Pope Francis Condemns Forcible Displacement of Christians from Middle East by ISIL Terrorists

ARBIL, Iraq- Pope Francis has held the terrorist organization called the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) responsible for the forcible displacement of Christians from the Middle East.

According to AFP, the Pope said Christians are being “driven from the Middle East” in a message to Iraqi Christians forced to flee by ISIL terrorists.

In a transcript of a video address broadcast later Saturday, during a visit by French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin to the Iraqi city of Arbil, the Pontiff said “Christians are being driven from the Middle East in suffering,”

Thousands of Christians have taken refuge in Arbil after extremist groups in June overran Mosul, Iraq’s second city, and forced hundreds of thousands of Christians and members of the Yazidi community to flee their homes.

“Due to an extremist fundamentalist group, entire communities, especially, but not only, Christians and Yazidis, suffered, and are still suffering, inhuman violence because of their ethnic religious identity,” the Pope said Saturday.

“Christians and Yazidis, who were forcibly removed from their homes, have had to give up everything to save their lives and not deny the faith.

“The violence has also affected sacred buildings, monuments, religious symbols and cultural heritage, as if to erase every trace, every memory of the other. It seems as if these people do not want us to be Christians,” the pontiff said.

On Thursday, Al-Azhar, Islam’s most prestigious centre of learning, urged Christians in the Arab world to “stay rooted in their homelands” in the face of terrorist groups’ violence and not flee into exile.

“We condemn the forced exile of Christians and other religious or ethnic groups,” it said.

H. Mustafa