CHRISTIANS IN BAGHDAD ZONE TOLD TO CONVERT TO ISLAM OR DIE
Filed Under NEWS OF INTEREST, RELIGIOUS, CHRISTIAN, POLITICAL
Christians in Baghdad Zone Told to Convert To Islam or Die
Iraqi Christians fled their homes in mid-April, after armed Sunni extremists threatened to kill them if they refused to convert to Islam within 24 hours. Six Christian families from the Mualimien neighborhood of Baghdad’s Dora District have relocated to a church elsewhere in the city, said a Baghdad source who requested that the families’ location and identity remain anonymous. Armed Sunnis told the families that an amir (independent Muslim prince or ruler) had issued a fatwa, or judgment based on Islamic law, against Dora’s Christians. “They called the Christians infidels and told them, ‘If you don’t convert to Islam or leave your homes in 24 hours, we will kill you,’” the source said after speaking with a member of the church helping the displaced Christians. A pastor who recently moved away from Dora to escape the daily violence said there were no injuries. He also confirmed reports that militants had removed the cross from the top of St. John the Baptist Chaldean Church in Dora.
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