Iraq

10 Aspects of Freedom of Religion or Belief
1. Freedom of the church from state interference, including freedom to interpret scripture without government interference	%
2. Freedom to translate and own scripture in the vernacular and read it publicly	%
3. Freedom of worship	Y
4. Freedom from being required to act against one’s beliefs	%
5. Freedom to establish places of worship	%
6. Freedom to preach and try to convince others of the truth of one’s beliefs	N
7. Freedom to choose or change one’s faith	%
8. Freedom from being required to affirm a particular worldview i.e. religious or philosophical beliefs, in order to hold public office, enter various professions or study at university	%
9. Freedom of parents to educate children according to their own beliefs	%
10. Freedom to criticise the religious or philosophical beliefs of others (absence of blasphemy law)	%

 

KEY

Y = largely present

N= largely absent

% = partially present (including largely absent in some areas)

 

 

 

Genocide

The previously large Christian minorities in Iraq have historically been subjected to dhimmitude and genocide. The 2003 western military intervention which ousted Sadaam Hussain brought about a renewed persecution, with a campaign of bombing of churches, murder of Christian leaders and kidnappings of Christians. By 2007 the question of whether Iraqi Christians were then facing genocide was raised in an academic paper by two experienced international criminal tribunal prosecutors, who observed that whilst:

 

“It is virtually impossible to determine how many Iraqi Christians have been killed as a result of religiously motivated violence…the number of deaths could possibly be in the tens of thousands.”[1]

 

These attacks on Christians were not merely carried out by extreme jihadist groups, but were also endorsed by some radical clerics. For example, in a 2011 interview on Egyptian TV Iraqi ayatollah Ahmad Al Hassani Al Baghdadi issued a fatwa (Islamic legal ruling) against Christians in Iraq stating that Iraqi Christians must choose either dhimmitude, conversion to Islam or be fought against and their churches destroyed.

The last full Iraqi census (1987) listed a Christian population of 1.4 million. By the time Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) seized Mosul in June 2014 it is estimated that around half of the pre-2003 Iraqi Christian population had fled the country. There are now reported to be only around 200,000[2]. The Iraqi government conducted a new census in November 2024, there was however no mention of ethnicity or religion in the results[3].  

Shortly after ISIL seized Mosul in June 2014 they gave its large Christian population an ultimatum to within 24 hours either i) convert to Islam i.e. forced conversion ii) formally accept dhimmitude or iii) face execution. This led to a panicked mass evacuations of the almost the entire Christian population, many of whom sought refuge in the Christian majority towns of Bartella and Qaraqosh in the nearby Nineveh Plains. However, in August this area was also captured by Islamic State, forcing an estimated 40-50,000 Christians to flee.  Those unable to flee were forced to sign a dhimma contract. The houses of Christians who had fled were painted with the Arabic letter nun (signifying Nasrani i.e. Christian) and ‘property of Islamic State’, with houses subsequently being sold. Those Christians who have returned to the area are still traumatised by these events.[4]

In 2014 IS followed Nigeria’s Boko Haram in reimplementing the shari’a provisions allowing the enslavement of captured non-Muslims. They also issued a slave price list which only listed prices for Christian and Yazidi women, with the highest prices being for young girls. Zainab Bangura, the U.N.'s Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sexual Violence in Conflict who confirmed the authenticity of the document stated:

 

“One girl can be sold and bought by five or six different men. Sometimes these fighters sell the girls back to their families for thousands of dollars of ransom.”[5]

 

In August 2014 the UN estimated that at that time 1,500 Christian and Yazidi Women had been forced into sexual slavery.[6]  More were subsequently abducted including Christian girls as young as three years old. Although some abducted Christian women have been rescued, others remain unaccounted for [7] and therefore presumably still held in slavery, including outside of Iraq. As of 2024, around 2,594 Yazidi women and girls remained missing.[8] There are ongoing reports by non-Muslim women abducted and sold by IS being found across the Middle East.[9]

A number of governments and parliaments formally recognised that Christians, Yazidis and Shi’a Muslims were suffering genocide, including the US State Department. In August 2017 at the request of the Iraqi government the UN Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2379 (2017) setting up an investigative team, headed by a UN Special Adviser, to support Iraqi efforts to hold IS accountable by collecting, preserving and storing evidence in Iraq of acts that might amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed in Iraq.[10]

