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Persecution of Christians by the Islamic State
Part of Syrian civil war War in Iraq (2013–2017) Sinai insurgency Terrorism in Egypt
Location	Iraq  Egypt  Syria  Libya  Nigeria  Democratic Republic of the Congo  Mozambique
Date	Ongoing
Target	Christians (mostly Assyrians, Arab Christians, Armenians, Copts, Citadel Christians, and other groups)
Attack type	Genocidal massacre, religious persecution, ethnic cleansing, human trafficking and forced conversions to Sunni Islam.
Perpetrators	Islamic State
Defenders	Christian militias in Iraq and Syria  Iraqi Armed Forces  Peshmerga  CJTF–OIR  Syrian Armed Forces  Egyptian Armed Forces  Libyan National Army

The persecution of Christians by the Islamic State involves the systematic mass murder of Christian minorities, within the regions of Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique and Nigeria controlled by the Islamic extremist group Islamic State. Persecution of Christian minorities climaxed following the Syrian civil war and later by its spillover but has since intensified further. Christians have been subjected to massacres, forced conversions, rape, sexual slavery, and the systematic destruction of their historical sites, churches and other places of worship.

According to US diplomat Alberto M. Fernandez, "While the majority of the victims of the conflict which is raging in Syria and Iraq have been Muslims, Christians have borne a heavy burden given their small numbers."

The depopulation of Christians from the Middle East by the Islamic State as well as other organisations and governments has been formally recognised as an ongoing genocide by the United States, European Union, and United Kingdom. Christians remain the most persecuted religious group in the Middle East, and Christians in Iraq are “close to extinction”. According to estimates by the US State Department, the number of Christians in Iraq has fallen from 1.2 million 2011 to 120,000 in 2024, and the number in Syria from 1.5 million to 300,000, falls driven by persecution by Islamic terrorists.

Timeline

The mass flight and expulsion of ethnic Assyrians from Iraq and Syria is a process which was initiated during the start of the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the US and the Multi-National Force and later it was initiated during the start of the Syrian civil war and the spillover. Leaders of Iraq's Assyrian community estimate that over two-thirds of the Iraqi Assyrian population may have fled the country or been internally displaced during the U.S.-led invasion which lasted from 2003 until 2011. Reports suggest that whole neighborhoods of Assyrians have cleared out in the cities of Baghdad and Basra, and that Sunni insurgent groups and militias have threatened Assyrian Christians. Following the campaign of the Islamic State in northern Iraq in August 2014, one quarter of the remaining Assyrians fled the jihadists, finding refuge in neighboring countries.

Northern Iraq (2014)

After the fall of Mosul, ISIL demanded that Assyrian Christians living in the city convert to Islam, pay jizyah, or face execution, by July 19, 2014. ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi further noted that Christians who do not agree to follow those terms must "leave the borders of the Islamic Caliphate" within a specified deadline. This resulted in a complete Assyrian Christian exodus from Mosul, marking the end of 1,800 years of continuous Christian presence. A church mass was not held in Mosul for the first time in nearly 2 millennia.

In October 2014, a release put out by the Assyrian International News Agency stated that 200,000 Assyrians had been driven from their homes by the violence and become displaced.

ISIL has already set similar rules for Christians living in other cities and towns, including its de facto capital Raqqa.

ISIL had also been seen marking Christian homes with the letter nūn for Nassarah ("Cultural Christian"). Several religious buildings were seized and subsequently demolished, most notably Mar Behnam Monastery.

By August 7, ISIL captured the primarily Assyrian towns of Qaraqosh, Tel Keppe, Bartella, and Karamlish, prompting the residents to flee. More than 100,000 Iraqi Christians were forced to flee their homes and leave all their property behind after ISIL invaded Qaraqosh and surrounding towns in the Nineveh Plains Province of Iraq.

Libya (2015)

On February 12, 2015, the ISIL released a report in their online magazine Dabiq showing photos of 21 Egyptian Copts migrant workers that they had kidnapped in the city of Sirte, Libya, and whom they threatened to kill to "avenge the kidnapping of Muslim women by the Egyptian Coptic Church". The men, who came from different villages in Egypt, 13 of them from Al-Our, Minya Governorate, were kidnapped in Sirte in two separate attacks on December 27, 2014, and in January 2015.

