ICC Note: Iraq’s Christian community has been driven from their homes, and for at least hundreds of them, driven all the way to another church in Amman, Jordan. ISIS’ attacks across Iraq have driven tens of thousands of Christians from their homes. Many have found refuge in the Kurdish controlled areas of Northern Iraq, but as the areas are unable to sustain the massive influx of people, they are also making their way across the region to places like Jordan.
10/02/2014 Jordan (CNN) – They arrived at the church with only what they could carry: clothes, pictures and a few family heirlooms.
It’s all that is left of a life before the Islamic State terror group swept into northern Iraq, giving the Christians of Qaraqosh and Mosul an ultimatum: Convert, leave or die.
Most, like Ammar Zaki and his family, fled first to the relative safety of Iraq’s Kurdish capital of Irbil and then made their way to Amman, Jordan, where they found sanctuary in a church.
Roughly 100 Iraqi Christians are being sheltered at St. Mary’s Church in the Marka neighborhood of Amman. Their sanctuary offers little more than floor mats and a roof, but it’s a welcome haven after fleeing ISIS persecution.
“Jesus Christ told people, ‘leave everything and follow me,’ ” Zaki said, cradling his 9-month-old daughter, Athena. “So we did.”
The stress and strain of the journey show in Zaki’s tired eyes.
“We had to leave everything and go … to be Christian, to stay in my religion,” he said.
Safe haven
Jordan’s capital of Amman has become a magnet for many refugees in recent years trying to escape war or persecution. More than 1 million Syrians fleeing a civil war have poured into the tiny desert kingdom, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis — many of them Christian — have sought haven from the sectarian fighting and later ISIS.
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