Faithful followers of Jesus Christ are being driven from Iraq or killed. The forces of the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq has continued their seemingly unstoppable advance across the country Iraq and have laid siege to the city of Qaraqosh. The population of roughly 50,000 people, the biggest Christian town in Iraq, are now threatened with the demands the Sunni caliphate has made in other captured areas – leave, convert to Islam or face death.
The Islamic State has threatened Christians as part of the militants’ declared establishment of a caliphate across Iraq, Syria and the rest of the region. The Islamic State said in a statement on its Twitter account that its fighters had seized 17 towns and targets, the strategic Mosul dam on the Tigris River and a military base in an offensive that began at the weekend and would continue.
This offensive has intensified as the Islamic season of Ramadan ended last week. Islamic State fighters had hoisted the group’s black flag over the dam, which could allow the militants to flood major cities or cut off significant water supplies and electricity, and local residents told reporters that the Kurdish forces had been forced out of the area.
The Islamic State is vowing to continue “the march in all directions,” adding that it will not “give up the great Caliphate project.” They captured Qaraqosh overnight after Kurdish Peshmerga troops withdrew from the area.
The world and especially the United States appear to be abandoning the region, giving it to the renewed caliph. The French organization, Fraternite en Irak, said the commander of the Peshmerga in Qaraqosh told the town’s archbishop late on Wednesday that the Kurdish fighters would be leaving their posts, while they also retreated from nearby Christian towns including Tel Eskof and Qaramless.
The Middle East is going through a dramatic transformation as the Islamic State gains strength, yet it is being allowed to happen. There is no real opposition to the spirit of anti-Christ and militant Islam.