Syria (2015)

On 23 February 2015, in response to a major Kurdish offensive in the Al-Hasakah Governorate, ISIL abducted 150 Assyrians from villages near Tell Tamer in northeastern Syria, after launching a large offensive in the region.

According to US diplomat Alberto M. Fernandez, of the 232 of the Assyrians kidnapped in the ISIL attack on the Assyrian Christian farming villages on the banks of the Khabur River in Northeast Syria, 51 were children and 84 were women. "Most of them remain in captivity, with one account claiming that ISIS is demanding $22 million (or roughly $100,000 per person) for their release."

On 8 October 2015, ISIL released a video showing three of the Assyrian men kidnapped in Khabur being murdered. It was reported that 202 of the 253 kidnapped Assyrians were still in captivity, each one with a demanded ransom of $100,000.

Egypt (2018)

On 2 November 2018, Islamic State gunmen killed at least seven Coptic Christian pilgrims in Egypt on Friday and wounded at least 16 in an attack. In April 2021, Islamic State gunmen executed a Christian businessman who was kidnapped in Egypt's Sinai.

Reactions

On 2 and 3 August 2014, thousands of Assyrians of the diaspora protested the persecution of their fellow Assyrians within Iraq and Syria, demanding a United Nations-led creation of a safe haven for minorities in the Nineveh Plains.

In October 2014, Kurdish-Danish human rights activist Widad Akrawi dedicated her 2014 International Pfeffer Peace Award "to all victims of persecution, particularly the Yazidis, the Christians, and all residents of the Kobanê region."

The same month, David Greene, a radio journalist at NPR, stated that around 1,000 Christians had been killed "in areas where Islamic State fighters are targeting religious minorities", without specifying a source.

Recognition as genocide

Chaldean Catholic priest Douglas Al-Bazi, who was tortured by the Islamic State, has urged the US to recognise the killings as genocide.

On February 3, 2016, European Parliament unanimously voted to recognize the persecution of religious minorities, including Christians, by the Islamic State as genocide. Lars Adaktusson, a Swedish member of the European Parliament, said of the vote: "It gives the victims of the atrocities a chance to get their human dignity restored. It's also a historical confirmation that the European Parliament recognized what is going on and that they are suffering from the most despicable crime in the world, namely genocide."

The United States House of Representatives followed suit on March 15, 2016, declaring that these atrocities against minorities were genocide. Already in December 2015, at a town hall event, the 67th United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, called the systematic persecution a genocide.

On April 20, 2016, the British Parliament unanimously voted to denounce the actions against minorities as genocide.

See also

• Armenian genocide
• Boxer Rebellion
  • §Massacre of Chinese Christians and missionaries
• Assyrian genocide
• Christianity and Islam
• Christianity in the Middle East
• Collaboration with the Islamic State
• Genocide of Yazidis by the Islamic State
• Iraqi Turkmen genocide
• Great Famine of Mount Lebanon
• Greek genocide
• Human rights in Islamic State-controlled territory
• Hindu terrorism
  • Hindutva
  • Violence against Christians in India
• Late Ottoman genocides
• Persecution of Shias by the Islamic State
• Syrian Civil War spillover in Iraq
• Persecution of Copts

