Christian Archives

Early Christian Armenian manuscripts are presented in Washington

May 14, 2018 by administrator

Christian Armenian manuscripts

Several early Christian Armenian art manuscripts also are displayed at the newly opened Museum of the Bible, in Washington D.C.

Armenian News-NEWS.am has learned from the embassy of Armenia in the United States that the 12th- to 15th-centuries’ illustrated Armenian Gospel, which belonged to the Armenian kings of Cilicia, as well as the 17th-century Armenian manuscript Gospel from Constantinople are among the exhibits of this museum.

In addition, the translations’ section of this museum tells the story of the creation of the Armenian alphabet in the 5th century by Mesrop Mashtots, and the main objective of which was to translate the Bible from Greek and Latin into Armenian.

Christian World Heritage site damaged by Turkish raids

March 23, 2018 by administrator

Damascus, (AFP) – Turkish aviation damaged a UNESCO-listed Christian archaeological site in Syria, as Ankara forces launched an offensive in the north-west of the country against the Kurdish enclave Afrine, the Syrian authorities said Thursday.

The bombings conducted Wednesday night “by Turkish planes” targeted “the site of Brad, located 15 km from the city of Afrine, and inscribed on the World Heritage List since 2011,” said the Directorate General of Antiquities and museums in Syria (DGAM) on its website.

The strikes caused “the destruction of several important archaeological buildings” and among the affected structures are “the tomb of St. Maron, patron of the Maronite community, and the church of St. Julianos which houses this tomb,” according to the head of the General Directorate of Antiquities Mahmoud Hammoud.

It is “one of the oldest Christian churches in the world”, built towards the end of the fourth century, he said.

Turkey launched an offensive on January 20 to drive out the Kurdish militia of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) from its border. His forces seized Sunday the city of Afrine, chasing the YPG from the enclave.

At the end of January, a 3,000-year-old neo-Hittite temple had already been damaged by Turkish air strikes in northern Syria. Ankara then assured that the “archaeological remains” were “certainly not part of the targets” of its offensive.

In addition to the tomb of Saint-Maron, discovered in 2002 by French archaeologists, the ancient city of Brad includes several Christian remains dating from the Roman and Byzantine periods.

“This site is one of the most beautiful pages in the history of Christianity. It houses three churches, a monastery and a five-meter tower, “said Maamoun Abdul Karim, the former chief of antiquities. “Even the Mongols have not done it,” he lamented to AFP.

He had recently sounded the alarm about ancient early Christian villages inscribed on the UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger in 2013, located in the Jabal Samaan area near the city. of Afrin.

UNESCO has repeatedly deplored “the vastness of the damage” to archaeological and cultural treasures in Syria since the beginning of the war in 2011.

The jihadist group Islamic State (EI) has destroyed the most beautiful temples of Palmyra during its occupation of the site.

The Maronite community plays a predominant political role in Lebanon, where the first disciples of Saint-Maron arrived from Syria more than 1,500 years ago.

Friday, March 23, 2018,
Ara © armenews.com

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Is the UK Overthrowing the Christian Basis of the West?

December 18, 2017 by administrator

by Giulio Meotti
As the progressive publication Prospect asked, “if we are no longer a Christian country, what are we?”
Christians in the UK are on course to be in the minority by the middle of the century.
What defines Europe are its boundaries – not physical but cultural. Without its culture, Europe could not be distinguished from the rest of the world. And the pillar of this culture is based on the Judeo-Christian heritage and values.

British Christian publications have been wondering if we are witnessing the “extinction of Christianity in Egypt“, where the Christian faithful have suffered persecution and terror attacks at the hands of Islamic fundamentalists. Christian leaders also seem to be wondering if Christianity will be “extinct within a generation” in the UK, where religious people enjoy total freedom of worship and faith.

Last year, the Church of England began to formulate a religious revolution. Its canonical laws require that British churches hold their functions every Sunday. The dramatic crisis of Christianity in the UK, however, is pushing the Anglican church to rewrite those rules, in order not to officiate in empty and abandoned churches.

