What is Really Happening to Iraqi Christians?...

Aimee Herd : Aug 22, 2014
Tracey Shelton - Global Post

"The people want to flee from Iraq and that's it! Enough is enough. How many times do we have to be attacked, displaced, killed? The only thing left is to protect the people that are left. The Church is not the stones—the people are the Church and we can build a new church anywhere. Not here, not anymore." -Displaced Iraqi Christian

An article by Tracey Shelton in the Global Post details the harsh conditions Iraqi Christians are now enduring, as they are tired of the persecution by radical Islamists, and now the horror of ISIS who has forced tens of thousands of the minority from their homes under threat of death, causing them to want to leave Iraq altogether. (Tracey Shelton/GlobalPost)

Holed-up in the garden of St. Joseph's Church in Erbil, Iraq, some of the Christians described what they've left and their loss at what to do next...

"We have nothing here anymore, said one Iraqi Believer. "We are homeless and penniless. Iraq is over for us. We do not trust this country."

For Heam Marzana and her children, whose husband was shot on the streets of Baghdad, it is the third time they've been displaced, having to leave everything behind.

"We hate violence but we are surrounded by it," Marzana told the Global Post. "We don't want food, or relief aid—we just want to leave."

Many of the Christians are waiting for countries to open their borders to them, but it seems that obstacles, possibly even church officials, may be standing in their way, according to the report. Another displaced Believer named, Aziz Yousef, told the Post that when France had offered to take in the Iraqi Christian immigrants, the "church in Erbil had blocked applications." (Tracey Shelton/GlobalPost)

"Politicians and church leaders are making obstacles for us to leave," he said. "The church is trying to push us to remain in Iraq without giving us anything..."

Yousef noted that he'd once visited the US and had been amazed at the "rights" people, children and even animals had, and how most everyone "submits to the law."

He told Global Post, "For us, we are civilized, polite, peaceful but we are persecuted here. We are subjected to violence. We are tired of repeated migration. We just want to settle. We want stability. If that means leaving then we will all leave."

Please continue praying for the Iraqi and Syrian Christians that they will find a safe place to finally live without constant persecution.

Read the entire Global Post report by clicking here.