
“Most of those who attended the meeting
are Muslim background believers. Please pray for us. We don´t have a place to
go to and we don´t know what to do.”
The ministry reported that ISIS
militants passed out leaflets stating that sharia law was now in effect. The
leaflets mandated that all citizens pray five times a day, it stated that the
hands of thieves will be amputated, and women should not walk the streets
except in an emergency. If women go out in the streets, they must be fully
covered.
ISIS militants want to create an
Islamic caliphate that encompasses territory in Iraq and Syria, and from there
launch a global holy war.
The ISIS fighters are considered more
brutal and bloody than al Queda. “They believe killing gets them into heaven
quicker,” one observer noted.
Recent events point to the
possibility that Iraq will eventually be carved into Shiite, Sunni, and
Kurdish-controlled territories.
In the midst of this turmoil, some
Christians are fleeing to Kurdistan, where there is more religious freedom.
Before 2003, Mosul had a significant
Christian population of some 130,000 people. Since then the number has dwindled
to a reported 10,000 due to frequent attacks on Christian homes, businesses,
and churches. The city may soon be emptied of nearly all Christians now that
ISIS militants have taken full control, according to Christian Aid Mission.
Another ministry partner of Christian Aid
also reported on the desperate conditions in Mosul. Not long after ISIS
arrived, “the Islamic militias started burning churches and killing Christians
and Shiites,” his email stated.
“I have already talked with the church
members in Mosul. They shut down the church, and all Christians left their
homes and are fleeing to Erbil, along with thousands of Mosul residents,” he
reported.
Militant ISIS jihadists, a Sunni-dominated
al Qaeda splinter group, have overrun large parts of Iraq and neighbouring war
torn Syria over the past months in a violent Islamist insurgency. The militants
want to establish an Islamic state, or so-called caliphate, across Sunni areas
of both countries.
ISIS already controls hundreds of square
miles where state authority has evaporated. It has ignored international
borders, establishing a deadly presence from Syria’s Mediterranean coast all
the way south to Baghdad, making its goal of a caliphate state seemingly within
reach.
The magnitude of the crisis is clear from
the sharp rise in the death toll over the past two months.
At least 2,400 Iraqis died in violence in
June, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq. Of those,
the United Nations said more than 1,500 were civilians, including 270 civilian
police officers, and almost 900 were members of Iraqi security forces.
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