Last Christians flee Mosul on pain of death

The last Christians in Mosul, Iraq’s second city, fled last weekend with little more than the clothes they were wearing, driven out by Islamist terrorists. Mosul is one of the most ancient centres of Christian civilisation.

Response from governments and many Churches to the momentous event was mostly muted, a “silence” vigorously challenged by former UK ambassador to the Holy See, Francis Campbell.

“A culture and civilisation is being destroyed and our political leaders are silent,” he said, asking Prime Minister David Cameron via the social networking site Twitter: “Why is the UK silent on the ethnic cleansing of Christians from Mosul?”

The exodus of at least 3,000 people followed a warning read out in Mosul’s mosques on 18 July, and broadcast on loudspeakers, that ordered Christians either to convert to Islam, to submit to its rule and pay a religious levy, or face death. “If they refuse this they will have nothing but the sword,” the announcement read.

The deadline was set by the Islamic State terrorists who took over the city six weeks ago. They singled out homes belonging to Christians and marked them in red paint with the Arabic form of the letter “N”, for “Nasara”, which means Christian or Nazarene. The Syriac bishop’s residence and library were burnt down and the terrorists occupied Mosul’s Chaldean Catholic and Syriac Orthodox cathedrals, removing crosses and hoisting the Islamic state’s black flag.

Speaking in Baghdad last Sunday, the head of Iraq’s largest church said the jihadists have devastated a Christian community almost as old as Christianity itself. Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphaël Sako reported that even in late June, 35,000 Christians lived in Mosul. He told a special service at the Chaldean Church of St George that the crime was “not just against Christians, but against humanity”.  The 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation condemned the forced displacement, while the Kurdistan regional government offered a safe haven.

The Chaldean Archbishop of Erbil, Bashar M. Warda, told Release International, which supports persecuted Christians: “June was the first month in 1,600 years in which Mosul did not celebrate any Mass.” On Monday, the jihadists seized the ancient monastery near Mosul of Mar Behnam and expelled the monks. 

Francis Campbell, who is to take over as vice-chancellor of St Mary’s University Twickenham in September, and others including the Church of England, changed their Twitter account profile pictures to an image of the Arabic “N” symbol.

A Foreign Office spokesman told The Tablet: “The threat to Christians in the Mosul area is a particular tragedy, given that it has one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. We will work with the new Baghdad Government  to raise these matters further.”

A demonstration organised by the five Iraqi Eastern Churches in support of Iraqi Christians is to take place in London today at noon at the Houses of Parliament.