Iraq’s Christian Population Declines from 4% to Nearly 1%
Cardinal Louis Sako revealed that the percentage of Christians in Iraq has declined from 4% to nearly 1%, noting that 1,200 Christians were killed over a 15-year period as a result of violence.
In a statement published on the official website of the Chaldean Church on Saturday, September 23, 2023, Sako said that “Iraqi Christians are facing violations of their legitimate human and national rights.”
He stated that Christians in Iraq are being “excluded from government jobs, deprived of their resources and properties, in addition to the systematic demographic change taking place in their towns in the Nineveh Plain before the eyes of the Iraqi state.”
He confirmed that “one million Christians left Iraq after the fall of the regime, and after ISIS displaced the Christians of Mosul and the towns of the Nineveh Plain in 2014, due to security reasons (uncontrolled weapons), political reasons (the logic of sectarianism and quota-sharing that brought hellfire upon Iraq), economic reasons (corruption), and social reasons (religious extremism and ISIS).”
The Patriarch of the Chaldean Church in Iraq and worldwide reviewed statistics regarding Christians according to a report by the Hammurabi Organization and the Assyrian Democratic Movement, noting that around 1,200 Christians were killed in multiple violent incidents across Iraq between 2003 and 2018, including 700 people who were killed because of their identity.
He also stated that “a number of clergy members were kidnapped in Mosul and Baghdad, and several of them were martyred, most notably Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, the Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul.”
He continued: “Eighty-five churches and monasteries in Baghdad, Mosul, and Basra were bombed by extremists and later by ISIS, while mafias seized 23,000 homes and properties.”
Sako also addressed Presidential Decree No. 147, which “was withdrawn from the head of the Chaldean Church in Iraq and worldwide without any legal or moral justification and without serving the national interest in any way.”
He accused authorities of “removing prominent employees from their positions, and the Christian quota in parliamentary elections was hijacked,” in addition to “banning alcoholic beverages while they remain permitted in several Muslim Arab countries.”
He pointed out that Christians “have lost confidence in the improvement of their situation because of these violations, the consequences of the Personal Status Law, and the Islamization of minors.”
He added: “The percentage of Christians declined from 4% to nearly 1%,” predicting that the bleeding of emigration and the departure of youth would continue because of their exclusion from jobs for unfounded reasons.
Louis Sako, who emphasized that he is a clergyman with no political ambitions, stated that “statements of sympathy and promises are meaningless if justice is not achieved for them on the ground.”
He believed that resolving this issue lies in “dealing with marginalized ethnic and religious components according to the principle of equality before the law.”
On Friday, September 15, 2023, the Chaldean Patriarchate’s website published a statement saying that the solution to the recent tensions resulting from the President’s withdrawal of Decree 147 lies in the return of Cardinal Louis Sako to the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, “honored and respected.”
It is noteworthy that the President of the Republic, Abdul Latif Rashid, issued a presidential decree withdrawing Presidential Decree No. 147 of 2013, related to the appointment of Patriarch Louis Sako as the Patriarch of Babylon for the Chaldeans in Iraq and worldwide, and as the administrator of its endowments.