The Deacon's Bench
France said Monday it was ready to help facilitate asylum for Christians in Iraq displaced by a jihadi onslaught, saying it was “outraged” by their persecution.
“We are ready, if they so desire, to help facilitate asylum on our territory,” Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in a joint statement.
Thousands of Christians and other minorities have fled the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and other areas after Islamic State militants led a sweep across Iraq’s north and west last month.
The Sunni extremists had ordered Christian families to convert to Islam or leave the city, prompting the mass exodus. Those who failed to comply were threatened with execution, and the property of those who left was forfeited to the Islamic State, a statement from the group seen by AFP said.
The group has changed its name from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.
“France is outraged by these abuses that it condemns with the utmost firmness,” both ministers said.
“The ultimatum given to these communities in Mosul by ISIL is the latest tragic example of the terrible threat that jihadist groups in Iraq, but also in Syria and elsewhere, pose to these populations that are historically an integral part of this region,” they added.
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