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Escaping ISIL: Iraqi Christians Find Refuge in Michigan
WARREN, Mich. — On the road fleeing their hometown in Iraq, the Ilotte family was packed tight in a black sedan as ISIL forces advanced behind them.
“They’re going to kill us, they’re going to get us,” 4-year-old Frans Ilotte cried in the backseat.
“No, we’ll protect you. It’s OK,” the boy’s parents assured him.
But with their gas tank running low, they weren’t sure what would happen. The Catholic family was among thousands of other Christians that day in August fleeing Bartella, a small Assyrian village near Mosul in northern Iraq. The four lanes of the highway — including the two westbound lanes — were jammed with cars headed east.
As non-Muslims, the Ilotte family knew they would either be killed or oppressed by ISIL, a militant group that seeks to dominate the region with their interpretation of Islam.
“The sounds of bullets were coming from everywhere,” recalled the boy’s father, Waseem Ilotte, 35.
“Imagine someone chasing you, trying to kill you,” he said. “It’s hard to describe that feeling.”
Now living in a Warren apartment with his wife, Lara Al Aso, and two young boys, Ilotte is trying to restart his life, but the narrow escape from ISIL and the loss of their life in Iraq has stayed with them. His 4-year-old son and wife are still shaken up, suffering from anxiety, and they worry about other family members now scattered across the Mideast.
“We left our history,” Aso said. “We left our past lives in the middle of the night.”
The story of the family’s escape from ISIL is echoed by thousands of other Christians and others who have fled in recent months the advances of ISIL, or the Islamic State. Their account offers a glimpse into how ISIL has systematically cleansed villages of minorities and others who aren’t Sunni Muslims. They’ve killed, abducted and tortured Iraqis, according to community leaders and news reports.
Most minorities who have fled ISIL have ended up in other parts of Iraq, neighboring countries, or in Europe. A few, such as the Ilottes, have ended up in the U.S. because they had previously applied for residency through family members.
As much as they miss Bartella, the Ilottes said they have no plans to return. While they’ve lost their homes and possessions, they feel lucky to have escaped with their lives and freedom, unlike many others.
“There’s no going back when even the military is fleeing,” Ilotte said recently inside the Chaldean American Ladies of Charity Center in Troy. “They don’t want Christians there.”
Small-town life
Up until 2003, life for the couple in Bartella was relatively relaxed.
He was an electrician, as was his father, in a place that “had a small-town feel,” he said.
They were Chaldeans, Iraqi Catholics, part of a religious community that stretched back almost to the start of Christianity 2,000 years ago.
But the start of the U.S.-led Iraq war brought changes, with Iraqis of various groups such as Sunnis and Shi’as now moving into what was predominantly Christian place.
“Women started to feel uncomfortable,” Ilotte said. “It wasn’t safe for them to walk around.”
Then in June, ISIL swept through Mosul, threatening the small Christian towns nearby.
The morning of Aug. 6, Aso had woken up in Bartella looking forward to the marriage of her brother, who lives in Texas, but had come back to his hometown in Iraq for his wedding celebration.
Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press