A quarter of the British rural parishes now have fewer than 10 regular members of the faithful on Sunday. There are no more children in 25% of the Church of England’s congregations, as new figures have just shown. On average, nine children attended each church service across all Anglican churches in 2016. Generally speaking, churchgoers have dwindled in the UK by 34,000 in just one year.

“Should we care that Britain’s lost its religion?“, Daniel Finkelstein asked in The Times. Yes. He suggests that nationalism might take its place, but what if, instead, its place is taken by another religion? There is no need to be observant to understand the importance of a country’s cultural affiliation. If there were no mass immigration from countries with values antithetical to Western ones, the demise of Christianity would not be as potentially calamitous; society might simply become one of atheists and secularists. Europe now, however, is experiencing a terminal decline for two reasons that are linked: mass unvetted immigration coupled with a shrinking confidence in its own legitimacy and beliefs. There seems to be shame over Western colonialism, yet no thought at all seems to be given to who are the real colonists: The Crusades were a reaction to a Muslim colonization of the Christian Byzantine Empire, North Africa, the Middle East, much of Eastern Europe, Northern Cyprus and Spain.

In Europe, the UK is now leading the same process. Britain is living through “the biggest religious transition since the Reformation of the 16th Century“, according to Linda Woodhead, professor of the sociology of religion at Lancaster University. In 2000, Anglicans were 30% of the population. Half of them have disappeared in just seventeen years. The number of those who belong to the Church of England fell below 15%, including just 3% of English young people ages 18-24. Writing in the Spectator, Damian Thompson wondered if “the Church of England is dying“. Churchgoing dropped by 50% also in Scotland. Another report revealed that more than half the British population has no religion at all.

According to internal documents from the Church of England, Christianity is dying in Britain at such a pace that in the next three decades, Anglican congregations will halve again. Christians in the UK are on course to be in the minority by the middle of the century.

Iraq’s Christians ponder future in wake of Kurdish independence vote

October 25, 2017 by administrator

Omar Sattar,

BAGHDAD — The Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Rafael Sako, in an Oct. 16 press interview, expressed his concern that the Kurdish crisis would put at risk the Christians’ presence in Iraq. He said the current conflict in the disputed areas between Baghdad and Erbil would impede the Christians’ return to their areas, and prompt Christians to rush to leave their country for good.

Sako appealed to Christians to unite their ranks and engage in dialogue to preserve the Christian component in Iraq. Nevertheless, the church’s calls for a dialogue that would have Iraq’s Christians discuss the future of “the Christian component” may not gain much traction because of the great divide among this religious grouping, particularly following the referendum on independence for the Kurdistan region that took place Sept. 25.

There are three main political stances among Christians. Ryan Chaldean, the leader of the Popular Mobilization Units’ (PMUs) Babylon Brigade, represents Christians close to the Shiites and federal authority. They are committed to Iraq’s unity and oppose the secession of Kurdistan, where the largest part of the Christian minority in Iraq lives.

Furthermore, there are those Christians who favor secession and becoming part of a Kurdish state. They are made up of a large number of Assyrian and Syriac parties, most notably the Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council.

The third stance is expressed by those who say there is a need for Christians to have an internationally sponsored special status within a federal Iraq. Sako is one of them.

There are an estimated 450,000 Christians in Iraq, mainly in Dahuk and Erbil provinces in the Kurdistan region and in Alqosh and Bartella in the Ninevah Plains in Ninevah province. There are also are some Christians in Baghdad and other Arab-majority provinces.

People in Christian areas were subject to captivity and forced displacement after the Islamic State (IS) seized parts of northern and western Iraq in 2014, particularly Mosul. This caused a majority of Christians to move to the Kurdistan region in the past three years. Earlier, other Christians had fled to the Kurdistan region as sectarian violence erupted in Baghdad. Presently, they hold an important card in the Iraqi-Kurdish equation, and many Christians voted in the referendum on Kurdish independence.

Halan Hermez, a member of the Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council, told Al-Monitor, “Christians are an important component in the Kurdistan region. They are even the indigenous people of this territory. Based on that, taking part in the referendum on the Kurdistan independence was imperative.”

