Islamic State Preys On All Religions, but Groups Not of ‘the Book’ Brutalized

While the Islamic State has committed horrific acts, including beheadings, against Christians and Muslims, analysts say other minority religions that don’t believe in the Bible may face even worse treatment under the terrorists’ rule.

Christians in Mosul, Iraq, last year were given the choice to pay a tax for their religion, leave the city, or be put to death. All chose to flee the city where a Christian community has lived for thousands of years.

But groups who are not so-called “people of the Book,” like the Yazidis, wouldn’t be given that choice, said Jim Phillips, a senior research fellow for Middle Eastern affairs at the Heritage Foundation.

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Persecution of religious minorities in the region is nothing new. Conditions around Iraq for years have been “extraordinarily grave” for Christians, who were frequently the target of terrorist attacks by al Qaeda in Iraq, according to Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Despite that, he said the “level of fear is greater now” for religious groups under Islamic State rule than it was under al Qaeda.

“The mass exodus of Christians that we saw in Mosul — you didn’t see a similar mass exodus under the predecessor of the Islamic State, al Qaeda in Iraq, which also conquered Mosul,” Mr. Gartenstein-Ross said. “In no way can they argue they treated Christians well, but under the Islamic State, the number of Christians got reduced to approximately zero, they fled en masse.”

Mr. Gartenstein-Ross said that the destruction of the relics and societies is a loss that all people should care about.

“You have centuries of old Christian churches that are part of the world’s cherished heritage, some of these places overrun by Islamic State,” he said. “Seeing a community of religious minorities that was once an important part of Iraqi society wiped out of this area that as their home is something that should disturb anybody.”

“The Christians, the Yazidis — they were literally just there living their lives, then a militant group sweeps in and targets them because they believe something different,” he said.

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