Rudaw has obtained an exclusive video, shot in recent days, showing the ruins of a church in Mosul destroyed by Islamic State (ISIS) militants. “Until this very moment, the destroyed churches have remained untouched since Daash blew them up,” says the person who filmed the site, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS. ISIS leveled the Church of the Virgin Mary in late July, a month and a half after they topple Mosul and pushed on to control much of northern and central Iraq. The Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights announced days later that ISIS had loaded the church with improvised explosive devices and successfully detonated the church. Since its destruction “no one is allowed to get close to it,” the reporter added, but he was able to film the site because "no people can be seen around the churches and the city in general." Graffiti has been written on the walls, stating that "these places are destroyed under ISIS order," among other jihadi slogans and directives. The Assyrian International News Agency reports that all 45 Christian churches or institutions in Mosul are now destroyed or occupied by the group. Days before blowing up the church, ISIS decreed strict new laws for the Christian population, marking the homes of Christians with red spray paint. Residents were given the option to convert to Islam, pay the ‘jizya’ – a historic tax levied on non-Muslim populations since the first years of the religion—go in to exile, or face execution. Most opted to leave the city, and most were systematically robbed of any valuables, goods, or livestock at ISIS checkpoints. This was a shock Mosul’s Christians, who were promised protection when the city fell into ISIS hands. In the first days of their administration, they went house to house in Christian neighborhoods, offering their phone numbers in case locals were harassed by Sunni militias or neighbors. The Archbishop Giorgio Lingua, the Pope’s envoy to Iraq, had previously confirmed that priests were allowed to come and go from the city and administer the sacraments to Christians in their homes. But blowing-up churches sent a strong message to the Christian community, virtually all of which subsequently left Mosul for the Kurdistan Region or the surrounding Nineveh plains, home to a number of Christian villages. Thousands more came to Kurdistan after ISIS pushed further into Nineveh and Shingal in early August, where they massacred Christians, Yezidis, and other religious minorities, with reports of other crimes such as rape and selling women as slaves. Today the majority of Iraq’s internally displaced Christians live in Kurdish camps or within the region’s cities, with a high concentration in Erbil’s Christian quarter, Ainkawa. Fundamentalist salafists in Mosul have also destroyed a number of Muslim shrines, including the 14th century mosque containing the tomb of the biblical prophet Jonah, sacred to all Abrahamic traditions.
Iraq17-06-2026Iraq’s 40.1 million social media accounts outpace 39.6 million internet users: Watchdog