Hermez, who is also a member of the Supreme Council for the Kurdistan Region Referendum, said, “The vast majority of this Christian component is in favor of the independence, as they were subjected to killings and displacements in the rest of the Iraqi areas. This is while they have found security and stability in Kurdistan.”

Commenting on the Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council’s perception of Christians’ future, Hermez said, “An independent region within the Kurdish state is what we seek. In case independence does not succeed, we seek to have a province that includes the Ninevah Plains established, provided that this province be within the Kurdistan region.”

Of note, Christians do not form a majority in all areas where they have a strong presence, particularly outside the Kurdistan region. For instance, Christians make up about 15% of the Ninevah Plains population, while the Yazidis consist of nearly 40%. The Shabak people represent 25% and Arabs 20%. In addition, there are 65,000 Christian citizens in Qaraqosh, also known as Hamdaniya, alongside 175,000 Shabak and Kurdish people in the Ninevah province.

There are about 25,000 Christian citizens out of 175,000 people in Tel Keppe district, while there are 7,000 Christians out of 37,000 people in the Shekhan district. Both are in Ninevah.

Based on that, Joseph Saliwa, a Christian member of the Iraqi parliament for the al-Warka bloc, said, “It is not to the Christians’ advantage to have a region established at present or to support the Kurdistan region’s secession from Iraq.” He told Al-Monitor, “The referendum has ignited many crises within the country and problems with neighbors and the rest of the world’s countries. It is not in the advantage of a minority, such as the Christian minority, to be involved in that.”

Saliwa said, “The establishment of a new province affiliated with the Baghdad central government is the most suitable solution for Christians — a province that would include the Ninevah Plains, and all of its neighboring areas inside and outside the region. It would also accommodate the area’s other components, such as the Shabak people and Yazidis, under the umbrella of the international community. It would be a province that would become a model of development in Iraq.”

He said, “The Iraqi Cabinet had previously decided to turn the Ninevah Plains into a province. We will be seeking to activate such a decision in parliament.”

He said, “Significant pressure placed on Christians by parties in control of their areas is behind the differing Christian stances.”

The Babylon Brigades’ Ryan Chaldean opposed the referendum and Christians’ secession from Iraq. He also rejected the idea that they should be given special status. He argued in Oct. 13 statement that Kurdish authorities are “further entrenching the Kurdish character” in the Kurdish areas, adding that the independence issue is like “a fire” ignited in Iraq.

Iraqi Christians’ pursuit of living in security and having their civil rights safeguarded exceeds their search for a political and administrative independence. This is due to the harassment they have suffered at the hands of armed groups and militias, as well as their political exploitation by various Iraqi parties that view the minority card to be of a major importance in acquiring land and obtaining international support and sympathy.

In order for minorities, particularly the Christian minority, to have a special status or have their social and security problems resolved, they are required to take part in a “historic” political settlement that may require that amendments be added to the Iraqi constitution, that ensures security, guarantees political stability and puts a halt to the demands that independence be achieved and a region be established.

Egypt’s Coptic Christians, celebrate Easter Mass under increased security

April 16, 2017 by administrator

Tight security and grief have cast a shadow on Easter Mass services for Egypt’s Coptic Christians just days after 45 people died in twin church bombings. The militant “Islamic State” group claimed the Palm Sunday blasts.

Members of Egypt’s Christian minority observed traditional Easter services across the country on Saturday following twin blasts last Sunday that killed 45 people.

Several security agents could be seen surrounding Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II as he entered St. Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo, where he led the mass. Worshipers passed through three metal detectors outside St. Mark’s Cathedral while soldiers and policemen stood guard outside.

Last Sunday, two suicide bombers struck a Coptic cathedral in Alexandria and a church in Tanta during Palm Sunday services, wounding over 100 people and killing dozens. Coptic Pope Tawadros had been leading the mass at the cathedral in Alexandria at the time of the blast, but was not injured.

Rafiq Bishry, head of the organizational committee for St. Mark’s Cathedral in Alexandria, told Reuters Television that he was surprised that so many people had come to the services despite the security risks.

“This is a clear message to the whole world that we are not afraid,” he told Reuters.

The militant “Islamic State” group claimed responsibility for the bomb attacks, vowing in an earlier statement to continue targeting the country’s Coptic Christian community.

