Christianity is being wiped from the Middle East, he said. In 2003 there were 1.5 million Christians in Iraq. Now it’s about 300,000 and still dropping fast. Isis is murdering Christians all over the place.
In Mosul, Fr Emmanuel’s home town, Christians were especially targeted after the US invasion of Iraq. Back in 2008, Mosul’s archbishop was snatched from his car and discovered in a shallow grave a week later.
And when Isis arrived in 2014 – welcomed by the majority of the local population, Fr Emmanuel insists – the Christian community had “N” for Nazarene daubed on its doors. The Isis message to Christians is: convert or die.
In the face of all this, the church’s leadership tells its people to be brave, to stay and endure, that in them the very existence of Christianity in the Middle East is at stake. And that’s true – it is. [The Guardian] Read more
