A reminder to what could happen to Christians in Afghanistan

Some seven years ago just days after the militant group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria said they killed hundreds of Syrians, dozens of Iraqi Christian families had to flee the ISIS-controlled city of Mosul, hoping to avoid a similar fate.

The 18th of July 2014, the al Qaeda splinter group issued an ultimatum to Iraqi Christians living in Mosul – by Saturday they had to be converted to Islam, pay a fine or face “death by the sword.” A total of 52 Christian families left the city of Mosul early Saturday morning, with an armed group prohibiting some of them from taking anything but the clothes on their backs.

“They told us, ‘You to leave all of your money, gold, jewelry and go out with only the clothes on you,'”

Wadie Salim told CNN at that time.

Images obtained exclusively by CNN show that the phrase “property of ISIS” scrawled in black paint on a number of the homes that were abandoned.

There and then those Christians could still find a place to go to. Some of the families headed for Irbil – which was then controlled by Kurdish forces – and others toward the Dohuk province. The majority went to Dohuk, which is 140 kilometers (87 miles) north of Mosul.

Like at that time people now in Afghanistan do not know how to act. Many wonder

“Are we going to get killed?”

We saw in 2014 ISIS to be able to take over large swaths of land due to the lack of centralized authority in both Iraq and war-torn Syria. We also saw how the Sunni militants hoped to establish an Islamic state throughout the region and how much bloodshed came over the land.

Today the Taliban again repeated soothing words that people in Afhanistan should not have to worry. But the past reactions when they conquered land did not prove they were very friendly to people who thought differently than they.