Religious Minorities in Iraq Suffering 'Slow Genocide'

Religion Today | Updated: Nov 20, 2012

Religious Minorities in Iraq Suffering 'Slow Genocide'

December 22, 2011

A filmmaker who spent the last three years in Iraq says Christians and other religious minorities there live in constant fear and face potential genocide, the Christian Post reports. According to Gwendolen Cates, Iraqi Christians want to stay in their home country but they fear for their lives. Assyrian Christians are not Muslim converts but an ethnic group that dates back to ancient times, and along with two other native minority groups, they face extinction and banishment. Cates said many Iraqis told her that life was surprisingly better under Saddam Hussein, and that things only continued to get worse. Last week, Cates met with evangelical and Jewish leaders in New York to argue that Iraqi religious minorities might be wiped out unless action is taken to protect them. Her documentary on religious refugees from Iraq, "Mourning in the Garden of Eden," is set to debut next fall. "The mood [in Iraq] is one of fear," she said.



Religious Minorities in Iraq Suffering 'Slow Genocide'