Iraqi Christians apparently are still being threatened and killed by Muslim extremists in Iraq causing them to continue to seek refuge in surrounding countries according to this article in The Christian Post.
The vice president of Iraq, Adel Abdul Mahdi, urged the country’s Christian population to resist fleeing Iraq and called on the international community to help protect the dwindling minority group from extremists.
Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, some 250,000 to 500,000 Christians have left the country. Christians, although making up only three percent of Iraq’s population, account for nearly half of the refugees leaving Iraq, according to the U.N. High Commission for Refugees.
“The position of Iraqi Christians is vulnerable and Iraq must not be left alone to face this. It’s a collective task,” said Abdul Mahdi, a Shiite Muslim, at a conference hosted by the French Institute of International Relations in Paris on Wednesday, according to Agence France-Presse.
“Christians are an integral part of Iraq,” he said. “We need to help Iraq and help Christians remain in Iraq.”
Iraq’s Christian population has mostly fled to neighboring countries such as Syria and Jordan, but has also been granted refuge in Western countries including France, Germany, and the United States.
Members of the tiny Christian population are forced to leave their homeland because of daily physical threats to their life. More than 200 Christians [Edit: as Judy pointed out here the numbers seem to be unreliable] have been killed, dozens of churches bombed, and countless believers have been kidnapped for ransom money since 2003.
And, a reminder, the Christians were living in what is now Iraq long before the Muslim’s arrived.
Iraq is home to one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. Many religious freedom groups have warned that if nothing is done soon the Christian population in Iraq will likely disappear.