Christian Today: Iraqi PM asks Christians to return following mass exodus
The 2003 invasion of Iraq by a US-led coalition may have toppled a dictator, but it also marked the beginning of an exodus of Christians from the country.
While the campaign against Saddam Hussein was over in short order, decades of conflict with militant groups, including the notorious ISIS, followed.
In that time the Christian population went from around 1.5 million, to less than a quarter of a million.
Now Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi is encouraging émigré Christians to return. Christians have reacted with scepticism to the plea, which came with promises of investment in health and education and land allocation projects.
A report by journalism organization Nirij suggested that such promises were unlikely to convince Christians to return to Iraq because they failed to address the root causes of why they fled the country to begin with, namely the failure of Iraqi governments to provide security and rule of law, and ongoing concerns about political marginalisation.
While the campaign against Saddam Hussein was over in short order, decades of conflict with militant groups, including the notorious ISIS, followed.
In that time the Christian population went from around 1.5 million, to less than a quarter of a million.
Now Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi is encouraging émigré Christians to return. Christians have reacted with scepticism to the plea, which came with promises of investment in health and education and land allocation projects.
A report by journalism organization Nirij suggested that such promises were unlikely to convince Christians to return to Iraq because they failed to address the root causes of why they fled the country to begin with, namely the failure of Iraqi governments to provide security and rule of law, and ongoing concerns about political marginalisation.
