Iraq

How are Christians harassed, discriminated against and persecuted?

The Iraqi church has a long history dating back to the early church. In fact, the Old Testament prophet Jonah visited the city of Nineveh and the city repented after hearing his message. The Islamic State destroyed Jonah's tomb in Mosul in 2014.

When Saddam Hussein was deposed as president of Iraq in 2003, there were around 1.5 million Christians in the country. Under Saddam Hussein, the Christians had freedom, although, like the rest of the country's inhabitants, they felt the harsh hand with which he ran the country. In addition, the Christian minority, the Assyrians, were only allowed to speak Assyrian to a limited extent, but had to speak Arabic.

However, Saddam Hussein had been able to maintain the peace and order that the country's Christian minority, more so than the majority of the population, needed. Shortly after Hussein's fall, Islamic groups began attacking churches - for example, on Sunday, August 1, 2004, six car bombs killed 12 and injured 71.

It was in this chaos that extreme terrorist groups, such as the Islamic State from 2004, found favorable conditions for growth. Several attacks on churches may have contributed to some Iraqi Christians no longer seeing a future in Iraq for themselves and their children, and by 2013 the number of Christians had fallen to an estimated 500,000.

Many Christians leave Iraq, but some Muslims come to faith

The Islamic State's displacement of Christians and other non-Sunnis from the summer of 2014 was exceptionally cruel. The terrorist group video-documented how it killed Christians who would not convert to Sunni Islam.

Today, the Islamic State caliphate is defeated, but the number of Christians in Iraq is estimated to have fallen below 250,000. Although the Islamic State tried, the Christian church in Iraq is not dead. It is alive and people are coming to faith. In the last five years, an estimated 5000 Muslims have converted to the Christian faith. Partly because they have seen the violence in the name of Islam and at the same time seen Christians demonstrating God's love through relief aid.

What does the Danish European Mission do

With the support of Danish European Mission donors, local Christians ensure that Women, that was sex slaves for Islamic StateKurdish war widows and very poor women can attend sewing school. Here they gain skills to supplement their income, as well as trauma treatment and fellowship with others in a similar situation.

Many Iraqi Christians and other vulnerable minorities fled from Islamic State to the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. The Danish European Mission's donors ensure that they receive emergency aid in the form of food, medicine, warm blankets, clothes, shoes, mattresses and fuel.

Danish European Mission's donors have secured, at Local Christians could help displaced people to return and rebuild, among other things. schools, electricity and water supply in their villageswhen they were liberated from Islamic State in 2016.