Only a few days since news reached us from friends in Iraq that two Christians had been killed by ISIS escapees, we got more bad news. Seven believers in the ancient heartland of the Middle Eastern church have now been murdered by former ISIS terrorists. The initial explanation was that thousands of terrorists escaped the prison camps, guarded by the Kurds, when the Syrian army attacked the Kurds and failed to secure the prisons in the chaos of conflict.
However, that seems to have been a mild reading of the situation. Our friends now say the terrorists did not just escape, but many were set free by the Syrian army, under the condition that they would leave the country. Scores have now gone back to their former stronghold in Iraq, determined to seek revenge for the years they languished in prison camps.
Also worrying is that many have made their way into Turkey, especially those who had joined ISIS from Europe. They often have EU or UK citizenship and want to return to Europe. No one can really stop that from happening now that they are on the loose. That means Europe can expect that within a short time these people will be knocking at their doors, or sneak in through the back door.
Some may just want to live a more comfortable life than the life they had in the prison camps, while many are likely to still hold to the same radicalised ideology. But with their background of extreme violence and years in prison, the chances that they will smoothly integrate and become useful members of society are pretty low. And even if they would, Europe is full of people who have been victimized by them and who sought asylum, like Yezidi women who were sold as sex slaves. The prospect of them running into the people who tortured, raped and enslaved them, and murdered their relatives, is very concerning.
But the biggest threat right now is for those Christians, and Jews, who are still in Iraq or have returned to rebuild their communities. Because of the killings of these seven believers, there are now negotiations between the Christian communities and the Kurdish militias in Northern Iraq. The Christian communities may have a few men with guns posting at their schools and churches to keep suicide bombers from coming in, but they do not have the arms or the military experience to protect their villages from these violent attacks by large numbers of experienced Jihadists. They are hopeful the Iraqi Kurdish militias will agree to protect their villages.
The situation of the Christians in Iraq is once again precarious. We can certainly pray the Iraqi Kurds will agree to protect them, but it does not solve the problem of the violent ideology of ISIS, which is again destabilizing the Middle East. So, lets pray that God will put his angels around his children, and that the spiritual stonghold of Jihadism may be crushed by the power of Jesus. He can turn those who now murder Christians into evangelists.
