Worldwide, Christians are facing increasing persecution because of their faith in Christ. However, they are not alone. An ethnic cleansing of religious minorities is occurring throughout the Middle East. Jews, Christians, Yazidis, and others are threatened with extinction.
December 2010: Tunisians ignited a spark leading to the so-called Arab Spring, fueling hope that freedom and democracy would spread rapidly throughout the Middle East. However, those hopes were dashed as the dream turned into a nightmare.
In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood’s rule led to burned churches and bloodshed. The rise of the Islamic State was followed by even greater atrocities spreading to Iraq and Syria.
Minority faiths, considered infidels by Muslims, were forced to convert to Islam, pay a jizya tax, or face death. Many Christians, Jews, Yazidis, and moderate Muslims chose to flee.
Hillary Miller, of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), argued that now, outside of Israel, Jews have all but disappeared from the Middle East.
“At its height in the 1940s, the Jewish community of Egypt numbered 80,000,” Miller explained. “Today, there are fewer than 10 Jews residing between Alexandria and Cairo.”
Seventy-five years ago, a community of 50,000 Jews thrived and prospered in Syria. Today, no Jews remain. Miller reported that it’s also happened in Yemen, home to the Houthi militia.
“Today, from an ancient community nearly 2,000 years old, which at its peak numbered 55,000 Jews, one Jew remains in Yemen. His name is Levi Marhabi, and he has languished in Houthi prison since 2016. His crime? Attempting to carry a torah scroll from Yemen to Israel,” she explained.
Historically, Christians in Syria and Iraq numbered between 3 and 4 million. Today, however, their population has dwindled to around 300,000 in each country.
Karmela Borashan, of the Susek Evangelistic Association, believes that although ISIS is no longer a significant threat in northern Iraq, its outdated seventh-century mentality still lingers.
“It is very subtle ethnic cleansing that is covered really well, and a lot of the Western world doesn’t see it because they are protecting the patriarchs,” she insisted.
Iraq’s Yazidi minority faith group is facing a critical decline. The United Nations reported that ISIS killed nearly 5,000 Yazidis and kidnapped at least 7,000 women and girls.
Ten years later, 3,000 Yazidi females remain in captivity. Jamila Nazo, president of the Canadian Yazidi Association, faulted the international community for not doing enough to rescue them.
“I sit with these mothers, and they show me photos of their kids, and they say they’re in this house, in this community, on this street, in this village in Iraq, and there’s nothing we can do to get them because there’s no political will on any fronts internationally or domestically to commence with rescue operations.”
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In June, tragedy struck the Christian community in Syria when armed jihadists opened fire and detonated a suicide vest at Saint Elias Church, located on the outskirts of Damascus. The attack occurred as Christians gathered for worship. A total of 24 people were killed, leaving the Christian community in mourning and shock. This incident raises an important question following last year’s fall of the Assad regime and the appointment of Ahmad Al-Sharaa as president.
Was this a rare occurrence, or is the threat of annihilation for Syria’s Christian minority growing? Will Ahmed Al Sharaa’s government make a difference?”
After the massacre of minority Alawites and others last March, and in light of the deaths of over 1,000 minority Druze in tribal violence in southern Syria last month, Al Sharaa turned to Turkish President Erdogan for military assistance. He requested military equipment and training to help protect religious minorities.
Ryan Mauro from the Capital Research Center is skeptical of Western leaders who speak as if al-Sharaa won an election; that’s because if he were to hold an election today, Mauro believes it is likely he would lose because both religious minorities and Muslim extremists dislike him.
“So, who’s left? Oh, the Muslim Brotherhood. You know, maybe he’s moving in that direction because it’s been so successful now. They’re not going to accept him either, because he’s talking about normalizing ties with Israel. And even if it’s a trick, he’s gone way too far. He’s taking a step beyond what they would even say is permissible by deception,” Mauro explained.
The question remains of who will protect the Middle East’s religious minorities from annihilation. Many Syrian Christians turn to God rather than governments to shield them from jihadist attacks.
Additionally, Assyrian International Council representative Ashuriena Abraham suggested that Western leaders must urgently intervene before it is too late.
“We cannot have meaningful conversations about protecting Christians if we are not listening to genuine Christian voices, those who are not speaking under the very real threat of death in front of the very regimes persecuting us,” Abraham insisted. “If we remain silent now, this pattern of murder and injustice will continue until the very last Assyrian in Syria is dead or gone and every road of our homeland is once more fractured, and regimes continue to pave over our freshly dead, bloody bodies – a community who still speaks the language of Jesus, and whose evangelistic force spread Christianity from India to China, will be a footnote in history.”
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