 

Current issues

Although the gradual eviction between 2016-19 of Islamic State from the geographical territory it controlled was followed by the return of some Christians, they are still subject to threats and acts of violence by both radical clerics and jihadists. In May 2017 at the height of the battle to liberate Mosul, the Shi’a cleric in charge of Iraq’s Waqf Bureau in a sermon publicly called for Iraqi Christians to either convert to Islam, submit to dhimmitude, or be killed, emphasising the need for jihad against them.[11]

There are now very few Christians left in most parts of Iraq, apart from Nineveh Province and the semi-autonomous Northern Kurdistan region. Only a small number of Christians remain in Baghdad which until recently had a large Christian population. Whilst there is greater freedom in the Kurdistan region, Christians are still subject to land seizures and hostile social attitudes.

The Iranian backed Shi’a militias of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) who helped defeat Islamic State remain in parts of the Nineveh Plains even though most are not from this area. They have assumed effective control of historically Christian areas and operate with impunity. There are reports of forced demographic change in the traditional Christian homelands of the Nineveh Plains due to the actions of PMF units. In particular, the 30^th and 50^th brigades are reported to have prevented Christian IDP returns and harassed Christian returnees in several towns in the Nineveh Plain, including Bartalla and Qaraqosh. They have also illegally operated checkpoints in the area often demanding large sums of money from Christians and other minorities. In July 2025, the 50^th Brigade leader Rayan al-Kildani orchestrated the suspension of 15 mayors and district leaders to appropriate Christian properties and representation in Nineveh Province.[12] There are also reports of PMF secret prisons in Nineveh Province with large numbers of prisoners from Christian and other religious minorities held on sectarian-based, false pretences, with their relatives forced to pay large sums of money for their release. Consequently, only a small percentage of Christians have returned to either Mosul or their ancestral villages in the Nineveh Plains. Large numbers remain in refugee camps or internally displaced in the northern Kurdistan region. Many Christians who have returned to their former homes have found their places of worship and homes either destroyed or expropriated by others. Although some progress has recently begun in restoring expropriated property.

An Iran-backed militia called ‘Babylon Movement’ claims to be representing Christians, while it is actually controlled by Shi’a forces.[13]

There is also a growing issue of Shi’a organisations, some linked to Iran, seeking to enforce shari’a by means of vigilante violence.

Islamic State fighters, while no longer controlling any geographical territory continue to carry out attacks on civilian targets.

In addition, in 2020 Turkey began conducting airstrikes and other military operations, under the pretext of targeting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq. Some appear to have additionally targeted Assyrian villages destroying homes and damaging churches, causing Christians to flee, including in Nahla Valley.

Christians who have converted from Muslim family backgrounds may be subject attempts to forcibly re-convert them back to Islam including being physically beaten and imprisoned and female converts may be forcibly married to a Muslim man. Those who maintain their faith often risk being killed either by their families or militants in the wider community.

As Iraqi law does not officially permit a Muslim to change their faith, Christians who have converted from a Muslim background cannot legally change the region on their national ID cards. This means that their children are then also registered as Muslims and as such required to attend Islamic education in schools.

Evangelicals have also faced pressure from historic churches, including attempts to block registration of their churches and refusal to allow burial in Christian cemeteries.

 

Legal situation

Iraq is formally governed by constitutional law which allows shari’a based family law courts. However, tribal customary law (urf) and shari’a also operate less formally.

The 2005 Iraqi Constitution states that “Islam is the official religion of the State and is a foundation source of legislation”. It also states that it “guarantees the full religious rights to freedom of religious belief and practice of all individuals such as Christians, Yazidis, and Mandean Sabeans.” However, it does not specify what those rights are, beyond (Articles 10,43) guaranteeing “the free practice of rituals” and protection of religious sites. It does however, state that “No law may be enacted that contradicts the established provisions of Islam”. It therefore appears to have adopted a similar position to the OIC’s 1990 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam, which makes the interpretation of human rights subject to the Islamic Shari’a.[14]

The constitution of the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region is more secular but religious courts operate for matters of personal law.

