*** Welcome to piglix ***

Persecution of Christians by ISIL

Genocide of Christians by ISIL
Location Iraq, Syria, Libya
Date June 11, 2014 (2014-06-11) – present
Target mostly Arab Christians, Levantines, Armenians, Assyrians/Syriacs, and Copts
Attack type
Ethnic cleansing, abuse, and forced conversions to an extremist version of Wahhabism
Deaths Thousands
Victims 200,000 Assyrian refugees
Perpetrators  Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Defenders Syriac Military Council
Sutoro
Emblem of the Nineveh Plain Protection Units.svg Nineveh Plain Protection Units
Qaraqosh Protection Committee
Dwekh Nawsha
Sootoro
Hezbollah
Iraqi Armed Forces
Syrian Armed Forces
Lebanese Armed Forces
Motive Wahhabi Sunni Islamic extremism

The genocide of Christians by ISIS refers to the genocide of Christian minorities, within its region of control in Iraq, Syria and Libya by the Islamic extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Persecution of Christian minorities climaxed following its takeover of parts of Northern Iraq in June 2014.

According to US diplomat Alberto M. Fernandez, "While the majority of victims in the conflict raging in Syria and Iraq have been Muslims, Christians have borne a heavy burden given their small numbers."

On February 3, 2016, the European Union recognized the persecution of Christians by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as genocide. The vote was unanimous. The United States followed suit on March 15, 2016, in declaring these atrocities as genocide. The vote was unanimous. On April 20, 2016, British Parliament voted unanimously to denounce the actions as genocide. A similar motion however failed in Canada when it was opposed by the majority of MPs in Justin Trudeau's Liberal government.

The mass flight and expulsion of ethnic Assyrians and Chaldeans from Iraq is a process which initiated from the beginning of Iraq War in 2003 and continues to this day. 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 since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 until 2011. Reports suggest that whole neighborhoods of Assyrians have cleared out in the cities of Baghdad and Basra, and that Sunni insurgent groups and militias have threatened Assyrian Christians. Following the campaign of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in northern Iraq in August 2014, one quarter of the remaining Iraqi Assyrians fled the Jihadists, finding refuge in Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan.


...
Wikipedia

...