Christianity on the brink: Religion DECIMATED from birthplace - 'We NEED help'

Christianity, a leading Catholic charity has warned, could be reduced to a “token religion” in the country unless worshippers receive urgent aid.

Islamic extremists have driven tens of thousands of Christians from their homes, with Islamic State (ISIS) destroying towns and churches.

As the sick death cult retreats further and further in Iraq and Syria, some Christians are returning home to find devastation and destruction, with urgent funds needed to rebuild communities.

However despite this, foreign governments are giving “no help” to Christian communities, leading to tens of thousands of believers to abandon their homelands.

One priest said believers could leave Iraq for good unless desperately needed aid was given to help rebuild nine Christian towns.

Father Salar Kajo of the Churches' Nineveh Reconstruction Committee said: “We have to rebuild now – if we take more time families will leave and Christianity will disappear from Iraq.”

He told anti-persecution charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) help “is urgently necessary”, with many Christians spending “the last three years as refugees in their own country, Iraq”.

Father Kajo said: “If the Christians do all go home this will only be because of help from organisations like ACN – because we are getting no help from governments.

“After a year of rebuilding, the only channel of aid has been through the Church.”

Father Kajo said the few Christians who had returned home immediately made a point of checking on their Muslim neighbours.

He said Christian worshippers told the, they wanted to “live in peace” in mixed communities and not be forced to flee their homes and possibly their country.

He said: “The first thing these families did on returning to their villages was to go and visit their Muslim neighbours, to ask them how they were.

“And they told them that they wanted to return to live in peace and recover the spirit of mutual coexistence.”

Many Christians returning to their towns often found their homes and churches destroyed.

He said: “In Batnaya, the first place I visited was the church and I could see that everything had been destroyed.

“Lying on the ground there were Bibles and lectionaries that had recently been burnt.

“Before leaving the village, the militants of Daesh made a special point of ransacking the churches.

“We want to return, to recover our dignity and to work and live as we did before Daesh. This is our land, this is our identity.”