Islamic State's Persecution Of Christians Is A 'Crime Against Humanity': Human Rights Lawyer [View all]

By Kirsten Powers

(RNS) Iraq’s Christians are begging the world for help. Is anybody listening?

Since capturing the country’s second largest city of Mosul in early June, the Islamic State, formerly known as ISIS, has ordered Christians to convert to Islam, pay taxes levied on non-Muslims, or die. The extremist Sunni group is also persecuting and murdering Turkmen and Shabaks, both Muslim religious minorities.

Human rights lawyer Nina Shea described the horror in Mosul to me: “(The Islamic State) took the Christians’ houses, took the cars they were driving to leave. They took all their money. One old woman had her life savings of $40,000, and she said, ‘Can I please have 100 dollars?’, and they said no. They took wedding rings off fingers, chopping off fingers if they couldn’t get the ring off.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/31/islamic-state-christian-persecution_n_5634967.html?utm_hp_ref=religion


Not my favorite aiuthor but worth reading.