Tuesday’s CBS Evening News provided viewers with a rare look at an issue that’s often been ignored by the media in its coverage of ISIS gaining ground in the Middle East: Christians facing persecution. Fill-in anchor Charlie Rose set the scene by stating the obvious that “Iraq today is a fractured nation” with “[m]uch of the north” now “controlled by ISIS.” Rose then tossed to foreign correspondent Charlie D’Agata to report on “a town where people fear their way of life is disappearing.”

In the first of two Iraqi Christians interviewed, D’Agata spoke with Mayada-Abdul Rhani, who told him about how both she and her children found themselves in Alqosh at a shelter “after Islamic militants overran Mosul in the neighboring villages.” When ISIS arrived, D’Agata provided translated voice-overs for Rhani as she explained the all-too-familiar ultimatum she was issued: As a Christian, she was forced to make a stark decision — convert to Islam or face execution. Now, she told us, she doesn’t trust any Muslims. “They recruit and train kids like mine to behead people,” she said. “How can I ever live with those people? It was difficult to live with them before ISIS. Now, it’s impossible.”

Read the article “CBS Spotlights Plight of Iraqi Christians Under Threat from ISIS; ‘Their Way of Life is Disappearing’” on newsbusters.org.