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Of those, 13,100 (99.1 percent) are Muslims – 12,966 Sunnis, 24 Shi’a, and 110 other Muslims – and 77 (0.5 percent) are Christians. Another 24 (0.18 percent) are Yazidis. During the Jan.-Oct. period in 2015, 1,705 Syrian refugees were admitted, of whom 1,664 (97.5 percent) were Muslims and 29 (1.7 percent) were Christians. Meanwhile the surge of Syrian refugee admissions initiated by the administration last February has continued into the new fiscal year, now one month-old: A total of 1,297 were resettled during October – a 593 percent increase over the 187 admitted in October 2015. October’s arrivals were once again dominated by Sunni Muslims, accounting for 1,263 (97.3 percent) of the total. Another seven were Shi’a Muslims and 12 were other Muslims. The rest of the October intake comprised 15 (1.1 percent) Christians – eight Orthodox, four Catholics and three refugees self-described simply as Christians.
That comes after last fiscal year saw a total of 12,587 Syrian refugees admitted, of whom 12,363 (98.2 percent) were Sunnis, and 68 (0.5 percent) were Christians, according to State Department Refugee Processing Center data. The rest of the Syrian refugees admitted during FY2016 were 103 other Muslims, 20 Shi’a Muslims, 24 Yazidis, eight refugees with religion given as “other,” and one with “no religion.” Syrians of all religious and ethnic groups have been victimized in the costly civil war, which has pitted a regime dominated by Allawites – a sect of Shi’a Islam – and its Shi’a allies against mostly Sunni rebel groups. A Sunni-majority population and Christian and other minorities are caught in between, with some supporting warring groups on either side. But jihadists among the rebels, and especially the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL), have also targeted Christians, Yazidis and other minorities in particular. Last March 17, Secretary of State John Kerry announced, in line with a legislative requirement, that the treatment of Christians and other minorities in areas controlled by ISIS amounts to genocide.
Since that genocide determination, the Obama administration has resettled a total of 12,743 Syrian refugees in the U.S., but only 74 (0.58 percent) of them are Christians, and only 24 (0.18 percent) of them are Yazidis. The vast majority – 12,637, or 99.16 percent – are Muslims, including 12,516 Sunnis. According to the 1951 Refugee Convention, the five criteria for considering refugee status applications are persecution for reasons of religion, race, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group. Although religious persecution is one of those five official vulnerability criteria, administration officials say the U.S. does not and should not prioritize any particular religious affiliation when considering Syrians’ applications. When the civil war began in March 2011, an estimated 74 percent of the Syrian population was Sunni Muslim and an estimated 10 percent was Christian.
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In a sub-report submitted with the report Genocide Against Christians in the Middle East to Secretary of State John Kerry in March, the ADF International details the ongoing genocide of Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East. It notes that “Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world” and that in at least 104 countries Christians are harassed and persecuted by governments and organizations. The harassment includes “physical assaults, arrests and detentions, the desecration of holy sites and discrimination against religious groups in employment, education or housing,” reads the report.
Christian children murdered in Iraq by the Islamic State.
Harassment of Christians “was the highest in the Middle East and North Africa (90% of countries),” reported ADF International. In Syria and Iraq, the persecution of Christians is carried out largely by radical Muslims, such as the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, said the ADF. In Syria, government forces have been fighting against revolutionaries and the Islamic State since March 2011, an ongoing battle sparked by the Arab Spring.
In 2015, Syria’s population was approximately 20 million, said ADF International, and “92.8% of the population was Muslim, 5.2% Christian and 2% other.” “The population of Christians dropped from 1.25 million in 2011 to as few as 500,000 today,” said ADF International in its report. “It is estimated that in 2015 alone, over 700,000 Christians in Syria sought refuge” in other countries. Persecution of Christians in Syria is extreme, said the ADF International, and includes the following examples: “Three Christian men who were executed for refusing to convert to Islam, a Catholic priest who was beheaded by the rebels, at least 15 Assyrian Christians who were beheaded or shot, three Christians who were executed, and at least 10 people who were ordered executed by a self-proclaimed ‘religious court’ for being Christian.”
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In a supplement to the report, Genocide Against Christians in the Middle East, which was submitted to Secretary of State John Kerry in March, ADF International details the persecution of Christians in Iraq, a persecution that the U.S. and British governments, the European Parliament, and the United Nations have officially declared is genocide. The genocide refers specifically to attacks by the Islamic State, or ISIS, on Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities in Iraq, as well as in Syria, Libya, and other countries where ISIS is operating.
Islamic State fighters execute captives.
According to ADF International, the population of Iraq in 2015 was “estimated at 32.6 million comprising 98% Muslims, 1% Christians and 1% other religious minorities.” "In 2003, the Christian population in Iraq was estimated at 1.4 million,” said the ADF International in its March 2016 report. “Currently the Iraqi Christian population is estimated at 275,000.” “The attacks on the Christian population increased after the fall of Saddam Hussein, reaching its critical stage in October 2010 when 52 Christians were killed in an attack on the Syrian Catholic Cathedral in Baghdad,” reads the ADF International report.
Worshippers killed inside a Christian church in Iraq.
Other examples of the persecution of Christians in Iraq, cited by ADF International, include the following: “In December 2013, three attacks targeting Christians in Baghdad killed at least 37 people, and injured over 59. “In June 2014, IS [Islamic State] took over Mosul, giving an ultimatum to Christians living there (then over 30,000) to convert to Islam, pay a tax, leave Mosul or face death. Thousands of Christians fled to the Nineveh Plains. “In August 2014, IS took over Qaraqosh, causing over 100,000 Christians to flee. The same fate has met the Christian population of al-Kosh. Numerous Christian sites were destroyed by the extremists.
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