Christians Martyred by ISIS: 1,131

(CNSNews.com) – A report submitted to the State Department earlier this year documented that between 2003 and June 9, 2014, at least 1,131 Christians – identified by name and place of death – had been murdered by the radical Muslims that comprise the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

In addition, at least 125 Christian churches had been attacked or destroyed by ISIS.

The report, Genocide Against Christians in the Middle East, was submitted to Secretary of State John Kerry on March 9, 2016 by the Knights of Columbus and the humanitarian group In Defense of Christians. Eight days later, March 17, Kerry officially declared that ISIS’s ongoing actions against Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities constituted genocide.

Britain, the European Parliament, the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Iraqi and Kurdish governments have also declared ISIS’s actions genocide.

The report notes that genocide is a crime under federal and international law. It defines genocide as “any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

“Murder of Christians is commonplace” in Iraq, Syria, and Libya, states the report. “Many have been killed in front of their own families. The Syriac Catholic Patriarch of Antioch, many of whose flock lived on the Ninevah plain or in Syria, reports that 500 people were killed by ISIS during its takeover of Mosul and the surrounding region.”

“In Syria, where the organization Aid to the Church in Need has reported on mass graves of Christians, Patriarch Younan estimates the number of Christians ‘targeted and killed by Islamic bands’ at more than 1,000,” states the report.

In section six of the report, it lists the names and place and "date of martyrdom" of 1,131 Christians who were murdered by the Islamic State. For instance, Alicia Nour was martyred in Mosul on Feb. 1, 2005. Ashoor Younan Botros was murdered in Baghdad on June 24, 2013. On July 1, 2015, Qays Abd Shaaya was martyred by the Islamic State in Baghdad.

The 1,131 martyrs are documented from the period 2003 to June 9, 2014.  More Christians reportedly were murdered in 2015 and 2016 but names and places of death have yet to be compiled in one document.

In addition to the list of known martyrs, the report, Genocide Against Christians in the Middle East, lists 125 Christian churches known to have been attacked by ISIS. These include, for instance, Saint George Church in Mosul, which was blown up on March 9, 2015; Virgin Mary Chaldean Church, which was attacked by car bomb on June 9, 2008; and the Armenian Church in Mosul, burned on Jan. 25, 2015.

To read the full report, click here.