Iraq’s ancient Christian community is still hanging on, twenty years after the U.S. invasion forced thousands of Christians to flee and nine years after the Islamic State threatened to wipe out those who remained.

The National on Tuesday reported there were about 1.5 million Christians in Iraq before the 2003 invasion, but today less than 250,000 remain, and some estimates put the number much lower. A group called the Shlama Foundation estimated there are only a little over 141,000 Chaldean, Assyrian, and Syriac Christians still in Iraq.

These Christians have met little success in their efforts to hold seats in the Iraqi parliament, even though some seats were explicitly reserved for them, so Christian rights activists believe the only way left to protect them is to establish a “safe haven” in the Nineveh Plain northeast of Mosul. This would give the Christians land to call their own, plus some measure of self-government.

Pope Francis speaks at a square near the ruins of the Syriac Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception (al-Tahira-l-Kubra), in the old city of Iraq’s northern Mosul on March 7, 2021. (VINCENZO PINTO/AFP via Getty Images)

The National noted a plan to create just such a Christian province was slowly moving forward in 2014 when the Islamic State captured Mosul, pushing another wave of endangered refugees out of the region. 

A member of the Iraqi forces walks past a mural depicting Pope Francis waving next to an Iraqi national flag drawn on a blast wall outside the Syriac Catholic Church of Our Lady of Deliverance in the Karrada district of Iraq’s capital Baghdad on March 1, 2021 amidst preparations ahead of the pontiff’s visit. (SABAH ARAR/AFP via Getty Images)

The Islamic State was eventually pushed out of Mosul, but now there is some opposition to the safe haven plan from the Kurds, who feel they should also have a presence in the Nineveh Plain. On the other hand, the Kurdistan Regional Government created an official district in its capital of Erbil for Christians in October 2021.

Even before the rise of ISIS, Iraqi Christians were subjected to constant harassment and a few high-profile massacres. Insurgent groups in Iraq aggressively targeted Christians, who they often saw as collaborators with occupying U.S. forces.

Firmly granting land to the Christians is important because expropriation of the ancestral homes left behind by refugees is a major problem. A hopeful number of those who fled the Iraq War and ISIS are interested in returning, but not if they have no homes to return to. Militia groups are putting further pressure on those who remain to surrender their property.