From Monday evening through Tuesday, extremists launched several attacks on Iraqi Christians in the northern, mostly Sunni Arab city of Mosul (pop. 2 million), killing four.

It should be remembered that attacking Christians is a political tactic of the militants. Otherwise, the Christians were there because they had been tolerated by Muslims, and Iraqi Muslims for the most part have condemned the sectarian violence. Indeed, Turkey and Jordan, among the places to which Iraqi Christians have fled, are Muslim-majority societies. Depicting the conflict as simply a Muslim-Christian one is far too simplistic.

On October 31, a major attack by extremists on Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad left over 50 dead. In the past two weeks, “al-Qaeda in Iraq” has announced that Christians are a legitimate target not only in iraq but throughout the Middle East. Attacks and bombings and especially threatening letters and posters have impelled a new exodus.

It is alarming that both Shiite and Sunni extremists have apparently taken up the call to force the Christians out. These techniques are exactly the ones that Shiite militants used to ethnically cleanse Baghdad of most of its Sunnis in 2006-2007. If such techniques could chase hundreds of thousands of Sunnis out of the capital, they hold the potential of forcing all Christians out of Iraq.   »»» Informed Comment (U.S.)

Until the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Christians had lived peacefully among the majority Muslim population for hundreds of years. What is happening now may be the work of extremist Muslims but it is certainly not allowed by Islamic law.

People of the Book (Christians and Jews) who live in a Muslim country are guaranteed the protection of their lives, property and honour, exactly like Muslims. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) has made this abundantly clear:

“One who hurts a protected person [Christian or Jew] hurts me, and one who hurts me is an affront to Allah. If a protected person is hurt, I shall that he receive justice on the Day of Resurrection.”

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