Two daughters of a Christian couple in Sweden were seized by the state after their older daughter made a false report at school over her parents’ refusal to give her a phone and allow makeup, prompting allegations of “religious extremism,” even though she promptly retracted.
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The young Sufi Muslim’s ‘blasphemous’ WhatsApp message sparks an international outcry
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In August 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) — an extremist Sunni group — launched a violent campaign across northern Iraq. Their target: Qaraqosh, an ancient Christian city located in the Nineveh Plains.
What followed became one of the most devastating assaults on religious minorities in modern Iraqi history. Now, eleven years later, the story of Iraq’s largest Christian community is far from over, and far from hopeless.
At ADF International, we’re standing alongside Iraq’s Christians, advocating for their right to worship freely and raising global awareness of their struggle.
Christianity is not foreign to Iraq — it’s foundational. Long before ISIS and Islam, Christianity had already taken root in Iraq. In fact, Christianity has existed in Iraq since the first century AD, long before it reached many parts of Europe.
This makes Iraq home to some of the oldest Christian communities in the world.
The Assyrian Church of the East, the Chaldean Catholic Church, and the Syriac Orthodox Church all trace their lineage to Iraq. These churches preserve early liturgical traditions and still conduct services in Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic — the language spoken by Jesus.
Many Iraqi Christians today are ethnic Assyrians, descendants of the ancient Assyrian Empire, which once ruled over much of the Middle East. Christianity became embedded in Assyrian identity after their conversion in the first few centuries AD, blending ancient cultural heritage with deep Christian faith.
Just south of the Nineveh Plains lies the region of southern Mesopotamia, where the ancient city of Ur — the birthplace of Abraham, the patriarch through whom God’s redemptive promises and Jesus flow — is located.
This land is steeped in sacred history. But history alone has not guaranteed safety for Iraq’s Christians.
In the 2014 attack, ISIS aimed to establish a caliphate in northern Iraq, one free of Christians, Yazidis, and other minorities. Qaraqosh, the largest Christian city in Iraq, was one of its primary targets.
The violence extended far beyond Qaraqosh. Sinjar, the heartland of the Yazidi people, and Mosul, once a city of rich religious diversity, were left shattered under the same campaign of destruction.
Entire villages were emptied. Ancient Christian manuscripts and artifacts were destroyed or sold on the black market. Communities that had existed for nearly 2,000 years were uprooted in a matter of days.
The assault was systematic:
Christians and Yazidis were given four choices: convert to Islam, pay the jizya — a humiliating religious tax imposed on non-Muslims under extremist rule — flee, or die. Nearly 80,000 Christians fled their homes in a desperate exodus.
Women and girls, especially from Yazidi and Christian communities, suffered some of the worst atrocities. ISIS ran an organized network of slave markets where girls, some as young as nine, were bought, sold, and passed between fighters.
Over 6,800 Yazidi women and children were abducted, according to UN reports, and an unknown number of Christian girls were subjected to similar fates. Many have never been found.
In the chaos, tens of thousands sought refuge in the Kurdistan Region, where the regional government, while limited in resources, opened its borders. Most found shelter in refugee camps, unfinished buildings, or makeshift settlements. For many, those “temporary” shelters have now become permanent.
Before ISIS’s brutal campaign, an estimated 350,000 Christians lived in Iraq. Today, that number has dwindled significantly.
As of 2024, it’s estimated that less than half of the original Christians who fled the Plains have returned. Security concerns, economic hardship, and limited infrastructure continue to hinder full resettlement.
Many Iraqi Christians remain uncertain about their ability to live openly and safely as Christians in their own homeland.
To defend themselves, locals formed the Nineveh Plains Protection Unit (NPU), a militia dedicated to defending their communities. By 2017, a coalition of Iraqi forces, Kurdish Peshmerga, local militias, and US-led air support liberated the region.