Iraq’s 1959 Personal Status Law, which regulates marriage, divorce, parental rights and inheritance, claims to be a combination of the teachings of different schools of Shari’a (approximately 2/3 of Iraqis are Shi’a among whom the Ja’fari school predominates and approximately 1/3 are Sunni among whom the Hanafi school predominates). It expressly states that any matter not specifically included in the law, shall be determined according to “the principles of Islamic sharia”. Among its stipulations are that a woman recognised as a Muslim may not marry a non-Muslim man. This makes it impossible for female Christians who have converted from Islam to legally register a Christian marriage (article 17). The Iraqi House of Representatives approved amendments to this law in February 2025, allowing Muslim couples to require the Ja’fari school of shari’a to be applied to a marriage if either husband or wife requests it[15].

The 2015 National Identity Card law was heavily criticised by Christians and other religious minorities when it was passed, for further extending the imposition of shari’a on non-Muslims. Article 26 states a minor is automatically to be registered as a Muslim when one of the parents converts to Islam – i.e. even when that child or young person wishes to remain a Christian.

There are five reserved seats for Christians in the federal Parliament, and five three for predominantly Christian ethnic groups in the Kurdistan regional parliaments. In 2024, the number of reserved seats for minorities in the Kurdish Regional Government was reduced by Iraq’s Supreme court from 11 to 5, meaning that Christians have seen their political representation cut in half, from 6 seats to only 3[16]. However, Christians have complained that Islamic political parties have exploited a legal loophole to manipulate the election to these seats.

Both the shari’a of the Shi’a (Ja’fari) and Sunni (Hanafi) impose the death penalty on any adult male Muslim who becomes a Christian. While female converts are imprisoned until they repent, and additionally under the Ja’fari jurisprudence, beaten until they reconvert to Islam. Although not constitutionally part of Iraqi law, this provides a degree of legitimisation for violence and murder of Christians who have converted from Islam. The Ja’fari jurisprudence has from its earliest centuries contained multiple fatwah (Islamic legal rulings) that any Muslim can kill anyone guilty of Islamic blasphemy without incurring any punishment.

Article 37 of the constitution states “The State shall guarantee protection of the individual from intellectual, political and religious coercion.” However, in practice, it is unable to do so due to both conservative Islamic societal pressures and the actions of non-state actors such as the Popular Mobilisation Forces and occasionally state actors such as Iran and Turkey.

 

Ideologies linked to persecution

Radical Shi’a Islam: Any move towards equality for the Christian minority is strongly opposed by radical Shi’a clerics. Iraqi government policy exists in tension between those willing to make such moves and a significant conservative element strongly opposed to them.

Dhimmitude: This theological concept occurs in the shar’ia textbooks of both Shi’a and Sunni Islam and is based on the treatment of non-Muslim minorities in early Islam. This allowed Christians and Jews as conquered peoples to live, subject to keeping significant restrictions. These included a specific prohibition on building or even repairing churches, only allowed them to worship in private behind closed doors and forbade them from having crosses or Christian books where Muslims could see them, as well as requiring Christians to show total subservience to Muslims. Any claimed breach of these conditions allowed the dhimmi to be killed by any Muslim with impunity.

Jihadist Islamism A year after the 2003 western military intervention Abu Musab al Zarqawi launched al Qaeda in Iraq (rebranded in 2006 as Islamic State in Iraq - ISI) which not only attacked military targets but also began to specifically target Iraqi Churches and Christians. Whilst a range of jihadist groups have been involved in attacking Christians, Islamic State of Iraq (rebranded Islamic State of Iraq and Levant/Syria – ISIL/ISIS in 2013) became prominent after 2011 and captured Mosul and Tikrit in June 2014. Following this its leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi announced the reinstitution of the caliphate (which had last been claimed by the Ottoman Empire prior to its abolition in 1924) and renamed the group Islamic State (IS). It then began accepting oaths of allegiance (bay’ah) from jihadist groups around the world, with the territory each operated in then designated as IS provinces.

Expansionist Islamic nationalism: i) The Iranian constitution gives its Revolutionary Guard Corps a duty to promote the Iranian revolution overseas; ii). Since 2016 the Turkish government has openly criticised the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne which dismembered the Ottoman Empire, including removing Iraq from Turkish control and is viewed as a humiliation in Turkey by many people. During the battle against IS Turkish military forces intervened in Northern Iraq and have continued operations there, particularly air strikes, despite repeated protests by the Iraqi government that this violates Iraqi sovereignty. These have sometimes specifically targeted Assyrian villages as well as Kurdish targets. As the Turkish government continues to deny responsibility for the genocide of Armenian and Assyrian Christians in the years immediately preceding this period and actively prosecutes anyone saying this, its actions in Iraq have created significant anxiety for Iraqi Christians.

