ICC Note: Amidst the violent persecution inflicted on Christians in Iraq, many pleas for help in Syria have gone unheard. Radical Islamic extremists have cut water and electricity from Christian communities. Families are unable to flee their homes to find safer shelter. Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, has been all but emptied of Christians and other religious minorities fleeing this extreme persecution. Those that remain are often too sick, weak, or poor to leave. As this violence continues, Christians throughout the Middle East and the world are watching and wondering, who will step in and stop this Christian persecution?
By: Nuri Kino
07/30/14 Syria (Fox News) – “Please, the world needs to know: We are captives, we don’t have water or electricity here in Aleppo but it is nothing compared to the fear we have toward the Islamists. Why is no one doing anything to save us?”
A young Assyrian Christian woman in Aleppo, Syria, spoke these words to me during a phone call a few days ago. She is stuck in the country with her three small children.
In wake of the ISIS invasion of Iraq, reports (long overdue) are emerging about the persecution of Christians and other minorities in the country. Yet ISIS is committing the same atrocities against non-Muslims in Syria, too.
Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, has been emptied of almost all Christians. Ten days ago, ISIS – who now call themselves the Islamic State (IS) – distributed fliers to Christians that read: “Convert, Pay Jizya, Leave or Die.”
The Christians fled in droves before the Saturday deadline for their decision.
The scant few who remained were weak, old or injured and could not flee. A man who lost his leg in a bombing a couple of days prior to the deadline was forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint, according to his relatives.
And who I am to judge him, while I’m enjoying the freedom and safety of Sweden, where I myself arrived as an 8-year-old?
Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, also has been nearly emptied of Assyrians, Armenians and other non-Muslims.
These are the words spoken to me by the father of the three children stuck with their mother in another phone call: “It’s happening right in front of their eyes and no one is lifting a finger to stop it. Please be our voice, we beg you — make them do something to save us from being slaughtered.”
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