Free Republic

Some 1.5 million Christians have left Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2003, an Iraqi MP said Wednesday. Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Josef Sleve, an Iraqi Christian lawmaker, said the number of Christians in Iraq had stood at almost two million in 2003. He added, however, that most of these had fled the country since then due to rampant insecurity and frequent incidents of terrorism. “The number of Christians living in the country now stands at between 500,000 and 850,000,” Sleve said. “This means that over the past 14 years, some 1.5 million Christians have emigrated to...

Former Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) said that Congress is considering the creation of an autonomous region in Iraq to protect Christians and Yazidis from persecution by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and criticized the State Department's lack of involvement in the ongoing discussions. "There are discussions and there will be a resolution introduced in the House, I believe, to set up an into-the-plains, basically a protectorate, whereby Christians, Yazidis and other minorities [will be protected]," Wolf said at an event last week at the National Press Club in Washington. However, Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute's...

Erbil, Iraq, Jun 9, 2015 / 12:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Despite the potential threat from the nearby Islamic State, several monks and students in northern Iraq have found refuge in an ancient monastery, certain they are in God's hands no matter what happens. Erbil’s Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda said that those who have chosen to remain in the fourth century Monastery of Saint Matthew have “expressed their faith that this is a secure place.” He told CNA June 8 that although these Christians are now being protected by the Kurdish military, their sense of safety is not only due to...

Scholars say American missionaries viewed as invaders by many MuslimsThe Iraq that the Rev. George Gatgounis left last fall no longer exists. Insurgents have killed and kidnapped several missionaries since his visit, and the intensity of the fighting has increased markedly. Returning, as the Hanahan lawyer had planned to do this month, might have cost him his life. "Right now, going back does not appear to be wise," Gatgounis said. He, like many who had arranged visits with religious groups, changed his plans. Now, Christian missionaries and relief workers already there struggle to leave a country they came to help,...