Christians in Iraq

The Christians of Iraq are considered to be one of the oldest continuous Christian communities in the world. The vast majority are indigenous Eastern Aramaic-speaking ethnic Assyrians. There is also a small community of Syriacs, Armenians and populations of Kurdish, Arab and Iraqi Turkmens. Most present-day Christians are ethnically different from Kurds and they identify themselves as being separate peoples, of different origins and with distinct histories of their own.

In Iraq, Christians numbered about 1,500,000 in 2003, representing just over 6% of the population of 26 million (down from 1.4 million or 8.5% of 16.5 million in 1987). Since then, it has been estimated that the number of Christians in Iraq have dropped to as low as 450,000 by 2013. However, due to a lack of an official census, the number is difficult to estimate and could be as high as 1.2 million. The most widely followed denomination among Iraq Christians is the Chaldean Catholic Church.

Christians live primarily in Baghdad, Basra, Arbil and Kirkuk and in Assyrian towns and regions such as the Nineveh Plains in the north. Iraqi Christians live primarily in the Kurdistan Region; and in regions bordering it in northeastern Syria, northwestern Iran and southeastern Turkey, an area roughly corresponding to ancient Assyria.

Christians in Iraq are not allowed to proselytise, especially to Muslims. Muslims who convert to Christianity are subject to societal and official pressure, which may lead to the death penalty. However, there have been cases in which Muslims have secretly adopted the Christian faith, becoming practising Christians, but are legally Muslims; thus, the statistics of Iraqi Christians does not include Muslim converts to Christianity. In Iraqi Kurdistan, Christians are allowed to proselytise.

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