Celebrations cancelled

Egypt’s Interior Ministry announced that there would be heightened security measures on Saturday, creating 400 meter security cordons around churches. Bomb squads also scanned churches around the country on Saturday, an official told the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

After the attacks last Sunday, the Egyptian government introduced a three-month state of emergency, giving it sweeping powers to act against what it determines to be enemies of the state.

During his Good Friday sermon, Pope Tawadros announced that the celebratory aspects of Easter would be cancelled this year since mourning for the victims of the church bombings was ongoing.

In Egypt, Coptic Christians break a 55-day fast that includes abstaining from all animal products following Saturday’s mass.

The Coptic Church is one of the oldest Christian communities in the Middle East, and its members make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s population. Although Copts have lived alongside Egypt’s Muslim majority for centuries, in recent years Christian churches have repeatedly been targeted by sectarian violence.

rs/bw (AP, AFP, Reuters)

MIDDLE-EAST Two Christians burned alive in Sinai

February 22, 2017 by administrator

EL-ARISH: Egyptian security officials said suspected militants have killed two Christians in the restive north of the Sinai Peninsula, days after a Daesh affiliate vowed to step up a wave of attacks on the embattled minority.

The officials said Saad Hana, 65, was shot dead and his son Medhat, 45, was abducted and burned alive before their bodies were dumped on a roadside in El-Arish on Wednesday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

Coptic Christians, who make up 10 percent of Egypt’s population, have increasingly come under attack since the military overthrow of an elected president in 2013.

A Daesh video released this week cast them as allies of the West and vowed further attacks.

Separately on Wednesday, Jean-Louis Tauran, a representative from the Vatican French cardinal, and Abbas Shuman, the deputy imam of Al-Azhar mosque, attended a joint seminar on ways to tackle religious intolerance in the world.

Blind Sheikh’s body back home

The body of a blind Egyptian jihadist convicted of plotting terror attacks in New York was brought back to Egypt for burial after he died in a US federal prison over the weekend.

Omar Abdel Rahman, the so-called Blind Sheikh, was arrested in 1993 and convicted in 1995 along with nine followers of conspiracy to blow up the UN building and several New York landmarks. He was serving a life sentence in prison when he died on Saturday.

Abdel-Rahman was the leader of a radical organization, the most feared militant group in Egypt in the 1980s and 1990s. He fled to the US in 1990.

Dozens of his followers waited at the Cairo airport on Wednesday to receive the body and take it to his hometown in Dakahliya province.

Source: http://www.arabnews.com/node/1058311/middle-east#.WK5e5WEYvgc.twitter

LA-bound Armenian Christians held up in travel ban’s wake

February 17, 2017 by administrator

When President Donald Trump signed his executive order halting refugee admissions last month citing national security, he made it a point to say that religious minorities, especially Christians, would be given priority.

But some Christian refugees have been unable to enter the U.S. in the aftermath of the presidential order, even though the travel ban has been suspended for now by federal courts.

One family bound for Los Angeles is among the refugees held up in Iran, Southern California Public Radio reports.

George Haratoonian, a business owner who lives in Glendale and arrived himself as a refugee nearly three decades ago, was expecting his brother’s family to fly into Los Angeles on February 4. They were planning to live with him until they got settled.

But just as the president’s order took effect in late January, the family received disappointing news: their visas to Austria, the first leg of their journey, had been canceled. Haratoonian was with them in Tehran when they got the news.

“We had hoped that this thing was a rumor,” he said. It wasn’t.

The Haratoonians are Armenian Christians, a religious minority in Iran. The family was traveling to the U.S. through what is known as the Lautenberg program, which benefits religious minorities. The program was originally enacted in 1990 to assist refugees from the former Soviet Union. Today, the program mostly benefits Christian, Jewish, Baha’i and other religious minority refugees from Iran.

Under the program, refugees transit from Iran to Austria, then on to the United States. Because the U.S. has no embassy in Iran, they must complete their paperwork in Austria before they continue on to the U.S. In order to get to Austria, they receive what’s known as a “D visa” from the Austrian government.

