Collateral Damage

THE U.S. AND other nations are increasingly aware that the so-called Islamic State is a serious, long-term threat to Middle East stability. And it has become clear that there are few good options for addressing the situation without the willingness and ability of the Iraqi government to promote inclusion and weed out corruption.

In the midst of all this, the plight of Iraqi Christians has taken center stage. Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, more than two-thirds of the Iraqi Christian community has left the country, with many fleeing as a result of violence and religious persecution.

This exodus has only increased as the reach of the Islamic State, or ISIS, has expanded and its reputation for brutality become widely known. The militant group has publicly beheaded hostages for propaganda purposes, committed mass killings, and given Christians the ultimatum: Convert to Islam, pay a fine, or face death if they remain faithful to their beliefs.

Followers of Christ have existed in the area now called Iraq since the earliest days of Christianity. Now there is a serious debate as to whether the faith has a viable future in this ancient of lands.

Writing in The Washington Post in September, Daniel Williams asserted that “Christianity in Iraq is finished.” He based this claim on conversations with Iraqi Christian refugees who had given up hope of living peacefully in their homeland after years of persecution and torment. The rise of ISIS was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back, but the fear and frustration have been building for more than a decade. According to Williams the only reasonable option is to facilitate the safe removal of the remaining Christians from Iraq.

Martin Accad, an Arab Christian and professor at Arab Baptist Theological Seminary, recently offered a different perspective. He perceives the conflict as fundamentally between two types of people: 1) those from a variety of faith traditions who are motivated to seek human flourishing, guided by their beliefs to love their neighbor and to promote peace, and 2) religious extremists who are using violence to enforce their narrow ideology on others. Accad called for the global community to focus less on what is happening to Christians as a specific group and more on the general threat facing Christians, Muslims, and Jews united in their opposition to ISIS. He advocated that Western nations spend less money arming various groups in the region and instead invest in expanding educational opportunities, building robust governmental and civil institutions, and prioritizing community development. This is the long-term path that leads to a peaceful pluralism. Accad argued that religions that promote peace, and Christianity specifically, are “at the heart of the Middle East’s future.”

At this stage it is impossible to know whether Williams or Accad is more accurate in his analysis. But the plight of our sisters and brothers in the Iraqi church is something Christians throughout the rest of the world cannot ignore. Their terror and suffering are acute and should affect every believer who claims to be a disciple of Christ, for it is exactly because of their beliefs that they are enduring this turmoil, and when one part of the body of Christ suffers then every member shares in the pain (1 Corinthians 12:26).

The history of the Christian church would be drastically different, perhaps even unimaginable, without the life and witness of Christians who have grown and persevered in what is now Iraq. It is disconcerting, though not surprising, that decades of war and violence in Iraq would leave the destruction of that community as collateral damage.