The Islamic State’s Targeting of Christians and their Heritage: Genocide, Displacement and Reconciliation

ABSTRACT

The rapid advance of the ‘Islamic State’ (IS) across Syria and Iraq from 2013 had devastating consequences for the myriad peoples and heritage sites of the region. However, few studies have documented how those most affected perceive the destruction of their heritage, its complex relationship to their persecution and displacement, and the role they see for reconstruction in fostering peace. This paper addresses this lacuna by analysing interviews with Syrian and Iraqi Christians along three specific but inter-connected axes. First, in terms of genocide and belonging, respondents reported experiencing the destruction as a key component of the broader persecution, leading to a profound rupture of their sense of communal identity. Second, the axis of displacement and return reveals that the destruction was a key catalyst in their decision to flee, shaped their experiences of exile and attitudes to return. And finally, along the axis of reconstruction and reconciliation respondents held complex and divergent views on the extent to which rebuilding could play a role in fostering peace. The article concludes by noting that the insights gleaned from this case advances studies of heritage in conflict and that being sensitive to local sentiment could enhance projects to reconstruct heritage in conflict.

KEYWORDS:

• Islamic state
• heritage
• Syria
• Iraq
• christians

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the hard work and enthusiasm of several colleagues who helped collate some of the materials presented and analysed in this article: Ahmed Hassin, Taghreed Jamal Al-Deen and Antonio Zarandona. We are also grateful for the support of the Alfred Deakin Institute at Deakin University, Australia and the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, UK. We also acknowledge the insightful comments and suggestions of the anonymous reviewers and the editor of this journal.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Interviews

IN003. Interviewed in person in Erbil (Iraqi-Kurdistan), April 2017. Male Assyrian Christian from Dohuk (Iraqi-Kurdistan). Now living in Erbil (Iraqi-Kurdistan).

IN012. Interviewed via Phone/Skype from Melbourne (Australia) to Beirut (Lebanon), October 2017. Male Greek Orthodox from Aleppo (Syria). Now living in Beirut (Lebanon).

IN016. Interviewed in person in Sydney (Australia), November 2017. Male Armenian Christian from Aleppo (Syria). Now living in Sydney (Australia).

IN019. Interviewed via Phone/Skype from Melbourne (Australia) to Dohuk (Iraqi-Kurdistan), December 2017. Male Assyrian Christian from Mosul (Iraq). Now living in Dohuk (Iraq).

IN022. Interviewed via Phone/Skype from Amman (Jordan) to Dohuk (Iraqi Kurdistan), May 2018. Female Assyrian Christian from Dohuk (Iraq). Now living in Dohuk (Iraq).

IN023. Interviewed via Phone/Skype from Amman (Jordan) to Erbil (Iraqi Kurdistan), May 2018. Male Chaldean Christian from Koya (Iraq). Now living in Erbil (Iraqi Kurdistan).

IN024. Interviewed via Phone/Skype from Amman (Jordan) to Dohuk (Iraqi Kurdistan), May 2018. Female Chaldean Christian from Baqoufah (Nineveh Plain, Iraq). Now living in Dohuk (Iraqi Kurdistan).

IN031. Interviewed in person in Marka (Jordan), August 2018. Male Syriac Catholic Christian from Baghdad (Iraq). Now living in Marka (Jordan).

IN032. Interviewed in person in Marka (Jordan), September 2018. Female Chaldean Christian from Baghdad (Iraq). Now living in Marka (Jordan).

IN033. Interviewed in person in Marka (Jordan), September 2018. Female Chaldean Christian from Baghdad (Iraq). Now living in Marka (Jordan).

IN034. Interviewed in person in Marka (Jordan), September 2018. Female Chaldean Christian from Tel Eskof (Iraq). Now living in Marka (Jordan).

IN039. Interviewed in person in Beirut (Lebanon), October 2018. Male Syrian Orthodox Christian from Mahardah (Syria). Now living in Beirut (Lebanon).