References

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al-Qurashi Abu Hudhayfah Al-Ansari Abdul Qadir Mumin Abu Fatima al-Jaheishi Abu Yusaf Abu al-Baraa el-Azdi Abu Habib al-Libi Abu Jandal al-Masri Zulfi Hoxha Bajro Ikanović Faysal Ahmad Ali al-Zahrani Fatiha Mejjati Ahlam al-Nasr Issam Abuanza Musa Baluku  † Former Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi Abu Ahmad al-Alwani Haji Bakr Abu Usamah al-Maghrebi Abu Abdulrahman al-Bilawi Abu Muhannad al-Suwaydawi Abdul Rauf Aliza Abu Sayyaf Ali Awni al-Harzi Tariq al-Harzi Abu Khattab al-Tunisi Maher Meshaal Abu Muslim al-Turkmani Abu Saleh Mohammed Emwazi Abu Nabil al-Anbari Abu Ali al-Anbari Abu Waheeb Ali Aswad al-Jiburi Abu Omar al-Shishani El-Hassen Ould Khalill Jouleibib Abu Mohammad al-Adnani Abu Hamza Al-Qurashi Abu Muhammad al-Furqan Abu Jandal al-Kuwaiti Abu Bilal al-Harbi Ahmad Abousamra Turki al-Binali Tareq Kamleh Lavdrim Muhaxheri Abu Osama al-Masri Abul-Hasan al-Muhajir Abu Muhammad al-Shimali Gulmurod Khalimov Abdul Nasser Qardash (captured) Abu Yasser al-Issawi Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi Abu Hamza Al-Qurashi Yusuf al-Hindi Abu Omar al-Muhajir (captured) Othman al-Nazih Jamal Udeen Al-Harith Aine Davis (captured) Alexanda Kotey (captured) El Shafee Elsheikh (captured) Denis Cuspert Abdelhamid Abaaoud Boubaker El Hakim History Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (1999–2004) Al-Qaeda in Iraq (2004–2006) Mujahideen Shura Council (2006) Islamic State of Iraq (2006–2013) Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (2013–2014) Islamic State (2014–present) Timeline of events 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Groups International branches Khorasan Province (Afghanistan and Pakistan) Libyan Provinces (Libya) Caucasus Province (North Caucasus, Russia) Sinai Province (Sinai, Egypt) Algeria Province (Algeria) Yemen Province (Yemen) Abnaa ul-Khilafah (Somalia and Somaliland) Bengal Province (Bangladesh) Boko Haram (Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Mali) 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Baghdad bombings Kabul school bombing Kabul airport Kunduz bombing Kandahar bombing Kampala bombings Kabul hospital 2022 Diyala massacre Peshawar mosque Hadera shooting Mazar-i-Sharif mosque bombing Mazar-i-Sharif minivan bombings Bourasso and Namissiguima Kuje prison break 5 August Kabul bombing August Kabul mosque bombing Bombing of the Russian embassy in Kabul Shah Cheragh Kabul hotel 2023 Kabul airport bombing Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan bombing Al-Sukhnah Hama Khar bombing Arras school stabbing Pul-i-Khumri bombing Brussels shooting Kabul bombing (Nov) Paris Mindanao State University bombing 2024 Kerman bombings Istanbul church shooting Balochistan bombings Sibi bombing Mucojo attack Karabulak clash Kandahar New Kabul Bank bombing Tillabéri attack Crocus City Hall attack 2024 Guzara Attack 2024 Bamyan shooting 2024 Beirut US embassy shooting Rostov-on-Don pre-trial detention center hostage crisis 2024 Dagestan attacks 2024 attack on the Israeli embassy in Belgrade 2024 Muscat mosque shooting 2024 Kabul bus bombing Surovikino penal colony hostage crisis 2024 Solingen stabbing 2024 Qala Bakhtiar bombing 2024 Afghanistan bus shooting Politics and organization Finances Ideology Medicare Military Armoured warfare Human rights Genocide of Christians Persecution of Shias Genocide of Yazidis Genocide of Turkmen Persecution of gay and bisexual men Killing of captives Beheading incidents Destruction of cultural heritage Occupation of Mosul Executions in Mosul Relations Iran and the Islamic State Philippines and the Islamic State United Kingdom and the Islamic State Trinidad and Tobago and the Islamic State Foreign fighters Name changes due to the Islamic State Portrayal of the Islamic State in American media Connection with Saddam Regime and Baath Party Society Members Terrorist cell in Brussels Territorial claims al-Barakah district Collaboration Media A Second Message to America Al-Bayan Al-Furat Media Center Al-Hayat Media Center Al-Naba Amaq News Agency Dar al-Islam Dabiq Dawlat al-Islam Qamat Huroof I'lam foundation Istok Konstantiniyye Rumiyah Al-Fatihin Salil al-Sawarim Related topics Defeating ISIS ISIS-chan Islamism Millenarianism Sexual violence in the Iraqi insurgency Shia–Sunni relations Slavery in 21st-century