An Austrian government official confirmed in an email to KPCC that the visas of Iranian refugees in the program were canceled “following a procedural modification on the part of the United States.” The action occurred just ahead of the ban taking place. Refugee agencies believe that the Austrian government anticipated a policy change and didn’t want refugees stuck in transit.

The U.S. State Department had no comment on the refugees’ status.

The president’s executive order issued on January 27 temporarily halted travel from seven predominantly Muslim nations and suspended refugee arrivals. The ban created chaos at airports around the country, including at Los Angeles International Airport. Those arriving from the affected countries were detained for hours and at least two people at LAX were put back on planes.

A federal district judge in the state of Washington placed a temporary stay on the president’s ban and the suspension was upheld by a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last week.

Administration officials are now weighing their options, which could include a revision of the travel ban to address legal issues and a request for the full Ninth Circuit to review the stay of the ban.

Democrats see persecution of Muslims in the U.S. more than that of Christians in Islamic world: Poll

February 14, 2017 by administrator

By Bradford Richardson – The Washington Times – Tuesday, February 7, 2017

A majority of Democrats believe Muslims are mistreated in the United States because of their faith, but fewer will say the same thing about Christians living in the Islamic world, a new poll shows.

Fifty-six percent of Democrats say Muslims living in the U.S. are mistreated due to their faith, a Rasmussen poll released on Tuesday shows. That view is shared by 22 percent of Republicans and 39 percent of unaffiliated voters.

Fewer Democrats, 47 percent, believe Christians living in the Islamic world are persecuted over their faith. That’s compared to 76 percent of Republicans and 64 percent of unaffiliated voters.

Last year, former Secretary of State John Kerry said Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East are victims of genocide at the hands of the Islamic State terror group.

A majority of Americans, 62 percent, believe Christians are treated unfairly in the Islamic world because of their faith. Seventeen percent say they disagree, while 21 percent are undecided.

Iraqi Kurds block aid to Christian militia

January 3, 2017 by administrator

An Iraqi Christian forces member from the Nineveh Protection Unit, or NPU lights a candle at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in the town of Qaraqosh (also known as Hamdaniya) Oct. 30, 2016. Photo: AFP

By William J. Murray

QARAQOSH, Iraq,— The Christian town of Qaraqosh, Iraq, located on the Nineveh Plain, is in ruins. It is far worse than its appearance, which is bad enough. Other than a handful of volunteers to clean up the streets, and the 300 or so members of the Nineveh Protection Unit, or NPU, the town is deserted.

The Christian town has enemies other than the ruthless Islamic State, or ISIS, which left it in ruins. Currently the Kurdish militia, the Peshmerga, is blocking aid to the NPU that guards the town, because the NPU is the Assyrian Christian militia. It is the only armed Christian group in Iraq.

The Kurds and some Shia have territorial claims on the Nineveh Plain. While for appearance and funding from Washington, the Kurdish support Christian interests for now, the historical relationship between the two groups includes participation in the slaughter of Christians by the tens of thousands. There is no room for a Christian enclave, particularly one that is armed, in the future of an independent state of Kurdistan, which the Kurds are foolish enough to believe that Washington will support.

On a recent day, I personally was escorting three trucks of supplies to the NPU, one two-ton truck with food and two pickups filled with bottled water, when the Peshmerga stopped us at their main checkpoint between Erbil and Qaraqosh. I had authorized the aid, which amounted to a 20-day supply of food for the 300-man NPU garrison guarding Qaraqosh.

For more than two hours, solutions of varying kinds were explored. Taking certain measures that cannot be discussed here, we were finally able to deliver the aid to Qaraqosh. When we arrived at the NPU warehouse in Qaraqosh, the supplies for the day consisted of two bags of onions – that was all. There, we unloaded 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) of rice and other supplies.

During my time in Qaraqosh, I should have felt somewhat surprised by the evil done by the Islamic State, but knowing the master it serves, I was not.

