Via LWJ:
The Popular Mobilization Force (PMF), the command assigned by the Iraqi government with organizing militias to fight the Islamic State, has exceeded the scope of its mission by attempting to impart changes in society and culture through threats and force.
This month, the PMF began harassing Christians in Baghdad by suggesting women wear the hijab, or veil, and instructing the minority not to celebrate Christmas.
The PMF erected posters in several Baghdad neighborhoods with large numbers of Christians in mid-December, calling for women there to wear the hijab, multiple witnesses said according to Qenshrin. The posters were plastered on “churches and monasteries” in the neighborhoods of “Al Karada, Karadat Maryam, Al Kathmiyeh, Al Sayyideh, Zeinouneh, and Al Ghadir,” the news service reported.
A Christian woman told Al Arabi al Jadid that she saw a similar poster at an official government building with “a slogan” written on it “which made clear that these instructions had to be carried out willingly or by force,” Qenshrin reported.
Additionally, some Christians in Baghdad said they “they had received threats from militias who had taken over the city” that warned them not to celebrate Christmas or the New Year “in order to honor the martyrs of the Hashid Shaabi [Populate Mobilization Force] who defended ‘the nation and the religion,’” against the Islamic State, Al Qods Al Arabi reported. […]
The PMF has been instrumental in liberating the Iraqi cities of Tikrit and Baiji as well as other towns from the Islamic State. Soleimani, the Qods Force commander, was directly involved in those operations and has been spotted on multiple battlefields in Iraq.
Despite the fact the organization is operating under the command of a specially designated global terrorist, the US military and State Department have praised the PMF – also overlooking that its largest and most powerful militias are Iranian proxies which have reportedly committed war crimes.
The PMF’s harassment of Christians in Baghdad is a clear indication that the militia continues to stray from its mission of combatting the Islamic State and seeks to enforce its own version of sharia, or Islamic Law.