jihadism Theocracy v t e Persecution of Christians Anti-Christian sentiment Historical Early Christianity New Testament Roman Empire Great Fire of Rome Persecution in Lyon Decian persecution Diocletianic Persecution Middle Ages Homs revolts (854–855) Martyrs of Córdoba Bashmurian revolts Destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre Kisrawan campaigns (1292–1305) Early modern French Revolution Revolt in the Vendée Martyrs of Japan Kakure Kirishitan Captivity of Mangalorean Catholics at Seringapatam Modern Constantinople massacre of 1821 1843 and 1846 massacres in Hakkari 1850 Aleppo 1860 Lebanon conflict Tianjin Massacre Kucheng massacre Tự Đức's Catholic persecution Hamidian massacres Diyarbekir Candia massacre Boxer Rebellion Adana massacre Great Famine of Mount Lebanon Armenian genocide Assyrian genocide Greek genocide İzmit massacres Cristero War Shusha massacre Red Terror (Spain) Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia Istanbul pogrom Black Thursday Chouf massacres Damour massacre Mountain War (Lebanon) Beer Hall Putsch Eastern Bloc Persecution of Christians in the post–Cold War era Sumgait pogrom Maluku sectarian conflict Nag Hammadi massacre Kosheh massacres Boko Haram insurgency Maspero demonstrations 1998 attacks on Christians in southeastern Gujarat 1998 attacks on Christians in Dangs district 1998 Ramgiri-Udaygiri violence 1999 Ranalai violence 2007 Christmas violence in Kandhamal 2008 Kandhamal violence 2008 Kandhamal nun gang rape case 2008 attacks on Christians in southern Karnataka 2010 Manila hostage crisis Persecution by the Islamic State 2021 anti-Christian violence in Karnataka By persecutor Early Christianity Agrippa I Roman Empire Nero Domitian Septimius Severus Maximinus Thrax Decius Valerian Late Antiquity Diocletian Maximian Galerius Shapur II Athanaric Middle Ages Al-Mutawakkil Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah Hulagu Khan Timur Early modern Toyotomi Hideyoshi Tokugawa Ieyasu Kangxi Tipu Sultan Minh Mạng Tự Đức Queen Jeongsun Modern Ranavalona I Mwanga II of Buganda Plutarco Elías Calles Tomás Garrido Canabal Bai Chongxi Enver Hoxha Three Pashas Vladimir Lenin Joseph Stalin Adolf Hitler Mao Zedong Pol Pot Kim Il-sung Abubakar Shekau Xi Jinping Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi By country Afghanistan Algeria Azerbaijan Burma Cambodia China Egypt France German Empire Nazi Germany India Indonesia Iran Iraq Japan Laos Lebanon Madagascar Malaysia Mexico Nigeria North Korea Ottoman Empire Pakistan Saudi Arabia Somalia Soviet Union Spain Sudan Thailand Turkey Vietnam Yemen By persecuted group Anabaptists Catholics Eastern Orthodox Mormons Violence against Mormons Oriental Orthodox Armenians Copts Protestants Martyrs (list) Massacre of the Innocents Saint Stephen Carthusian Martyrs Chinese Martyrs Saint Martyrs of Jasenovac Drina Martyrs Forty Martyrs of England and Wales Korean Martyrs Martyrs of Japan Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War New Martyrs North American Martyrs Saints of the Cristero War Uganda Martyrs Vietnamese Martyrs 233 Spanish Martyrs 498 Spanish Martyrs 522 Spanish Martyrs Martyrs of Turon Martyrs of Daimiel Eastern Catholics in the USSR 21 Martyrs of Libya Secular martyrs Martyred Palestinian Christians Shireen Abu Akleh Nahida and Samar Anton Category Commons Portal v t e Religious persecution and discrimination By group Atheism Exclusivism Baháʼí Faith Buddhism Christianity Persecution Catholicism Eastern Orthodoxy Jehovah's Witnesses LDS or Mormon Protestantism Tewahedo Orthodoxy post–Cold War era Falun Gong Hinduism Persecution Untouchability Islam Persecution Ahmadiyya Shi'ism Sufism Sunnism minority Muslim Judaism Persecution Neopaganism Rastafari Sikhism Yazidism Zoroastrianism Methods Censorship Blood libel Communal violence Cultural genocide Deprogramming Desecration Domicide Discrimination Ethnic cleansing Ethnic conflict Extrajudicial killing Extrajudicial punishment Exclusivism Forced conversion Forced displacement Hate crime Iconoclasm Intolerance Pogrom Political violence Population cleansing Population transfer Sectarian violence Social cleansing Segregation State atheism State religion Terrorism Violence War Events Persecution of Canaanite Pagans (1210 BC-1200 BC) Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire (64–313) Persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire (c. 324–c. 491) Decline of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent (c.550–c. 1200) Yellow Turban Rebellion (c.184–c. 205) Battle of Tours (732) Rhineland massacres (1096) Jerusalem massacre (1099) Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent (643–1526) Inquisition (1184–1908) Massacre at Ayyadieh (1191) Northern Crusades (12th–16th cent.) Crusades against Christians (13th–15th cent.) Forced conversions of Muslims in Spain (1500–1526) European wars of religion (1522–1712) Ottoman–Habsburg wars (1526–1791) Goa Inquisition (1561–1812) French Wars of Religion (1562–1598) Expulsion of the Moriscos (1609–1614) Test Acts (1673–1829) Persecution of Muslims during the Ottoman contraction (1683–1922) Christianization of the Sámi people (1700s) French Revolutionary dechristianisation (1789–1801) Utah War (1857–1858) 1860 Mount Lebanon civil war (1860) Circassian genocide (1864) Dungan Revolt (1862–1877) Adana massacre (1909) Massacres of Albanians in the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) Greek genocide (1913–1922) Pontic Greek genocide Assyrian genocide (1914–1924) Armenian genocide (1915–1923) Persecution of Christians in the Eastern Bloc (1917–1990) Soviet persecution (1922–1991) 1917–1921 1921–1928 1928–1941 1958–1964 1970–1987 legislation Šahovići massacre (1924) White Terror (Spain) (1936–1975) Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses (1933) The Holocaust (1939–1945) Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia (1941–1945) Communist Polish persecution (1945–1989) Communist Romanian persecution (1945–1989) Noakhali riots (1946) Direct Action Day (1946) 1946 Bihar riots (1946) Rawalpindi massacres (1947) Persecution of Hindus in Pakistan (1947–ongoing) Violence against Muslims in India (1947–ongoing) Violence against Hindus in independent India (1947–ongoing) 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight (1948) Jewish exodus from the Muslim world (1948–1980) Antireligious campaigns in China (1949–ongoing) Persecution of Tibetans (1950–ongoing) Exodus of Turks from Bulgaria (1950) Religious violence in Nigeria (1953–ongoing) Istanbul pogrom (1955) Buddhist crisis (1963) Huế Phật Đản shootings (1963) Thích Quảng Đức (1963) Xá Lợi Pagoda raids (1963) Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) Four Olds (1966) Famen Temple (1966) Bangladesh genocide (1971) Persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh (1971–ongoing) Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990) Cambodian genocide (1975–1979) 1984 anti-Sikh riots (1984) Revival Process (1984–1989) Big Excursion (1989) Exodus of Kashmiri Hindus (1990) Yugoslav Wars (1991–2001) Ethnic cleansing in the Bosnian War (1992–1996) Bosnian genocide (1995) War crimes in the Kosovo War (1999) Walisongo school massacre (2000) Kosheh massacres (2000) September 11 attacks (2001) 2002 Gujarat riots (2002) South Thailand insurgency (2004–ongoing) Boko Haram insurgency (2009–ongoing) Maspero demonstrations (2011) Attacks by Islamic extremists in Bangladesh (2013–2016) Yazidi genocide (2014–2017) Genocide of Christians by ISIL (2014–ongoing) Iraqi Turkmen genocide (2014–2017) Persecution of Uyghurs in China (2014–ongoing) Rohingya genocide (2016–ongoing) Christchurch mosque shootings (2019) 2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings (2019) 2020 Delhi riots (2020) 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel (2023) 2024 Istanbul church shooting Crocus City Hall attack (2024) Religion

• Current events
• Christianity
• Iraq
• Asia
• Libya
• Egypt

• Persecution of Christians by ISIL
• 2010s in Asia
• 21st-century Eastern Orthodoxy
• 21st-century Oriental Orthodoxy
• Persecution of Christians
• Christianity in Iraq
• History of Christianity in Syria
• History of Christianity in Egypt
• Christianity in Libya
• Ethnic cleansing by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
• Forced migration
• Islam-related controversies
• Persecution of Assyrians by ISIL
• Persecution of Copts by ISIL
• Terrorism in Iraq
• Terrorism in Syria
• Terrorism in Libya
• Terrorism in the Middle East
• People killed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
• Violence against Christians
• Massacres of Christians
• 21st-century mass murder in Africa
• 21st-century mass murder in Asia
• Racism in Iraq
• Racism in Syria