URGENT: France to offer asylum to displaced Iraqi Christians
(IraqiNews.com) France announced on Monday its willingness to facilitate the reception of the displaced Iraqi Christians within the framework of the mechanism for asylum.
The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Laurent Fabius and the Minister of Interior Bernard Casanova said in a joint statement: “we want to help the displaced people fleeing from the danger of the organization of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant who had taken refuge in Kurdistan”, stressing that “We are ready to facilitate the reception on our territory in the framework of the mechanism for asylum if they wanted.”
Christian families in Mosul began an unprecedented mass exodus in the history of Iraq from their original cities after the expiry of the deadline set by the organization ISIL, to either join Islam, pay the Jizya tribute, flee or be put to death.
The governor of Erbil, Nawzad Hadi said that “the number of the displaced Christians in the Kurdistan region reached about one million people displaced as a result of the bad security situation and the fall of some cities.”
On July18, 2014, the Niveneh Council member, Zuhair al-Chalabi said that the leader of the organization of the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi gave Christians an ultimatum to leave the province, convert to Islam or be killed, while he directed his followers to loot the property and possessions of fleeing Christians.
On June 20, 2014, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Iraq revealed that the organization of ISIL imposed the Jizya tribute to Christian citizens in Mosul, in an attempt to pressure them to convert to Islam or expel them from the city, calling on the government and the international community to put an end to that.
ISIL has been rampaging through Iraq, destroying world-famous antiquities and holy sites of Shia Muslims, Sufi Muslims, Christians, Yazidis and any other group they oppose as reported extensively by IraqiNews.com:
- URGENT: ISIL destroys Mosque of Biblical Jonah, Prophet Yunus
- URGENT: ISIL loots and destroys Shia mosques near Kirkuk
- URGENT: ISIL destroys Mosul mosques, pillages contents
- URGENT: ISIL dug up grave of Prophet Younis (biblical Jonah) in Mosul
- “ISIL blows up Shia mosque in Muqdadiyah, Diyala
- Iraqi Christian church burnings confirmed by EU delegation
- ISIL orders destruction of all churches in Mosul
- 2000 years of Christian history in Iraq may end – Iraqi Chaldean Church