CAPITAL: Baghdad
PERSECUTION LEVEL : Extreme
Ranked at four in the Open Doors World Watch list (which ranks the 50 countries where persecution is most severe).
MAIN RELIGION: Islam
Back in the summer, Islamic State (IS) announced the establishment of a ‘caliphate’ – an Islamic state – across Iraq and Syria, forcing thousands to flee their homes and murdering anyone who stood in its way. Iraqi towns and cities such as Mosul (Old Testament Nineveh) and Qaraqosh were emptied of their Christian communities for the first time in 2,000 years. Most Christians fled to the relatively safe Kurdish city of Erbil. The statistics are stark: in the 1990s there were 1.2 million Christians in Iraq; now there are around 300,000 Christians, nearly half of whom are refugees.
PRAY:
• Winters are cold and the chances of flooding are high, so pray for a mild winter. Open Doors is working alongside the local church to support 6,000 Christian families in northern Iraq. Pray for provision of food and shelter for them and the thousands of other refugees.
• Many Christians are losing hope. One man said: ‘I’m 58 now, but 50 years of my life my country has been involved in some kind of war. So this should stop at some point.’ Pray that faith, hope and love will engulf Iraq’s Christian community.
• Pray that IS leaders such as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi will encounter Jesus. Two thousand years ago a terrorist called Saul encountered the living Jesus on the way to Damascus, and we all know what happened next…
TAKE ACTION:
Join the #WeAreN movement and find out how you can pray for and support Christians in Iraq.
Go to opendoorsyouth.org/do-something/wearen/ and help tell the real story.
