At a time when the presence of Iraq’s Christian minority could be significant in helping democracy take hold of the war-torn nation, Iraq’s beleaguered Christians continue to flee their country because of attacks and threats, news agencies and persecution watchdogs say.

Since the recent wave of church bombings began last year in August, the exodus of Iraq’s Christian minority primarily to Jordan and Syria has reportedly increased. As many as 40,000 Chaldo-Assyrians have fled Iraq since the August bombings, and the situation “has gotten worse,” according to Nina Shea, director of Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom and vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

The persecution “is accelerating,” Shea told Baptist Press (BP). “They’re accelerating it now because this is an opportunity to drive [the Christians] out.”

With less than two weeks remaining before the Jan. 30 voting to elect the 275-member assembly that will appoint a government and draft a constitution, the recent increase of the exodus of Iraq’s Christian minority has drawn concern.

Barrett Duke, vice president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, called the plight of Iraq’s Christian minority “heartbreaking.”

“These peace-loving people are being decimated by hate-filled Muslim radicals and violent criminals simply because they are Christian,” said Duke, as reported by BP. “The men, women and children of this 2000-year-old Christian community are being brutalized at will. The Iraqi leadership appears either unable or unwilling to do anything to help them. It is devastating to consider that freedom in Iraq may mean obliteration for Christians in that beleaguered land.

“I pray that God will hear the cries of these persecuted people and bring them relief,” he said. “I pray also that He will move freedom-loving people all over the world to press their elected officials to bring the power of their governments to bear on this tragedy, and that they will do it soon.”

In addition to the recent string of Church bombings in Iraq, BP reports that Chaldo-Assyrians have been the victims of kidnappings and murders, including beheadings, in recent months. There have been reports of acid being thrown in the faces of women who were not wearing veils and shootings of workers in video and liquor stores in Christian communities. Chaldo-Assyrians also have reported receiving threats of kidnappings.

[Source: Baptist Press]

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