GOTTINGEN, Germany, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- Iraq should have a referendum to give the Christian community an autonomous region in the north of the country, an advocacy group said.
The Islamic State of Iraq, a group with ties to al-Qaida, has claimed responsibility for an assault Sunday on a Christian church in Baghdad. The attack killed 58 people and wounded 75 others.
Tilman Zulch, the president of the Society for Threatened Peoples, said autonomy for the remaining Christians in Iraq could bring safety to the minority religious community.
"Autonomy for the region could help protect the smaller ethnic and religious communities if this area is connected to the peaceful Iraqi-Kurdish region," he said in a statement from his headquarters in Germany. "The situation there has been safe for years and the policies of the regional government concerning nationalities are exemplary for the entire Middle East region."
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in March that thousands of Christians were displaced from Mosul in northern Iraq because of lingering violence.
A spate of attacks rocked the Christian community of Iraq in 2008, displacing nearly half of the population.
The advocacy group said that more than 75 percent of the Christian population has fled Iraq because of targeted attacks since 2003.
Zulch claimed the Iraqi constitutional allows for autonomous regions, saying a referendum on the issue should be conducted "soon."