While ISIS may no longer control the region, Christians in Iraq continue to face:
These ongoing struggles reveal a deeper truth: Iraq’s legal system, still fragile after decades of conflict, has yet to prove it will uphold the rights of Iraqi Christians.
In 2021, Pope Francis visited Iraq, including Qaraqosh, bringing global attention to the plight of Iraqi Christians. His message was clear: Iraqi Christians are not forgotten.
Earlier this year, Sean Nelson, ADF International’s Legal Counsel for Global Religious Freedom, visited Qaraqosh and the surrounding areas.
Amidst ruined buildings and ongoing hardships, Sean met determined individuals working to rebuild homes, reopen churches, and restore dignity to daily life.
“What I saw in Qaraqosh was Christians deeply committed to rebuilding their lives and their communities after the horror of ISIS. Many churches had been renovated and restored, and one church that was over 1000 years old, but had been left in ruins for a century, had been completely rebuilt after ISIS. Crosses were proudly displayed. And the communities were committed to never forgetting what ISIS had done. Each church still had memorials and sections showing the devastation.
“Still, these communities have seen their populations cut in half since before ISIS. Religious leaders mentioned illegal and dubious encroachments on land, and a lack of political representation and economic development. They were unanimously concerned that the Iranian-backed militias surrounding them were preventing them from being fully included as members of Iraqi society.
“I saw children playing outside one church whose families had secretly converted to Christianity. They could not visit Christian services openly out of fear of violent reprisals. The religious leaders worried that if things did not change, so many people would leave and never return. They saw sustained international pressure as one of their only hopes for most Christians to be able to remain.
“In nearby Erbil, within the autonomous Kurdistan region, where many Christians fled during the ISIS attacks, Christians are able to live relatively free lives, and the local government respects them more and celebrates the religious diversity and history of the area. They still face some hardships —particularly converts from Islam, who face violent threats — but in general, there was a more inclusive vision for Christians. That same kind of inclusion should be available to Christians in the Nineveh Plains and throughout Iraq.”
Though the situation in Iraq is slowly changing, the threat to Christian communities remains a pressing concern in Iraq and beyond.
Although ISIS has waned as a threat in Iraq, its influence is spreading across the Middle East and Africa. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a Washington, DC-based counterterrorism research group, warns of what it calls a “silent genocide” targeting Christians.
According to MEMRI, the Islamic State Mozambique Province (ISMP) recently published 20 images celebrating four separate strikes on Christian villages in the Chiure district of Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province.
The photographs depict ISIS fighters storming villages, setting fire to a church, and destroying homes. The photographs also include scenes of the beheading of a person described by the extremists as belonging to “infidel militias,” along with two Christian civilians. Additional photographs, MEMRI’s review noted, show the bodies of several people identified by the group as members of these so-called militias.
In recent weeks, Islamic State affiliates have also claimed responsibility for killing dozens of Christians during a Catholic vigil in Komanda, DRC, and for bombing the Mar Elias Church in Damascus, Syria, which killed 20 plus Christians and injured 60.
World leaders and international institutions must urgently unite behind a clear and effective strategy to dismantle the Islamic State network before more lives are lost.
Freedom of belief and religion is a fundamental human right. We at ADF International remain committed to defending this right for Christians around the world. We are standing with them, advocating for them, and praying for a future where they can thrive in the land their ancestors have called home for centuries.
We will continue to:
Every day that goes by without bold action puts more lives in danger. We must act now — and we are.
This report provides an overview of the situation of freedom of religion or belief in Lebanon, with a particular focus on the treatment of Christians and other religious minorities, ex-Muslim converts, and refugees. It further argues that the country’s anti-blasphemy and defamation of religion legislation is incompatible with its obligations under international human rights law.
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This report outlines how efforts to implement comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) based on purported ‘United Nations standards’ conflict with Austria’s international human rights obligations, particularly with regard to the rights of the child and parental rights.
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This report outlines how efforts to implement comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) based on purported ‘United Nations standards’ conflict with Austria’s international human rights obligations, particularly with regard to the rights of the child and parental rights.