 

Future risks

Although the risk of the total eradication of Iraq’s historic Christian communities has subsided, he remaining Iraqi church exists in a fragile state and primarily in the north. However, in significant parts of the north it is particularly vulnerable to extra judicial actions of Iranian backed Popular Mobilisation Forces. Any crackdown on Christians in Iran could therefore lead to actions by these forces against Iraq Christians, which could put at risk the future of Christians in Iraq.

Since the seizure of government in Syria by jihadist group HTS in 2024/2025 there has also been a significant risk of the estimated 30,000 IS prisoners held by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces in North East Syria, now escaping and crossing the border into Northern Iraq. [17]

 

Church History

The church in what is now Iraq has existed since the earliest centuries of Christianity. According to the Chronicle of Arbil by the sixth century monk Mashiha Zakha, Paqida, the first bishop of Arbil was converted at the end of the first century. By the second century Iraq had a large Christian population, with bishoprics established at major centres along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and the royal road south down to the Persian Gulf. The Islamic invasion of 636 imposed Islamic government and law. However, despite Baghdad having become the capital of the Abbasid caliphate in the eight century, according to the Islamic historian al-Biruni, writing at the turn of the tenth and eleventh centuries, i.e. three centuries later, even then

“The majority of the inhabitants of Syria, Iraq and Khorasan [i.e. Afghanistan] are Nestorians”.

However, both the discriminatory nature of dhimmitude and its specific prohibition on any preaching outside the Christian community led to a gradual decline. This was aided by a number of massacres of Christians some of which were justified on the pretext that they had broken part of the dhimmi contract. For example, in 1843 the British consuls in Mosul and Van encouraged Assyrian Christians in the Hakkari region located between the two cities, not to pay jizya, seemingly unaware that breaking the dhimmi contract allowed local Kurdish Muslims to kill the Christians with impunity. It is estimated that over the following two years 10,000 Christians were massacred and others enslaved. Christians were also massacred in the North of Iraq during the Assyrian and Armenian genocides of the early twentieth century.[18]

There was also a later massacre of around 3,000 Assyrian Christians from 11 villages around Simel by Arab Police in 1933, a year after Iraq had gained independence from Britain. A contemporary account by the Christian Patriarch recorded that:

 

“The inoffensive population was indiscriminately massacred, men, women and children alike, with rifle, revolver and machine gun fire. In one room alone, eighty-one men…were barbarously murdered. Priests were tortured and their bodies mutilated. Those who showed their Iraqi nationality papers were the first to be shot. Girls were raped and women violated and forced to march naked before the Arab army commander. Holy books were used as fuel for burning girls. Children were run over by military cars. Pregnant women were bayonetted. Children were flung in the air and pierced on the point of bayonets. Those who survived in other villages were now exposed day and night to constant raids and acts of violence. Forced conversion to Islam of men and women was the next process. Refusal was met with death.”[19]

The discrimination faced by historic Christian minorities led a small, but significant level of emigration during the second half of the twentieth century. However, at the same time towards the end of the twentieth century there was reported to be a growing Iraqi Evangelical movement. It included Christians who had converted from Muslim family backgrounds in all regions of Iraq including the Kurdistan region in the North. However, following the Second Gulf War in 2003 the Christian community was subjected to a series of targeted attacks which led to hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Christians being either internally displaced to the North or fleeing overseas.

 

© Material in this analysis may be freely reproduced or quoted in context provided i) the source is explicitly acknowledged as The Lindisfarne Centre for the Study of Christian Persecution and ii) the date of download is stated.

 

---

[5] ‘ISIS sex slaves: UN official says jihadi group peddles girls “like barrels of petrol”’ International Business Times 5 August 2015 [accessed 9 May 2022]. 

[6] 'UN officials call for immediate end to sexual violence against Iraqi minorities: Statement of the S[ecial Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zainab Hawa Bangura and the Special Representative for Iraq Nickolay Mladenov UN News Service 13 August 2014 [acccesed 23 February 2026].