Before its destruction, the entire town was looted of everything, from simple home furnishings to heavy machinery. All looted materials from Iraq, and Syria as well, have been taken to Turkey for resale to fund the ongoing operations of the Islamic State. Of course, the Turkish government is aware that such an enormous amount of looted material is being sold at huge discounts in its nation, but it does nothing about it. The machinery from factories in Aleppo, for example, is adding value to the Turkish state. Until the snake bit one of its masters, Turkey was a patron of the various Islamist groups in Syria and Iraq.

I spoke with the NPU commander in charge of the guard and the cleanup. I learned that 25 percent of the buildings in Qaraqosh were completely destroyed and another 50 percent burned out. Only about 25 percent of the buildings remain intact enough for use once glass is replaced and power, water and sewage disposal are restored. In the case of buildings burned by the Islamic State, chemicals were used to produce high enough temperatures to melt the steel supports inside the concrete. Most of the burned buildings must be demolished.

Even the pews in the churches have been taken, probably for firewood. Burned prayer books and Bibles litter the grounds. Every cross was destroyed, even decorative crosses on outside walls that did not resemble the Cross of Christ.

I stood at the very point where an Islamic State suicide bomber blew up his car bomb and killed advancing Iraqi and NPU forces during the battle to liberate Qaraqosh. Islamic State fighters prefer death, with 72 imaginary perpetual virgins, to life. Before death, their religious leaders give them permission to steal, enslave, rape and kill other human beings they view as infidels.

The arming of the NPU in the Nineveh Plain was a new development in Iraq. President George W. Bush had made the decision after the second Gulf War that Shia and Sunni militias could remain armed, but in order to avoid the appearance that the U.S. was “supporting Crusaders,” no Christian militia could exist. Christian majority towns were not even allowed to have Christian police units in their areas. Christian neighborhoods in Baghdad were soon victimized by both Sunni and Shia gangs of thieves and kidnappers, as well as dedicated Sunni terror groups bound on running off both Christians and Shia. The predicable result was a decrease in the Christian population of between 60 percent and 75 percent. An integral part of Iraq’s population was lost, a part that contributed greatly to the harmony of the nation before 2004. Christians were the moderating force in both Iraq and Syria.

After the retreat of the Islamic State from Qaraqosh toward Syria, their flag emblazoned with the phrase “Allah Akbar” was removed from the Church of Immaculate Conception. The black Islamic flag was replaced by the Iraqi Army, as they raised the national flag of Iraq. Yet this flag has written in black in its center the phrase “Allah Akbar.” This one symbolic act illustrates why the Christians of Iraq cannot expect equality and justice.

The Islamists who destroyed the town of Qaraqosh used explosives that could have been of use in battle, but instead were used to blow up bell towers and destroy large crosses and statues of Jesus and Mary. The zeal of the Islamists to destroy all traces of “infidels” was so great that not even the dead were spared their places of rest, as graves were desecrated in Christian cemeteries.

Qaraqosh is symbolic of the condition of Christians in the Middle East. They are under attack by radical enemies and under siege by those who should be their friends. Saudi Arabia continues to pour billions of dollars into Syria to establish a Sunni Caliphate, and Shia majority Iran works with the Iraqi army to defeat the Sunni uprising as the Christian minority suffers. Their suffering has been ignored for the past eight years by the White House. Those desiring to immigrate to the United States have been pushed to the back of the line by a president who prefers Sunni Muslim immigrants from the Middle East.

It would seem natural for the Christians to have a friend in Old Testament Israel, but that is not the case. The Israeli high command prefers a state of chaos on its northern border rather than having unified Arab states with standing armies. Israel has backed up this stance with missile strikes against Syrian government targets over the past six years, although those actions have assisted the Islamic State, al-Nusra and al-Qaida at times.

For different reasons, known only in the mind of President Barack Obama, the official policy of the United States has been a state of chaos in the entire Middle East. The White House has at some points assisted one Islamist group in one nation, while fighting that same group in another area. Several battles have erupted between militias backed by the CIA and the Pentagon, and at least once the United States switched sides in the middle of a battle.

Christians have never fared well during states of war in the Middle East. But the agendas of powerful nations such as the United Kingdom, the United States and Russia are better advanced during periods of chaos than during times of peace. What can be done to help the Christians of Qaraqosh and the rest of the Nineveh Plain? Prayer and assistance from a church in the West, which is now mostly silent, is the request I hear most often from the Christians of Iraq and Syria.