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This report highlights the incompatibility of the 2021 Online Safety Act, as well as the actions of the eSafety Commissioner, with Australia’s obligations regarding the right to freedom of expression under international law. It further examines the urgent need for Australia to comply with its obligations regarding the rights of the child and parental rights and calls for effective measures to safeguard children from experimental and life-altering medical procedures that are documented to have irreversible negative impacts on their health and well-being.
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In the span of just five days, the British Parliament took two deeply troubling steps that threaten serious consequences for the legal protection of human life.
On Tuesday, 17 June, Members of Parliament (MPs) voted 379 to 137 to decriminalise abortion — removing all criminal penalties for women who end their pregnancies at any stage. This decision eliminates essential legal protections for both mothers and babies, including for dangerous at-home abortions that take the lives of fully viable babies up to birth.
Just three days later, on Friday, 20 June, MPs also voted to move forward with a bill that would legalise assisted suicide for terminally ill patients, empowering doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to those deemed to have less than six months to live.
Together, these decisions send a deeply unsettling message: that life is only worth protecting when it is considered supposedly healthy, wanted, or useful.
The vote to decriminalise abortion took place with only two hours of debate — despite the sweeping implications of the proposal.
While current UK law already allows abortion beyond 24 weeks in a range of broadly defined circumstances, this amendment removed critical legal protections for viable babies in the womb and for women in difficult situations.
Supporters presented the move as an act of compassion toward women, but in reality, only 1% of British women support abortion until birth.
What the law now permits is not just rare: it is extreme. It removes protections that help prevent dangerous, self-managed, late-term abortions and leaves women to face serious risks alone, often in desperation.
This is not compassion. It is abandonment.
The bill to legalise assisted suicide follows the same deeply flawed logic. If passed, it will enshrine into law the false logic that ending a life can be an acceptable form of care. While its advocates insist it will be accompanied by “safeguards,” evidence from other countries tells a different story.
Take Canada, for example. Less than ten years after assisted suicide became legal, it now accounts for 4% of all deaths nationwide — a figure that continues to climb. Vulnerable people, especially those who are elderly or disabled, report feeling pressured toward death when what they truly need is support, dignity, and community.
Once a healthcare system begins to treat death as a solution, it becomes the cheaper, easier, and ultimately, default response.
Both the abortion amendment and the assisted suicide bill were framed as measures that expand personal freedom. But in truth, they represent a profound abandonment — wrapped in the language of choice.
When the law permits abortion at 35 weeks, or offers lethal drugs in place of palliative care, it tells society that life is no longer sacred. Instead, the right to life is treated as negotiable — granted only to those society deems worthy.
But this is not the only way forward.
There is another Britain — one that values every human life, from the youngest child in the womb to the most fragile person nearing life’s end. It is a Britain shaped by the truth that every person bears God’s image and possesses inherent dignity.
Both measures now go to the House of Lords. While the abortion amendment cannot be fully blocked, it can still be challenged and delayed. The assisted suicide bill, meanwhile, faces opposition from many peers who have pledged to resist its advance.
The Lords must give these bills the scrutiny they lacked in the Commons — and ask the hard questions others ignored.
This is a moment that calls for moral clarity. For people of faith to respond — not only in Parliament, but in practice. By supporting mothers in crisis. By walking with the dying. By upholding the dignity of the disabled. And by telling a different story: that every life is a gift, and that no one is beyond the reach of love.
Britain is facing a crossroads. And now, more than ever, we must have the courage to say no to death — and yes to life, in every stage, and every circumstance.
Imagine a Europe where quoting the Bible lands you in court. Where praying silently or offering consensual conversation on a public streetside lands you with a criminal charge and hefty fines.
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In this powerful episode of Culture Conversations, Prof. Dr. Christiaan Alting von Geusau joins Paul Coleman (Executive Director, ADF International) to explore conscience as a deeply personal—and profoundly legal—moral compass.
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