The Islamic State has warned Christians, possibly for the last time, saying "there is nothing to give them but the sword." Across Northern Iraq, Christians are huddled in refugee camps, trapped in the desert, or trapped in their homes, waiting for death.
A week ago, Christians were warned to either leave the city of Mosul and other areas under Islamic State control, or they would have to pay a tax or be put to death. Today, nobody has heard from those Christians and nobody knows what is happening to them.
Are they being quietly "put to the sword" as this militant strain of Islam asks they be?
The Human Rights Watch reported on July 14 that homes in Mosul were painted with red letters to indicate Christian homes. Other homes of Shiite Muslims were also adorned...
Christians who have escaped reported being deprived of all their belongings except their clothes. Jewelry, money, automobiles, even food and water were confiscated on the edge of town as Christians were forced to pass through Islamic State checkpoints.
Decades ago, the world watched as the Jews, and many others, including a large number of Catholics, were rounded up, persecuted by Nazis. Nobody outside of the European continent believed these people were being systematically killed on an industrial scale.
Yet they were. We've seen the haunting images and video. Smiling Nazi officers standing beside their victims in the moments before they shot or gassed them. Today, Islamic State terrorists are posing with their victims, making videos, and even tweeting crude jokes about their carnage.
They glorify and revel in their killing and believe with all sincerity that they are doing the work of Allah.
The world once solemnly promised to never allow another holocaust to happen again. Yet, we have witnessed episodes of ethnic cleansing and genocide repeatedly throughout history. Time and again, the world has stood silent as whole populations and tribes were exterminated, relocated, and forced into destitution.
The only exception seems to be when the United States intervened in the Balkans to rescue ethnic Muslims from extermination at the hands of Christian fighters in Bosnia.
Today, nobody is running toward the Christians to help them. These people are on their own and they have nothing. Over 400 families have checked into refugee camps in Kurdish controlled districts in northern Iraq. Hundreds more wander in the desert and the diaspora continues.
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