IRBIL, Iraq — With extremists flying the black flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham less than an hour down the road, the future of one of the last Christian communities in the Middle East is at grave risk of assimilation or annihilation.

An estimated 100,000 Iraqi Christians fled the Plain of Mosul in several panicked waves that began in June as ISIS swept east from the Syrian border, murdering, raping and kidnapping as it went. Every place ISIS conquered, it immediately issued an ultimatum to Christians that repeated the stark choice they had given to Syrian Christians when they seized large parts of that country during the past two years. Christians had to either pay a huge ransom for their freedom, convert to Islam or be killed.

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