IN043. Interviewed in person in Beirut (Lebanon), October 2018. Male Syrian Orthodox Christian from Suweida (Syria). Now living in Suweida (Syria).

IN048. Interviewed in person in Marka (Jordan), October 2018. Female Chaldean Christian from Mosul (Iraq). Now living in Marka (Jordan).

IN049. Interviewed in person in Marka (Jordan), October 2018. Female Chaldean Christian from Baghdad (Iraq). Now living in Marka (Jordan).

IN050. Interviewed via Phone/Skype from Melbourne (Australia) to Bartella (Iraq), March 2019. Male Syriac Orthodox Christian from Bartella (Iraq). Now living in Bartella (Iraq).

IN052. Interviewed via Phone/Skype from Melbourne (Australia) to Maaloula (Syria), August 2019. Male Greek Orthodox Christian from Maaloula (Syria). Now living in Maaloula (Syria).

Notes

1. Although many of the statues inside the Mosul Museum were replicas, the IS intention to destroy them remains the same.

2. The 17 in-depth semi-structured interviews with Christians are a subset of a larger sample of 53 interviews with Syrians and Iraqis examining heritage, its destruction and reconstruction, in the context of the ongoing conflicts. The 17 who self-identified as Christians, include both male (10) and female (7) participants from a variety of Christian denominations: Chaldean (7), Assyrian (3), Greek Orthodox (2), Syrian Orthodox (2), Armenian (1), Syriac Catholic (1) and Syriac Orthodox (1). The interviewees also represent a broad geographical spread, from Iraq (12), including participants from: Baghdad (4), Mosul (2), Dohuk (2), Koya (1), Tel Eskof (1), Baqoufah (1) and Bartella (1); and across Syria (5): Aleppo (2), Mahardah (1), Suweida (1) and Maaloula (1). It is also important to note that of the 17 Christian respondents, only four had been able to remain in their hometown during the conflict, the remainder were either internally displaced (4) or had fled further afield to Jordan (6), Lebanon (2) and Australia (1). It is important to note that many of the interviewees came from Christian enclaves that were attacked, occupied or threatened by the IS and where much destruction of Christian heritage took place. Several were direct eyewitnesses to the destruction of their heritage and were forcibly displaced by the dynamics of the broader conflict. The ongoing security situation prevented comprehensive fieldwork inside Syria or Iraq. Although the researchers were able to conduct some in-person interviews inside Iraq and in neighbouring states with high numbers of Iraqi refugees and migrants (Jordan and Lebanon), several of the interviews were conducted ‘at a distance’ via Skype in either Arabic or English over a period of approximately two and a half years (March 2017 – October 2019). The interviewees were identified via targeted or purposive sampling; they were specifically chosen not because they are representative of a broader population but because of their experiences of, and knowledge about the topics at hand. It ought to be noted that the small sample size of 17 interviews cannot claim to be representative of any overall community sentiment and the findings are not generalisable. Instead, this study relies on small-n in-depth semi-structured interviews which remain among few significant methods for collecting primary data about people’s lived experiences of conflict. The interviews were collected in accordance with the ethical standards of the Deakin

University Human Research Ethics Committee, Australia. Informed consent was obtained for all participants, who remain anonymous and non-identifiable. The interviews listed at the end of this article under the heading ‘Interviews’ provide further details on each of the cited interviews.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The Australian Department of Defence and the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE120100315). The viewsexpressed in this article do not reflect those of Defence or Government policy.

Notes on contributors

Benjamin Isakhan

Benjamin Isakhan is Professor of International Politics and Founding Director of Polis, a research network for Politics and International Relations in the Alfred Deakin Institute at Deakin University, Australia. He is also an Adjunct Senior Research Associate, Department of Politics and International Relations, Faculty of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg. He can be reached at: [email protected]

Sofya Shahab

Sofya Shahab is a Postdoctoral Research Officer in the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, UK. She can be reached at: [email protected]