7 Christian villages are now occupied by ISIS. The Kurdish army couldn’t hold them. These cities include: Bakhdida, Bartella, Karamles, Alqosh, Tel Skuf, Baqofah, Sharafiya, Batnaya.
Iraq (MNN) — It’s being called genocide. Holocaust-type atrocities are forcing Christians and other minorities to leave parts of Iraq, or die.
New to this story? “Systematic beheading of children,” according to one leader in the region. Other horrendous crimes are being attributed to ISIS. According to reports, religicide by Sunni extremists is aimed at making Sharia the law of the land.
A recent CNN report indicated that ISIS has actually put the heads of children on sticks in a park in Mosul. Children are being killed, mothers are being raped and killed, and fathers are being hanged.
Patrick Klein with Vision Beyond Borders says one family found an envelope with a bullet in it and a note which said, “Convert to Islam, leave, or die.”
President Obama making remarks to the nation about U.S. involvement in Iraq in response to ISIS and the humanitarian crisis there. (White House photo)
Last night, United States President Barak Obama announced to the nation and the world that the U.S. will make strategic airstrikes as needed to protect American citizens and interests in Iraq, while providing humanitarian aid to the thousands who have been forced from their homes across Iraq by ISIS.
ISIS, which has rebranded itself as simply Islamic State, has taken over more Iraqi cities and is attacking moderate Muslims and Kurds in the north.
“A lot of them are going north and trying to find other places to flee out of the country,” says Klein. “We’ve even heard stories that Muslims are killing other Muslims if they don’t believe in the same form of radical Islam.”
An unintended consequence of this violence, says Klein: “People are coming to Christ. People are saying, ‘Islam can’t be the truth, this religion that kills people who have done nothing wrong or don’t believe the way they do.’ They see the light of Jesus Christ and they say, ‘We want what you have.'”
While prayer is important, so is funding for Bible. For “those who come to faith in Jesus Christ, we’ve got to get them Bibles and encourage them in the faith because they are ones who will be evangelizing.”
$3 will provide a Bible for a believer.
Klein says, “We just bought 3,000 Bibles for Iraq. We want to buy some Children’s Bibles. [The Bibles] are going to former Muslims who have come to faith. They wanted Bibles and couldn’t afford them.”
If you’d like to contribute to their Bible campaign, click here.
