New Threats and Intimidation Against Iraqi Christians

The National Catholic Register ^ | 12/18/18 | Ed Pentin

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A Syriac Catholic priest in the Northern Iraqi town of Bartella tells the Register of recent efforts to threaten Christians so they leave the region, and why security, jobs and a greater Christian presence are needed there more than ever.

Although ISIS have, at least visibly, been driven out of Iraq, the country's Christians continue to be intimidated by Muslim militants who would rather Christians quit Iraq, even though the Church there dates back to the first century.

A clear example of this was seen two weeks ago when Shabak militia, a mainly Shia Muslim militant group, fired shots into the air around the Catholic church in the once predominantly Christian town of Bartella on the Nineveh Plain, about 15 miles east of Mosul.

When the town’s Syriac Catholic priest, Father Benham Benoka, told them to stop, a militiaman held a gun to his face and threatened him. No local authorities came to Father Benoka’s or the Church’s aid, despite such use of firearms being illegal in Iraq.

Earlier this year, I traveled with Father Benedict Kiely, founder of the charity Nasarean.org for persecuted Christians, to Bartella and met Father Benoka who told us then that the Shabak, being supported by the Iraqi government, had been able to buy up once-Christian owned properties and now dominated the town.

“We’re completely vulnerable,” Father Benoka told us. “What’s going to happen in the future? Who can guarantee us a permanent presence here on the Nineveh Plains? Who can guarantee peace and security?”

But now the situation appears to have worsened. In this Dec. 18 phone interview with the Register, Father Benoka explained the increasingly precarious situation facing Christians there, that Christian emigrants from Iraq will never return while such insecurity continues, and that many Iraqi Muslims are intent on making.........