By William J. Murray

Iraqi Christians want to document IS crimes

November 23, 2016 by administrator

For over two years, the Iraqi Christian town of Qaraqosh was the favorite abode for many leaders of the “Islamic State” (IS) group. Judit Neurink reports from Irbil.

“The best houses were occupied by their leaders,” says Father Ammar of the Syrian Catholic Church, who works closely together with the Bishop of Mosul. He flicks through his phone until he finds a picture, and reads out several names, all starting with Abu: “They wrote their names on the wall of our Church of The Immaculate. And one of their leaders lived in the house of the church,” he told DW.

Since August 2014, when IS fighters overtook the Christian towns of the Nineve Plains, Father Ammar has been living in the Christian enclave Ankawa of the Kurdish capital Irbil, like most of his flock who made up the biggest part of the community of Qaraqosh. Days after the Iraqi military liberated Qaraqosh at the end of October he went back.

“The first thing I saw was the hospital and I could not recognize it, the same for the church. I cried, that first feeling was so hard,” he says, sitting in a portacabin near the Mart Shmony Church in Ankawa, where he offers church members help and assistance.

“They are angry that the government wants to clean up in Qaraqosh, to hide the crimes,” Ammar explains. “We want to document everything, all the damage and destruction, before anything is cleaned. Already something has been changed, the IS slogans have been painted over.”

Many of the IS fighters were locals from the surrounding villages, he says. They provided the leaders with fuel for electricity and food. “Houses became clinics and pharmacies. Some were stores for weapons. The Church of Mar Gorgis became a bomb factory.”

All the houses were looted – just like the cemeteries where graves were opened to steal anything valuable buried with the dead. In one of the houses belonging to the church IS fighters kept several Yazidi women as slaves.

Zarifa Badoos Daddo, 77, lived through it all, staying in her house in Qaraqosh during the IS occupation together with an even older friend, who was blind and deaf.

Daddo buried her husband in the first weeks after IS arrived. When the group evacuated the remaining 200 mostly elderly Christians, it seemed to have forgotten about Daddo and her companions. “They had registered us and told us they would let us go to Irbil. But they never came,” she told DW.

With water and electricity cut off, she and her friend only survived because fighters regularly brought them food, she recounts in her brother’s house in Ankawa. She recognized many of them as locals from the villages, some were nice, joking with her and taking care of her. One of them warned her against going out to fetch water in her yard, as the coalition planes were always looking for movements on the ground.

From her window overlooking the town she saw the fighters moving around. “Some had a beard, some did not,” she says. The young ones were the problem, she says, threatening her with their weapons and forcing her to convert to Islam. “A fake conversion,” she calls it. They made her spit on her crucifix and stamp on a portrait of the Virgin Mary.

“Sometimes I asked Maryam, what am I, Muslim or Christian?” she recounts. “I could not sleep. Sometimes I felt I was going crazy and I hit myself.”

Final resting place

Although her house is the only one in Qaraqosh that was not looted completely, fighters came time and again to demand her gold and money. Eventually they found the 15 million Iraqi dinars (over 11,000 euros) she had hidden in a pot in the fridge. Just days before the liberation a young man walked in and took what he wanted from the house.

When the liberation came with bombs and artillery, IS had not brought her food for weeks – the group’s leaders had long since left. She saw the houses in her neighborhood being put on fire and was very sacred when the one attached to hers was torched. “That’s when I saw they had broken through walls to be able to move from house to house without being seen.”

The total number of Christians in the town still missing after the IS invasion varies between 30 to 70. Bodies are still being found. Faraj Saqat, 73, was discovered by his son Edmon buried in the front garden. “I saw some stones and his walking stick. It was a Muslim grave,” Edmon told DW.

Edmon came from London to find his father having lost contact a year ago. He thinks he was buried last winter by a Muslim friend from one of the villages who passed by regularly. “He wore his winter clothes.” He hopes to eventually bury him in the Qaraqosh cemetery: “He wanted to die in Qaraqosh. Once his body has been officially identified, we will bury him there.”

Source: DW.com