How We’re Fighting ISIS Genocide Against Christians
Christians have been forced to lie over bombs buried in the sand, waiting for the moment when ISIS – the Islamic State – detonates them in a brutal form of execution. Christian girls and women are sold into sex slavery, traded between ISIS fighters to be raped and abused. Christian missionaries are beheaded and burned alive, abducted for ransom, and tortured.
The brutality knows no bounds. The reality is ISIS is waging genocide against Christians. This is why ISIS must be stopped.
And now the European Court of Human Rights is taking up the issue of ISIS’s severe persecution of Christians in Iraq, and we – through our international affiliate, the European Center for Law & Justice (ECLJ) – have been asked to file an amicus brief to share testimony about the current genocide of Christians in Iraq at the hands of ISIS.
To assist the Court, the ECLJ has partnered with two field organizations, the ACN and SOS Chrétiens d’Orient, to provide recent information and concrete testimonies as to the current conditions on the ground in Iraq. ACN and SOS Chrétiens d’Orient are supporting persecuted Christian communities, in particular by helping ensure their safety.
In our amicus brief submitted to the Court, we recall that two decades ago, Christians constituted 10% of the population in Iraq. Yet today this population is decimated due to severe persecution and attacks from ISIS, which has led to a mass exodus of Christians from their homelands. For the last few years, deadly attacks against Christians have been daily news in Iraq. Now however, there are simply no more Christians in Mosul.
Our brief also contains six recent testimonies of Christians living in Iraq, detailing how they lost everything at the hands of ISIS – their relatives, their property, their culture. They recount how they fled the advance of radical Islam, and how the Church has been their main and ultimate support.
We believe these observations will enable the Court to take the right measures to protect Christians facing genocide for than faith. Thanks to the assistance of organizations such as ACN and SOS Chrétiens d’Orients, Christians facing the humanitarian disaster in Iraq have new hope.
Fighting the barbarity of ISIS on multiple fronts, the ACLJ and its affiliates continue international advocacy to bring attention to ISIS’s genocide against Christians and other religious minorities in the cradle of Christianity, and most importantly to protect the persecuted Church.
Whether testifying on Capitol Hill or filing briefs at the European Court of Human Rights, shining a light in the darkness has never been more important. Our Christian brothers and sisters need our prayer and need us to act.