On the 15th anniversary of the brutal attack on Sayidat al-Nejat Cathedral in Baghdad on October 31, 2010, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) recalls the continuing precarious situation of Christians in Iraq and Syria. The human rights organization is appealing to the Protestant and Catholic churches in Germany to do more to defend the rights of Christian communities in the Middle East.
“Although the situation of Christians in Iraq and Syria has calmed down, many of them are still not safe there,” emphasized Dr. Kamal Sido, Middle East expert at the STP, today in Göttingen. The decline in the number of asylum seekers from Iraq and Syria – especially Christians – in Germany and Europe is less due to an improvement in the situation on the ground than to a decline in Europe's willingness to accept refugees.
On October 31, 2010, Islamists attacked the Syrian Catholic Sayidat al-Nejat Cathedral in Baghdad, killing 68 people and injuring 60 others. The current Sunni Islamist ruler of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa (then Abu Muhammad al-Golani), was at that time a member of the Sunni Islamist terrorist organization Al-Qaeda in Iraq, which also carried out attacks on Christians. To this day, it is not entirely clear who exactly ordered this heinous attack and the targeted shooting of praying Christians.
A year later, al-Sharaa left Iraq to lead the Sunni Islamist terrorist network in Syria. “It is pure mockery that German politicians and media today demand that Christians, Druze, Alawites, Kurds, and other minorities entrust their lives to a professional killer,” Sido criticizes.
Fifteen years after the attack and one year after the fall of the Assad regime, the situation of Christians and other minorities in the region has hardly improved. The hope of some German politicians that Christians and minorities such as the Yazidis could safely return to Iraq or Syria is illusory, according to Sido. Both Sunni and Shiite Islamists, who are enemies of each other, sought to introduce Sharia law, which would make it impossible for Christians and other minorities to live freely. “It is not Sharia law, but the separation of state and religion that creates the conditions for democratic systems – but Iraq and Syria are far from that,” said the Middle East expert.
Estimates of the number of Christians still living in Iraq vary widely. They range from 150,000 to a maximum of 200,000, compared to 1.5 million 40 years ago. A census that began in November 2024 could soon provide more accurate figures. The number of Christians in Syria has also declined dramatically. Before the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, an estimated 2.1 million Christians were living in Syria. Today, their number is estimated at less than 300,000.

This press release was translated from German to English using AI. If you come across errors or ambiguities, please contact us at presse@gfbv.de.