{"id":27812,"date":"2018-03-20T08:34:16","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T08:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=27812"},"modified":"2018-03-20T08:34:16","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T08:34:16","slug":"iraq-fear-persists-mosul-isis-robbed-demolished-every-church-acn-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/03\/20\/iraq-fear-persists-mosul-isis-robbed-demolished-every-church-acn-international\/","title":{"rendered":"IRAQ: Fear persists in Mosul where ISIS \u201crobbed and demolished every church\u201d &#8211; ACN International"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>I<\/strong><strong>RAQ<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Fear<\/strong><strong> p<\/strong><strong>ersists in Mosul<\/strong><strong> where ISIS \u201c<\/strong><strong>robbed and demolished every church<\/strong><strong>\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A Christian woman has spoken of her heartbreak seeing Mosul\u2019s desecrated churches \u2013 and remains fearful of Daesh (ISIS) collaborators in the city. Nadia Younis Butti, who returned to Mosul, northern Iraq, for the first time since Daesh seized it in summer 2014, told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need that the city was still \u201cextremely dangerous\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Fearing Daesh sympathizers amid the Muslim community, she said: \u201cA lot of Mosul\u2019s inhabitants have worked together with Daesh-jihadists for three years, and some might have relatives or family members who were with Daesh. \u201cThere are a lot of Sunnis, who often supported Daesh.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">She added: \u201cThe city was released by the Iraqi army, which is supported by many Iranian Shi\u2018a. In Mosul, they are met with a lot of distrust \u2013 they aren\u2019t seen as allies.\u201d She said: \u201cFor me, the city has not become safe since the recapture of Mosul.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Describing the situation in the city, Butti said: \u201cIt is still extremely dangerous in Mosul. I just spoke to a police officer who lost a colleague this week, near St George\u2019s Monastery. He was shot at night.\u201d Extremists are still seen as a threat to Christians. Jihadist graffiti on a wall of the devastated 17th-century monastery states \u2018Daesh will always remain in Iraq\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Islamist group also marked another wall with an arrow pointing towards Mecca so prayers could be recited five times a day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The destruction has been extensive. The monastery\u2019s dome is now tilted and floors, walls, and arches have been stripped of the marble panels.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Gravestones in the monastery cemetery have been smashed, the church\u2019s altar destroyed and a 14th-century statue beheaded.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Butti also visited the damaged Church of the Holy Spirit, where church walls are marked with graffiti which reads \u2018Long lives the caliphate\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Since the church\u2019s liberation in April last year, the ruins have provided shelter for four internally displaced families from Zummar, northern Iraq \u2013 each family lives in a separate room of the church.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Butti said: \u201cNow, Daesh have robbed every church, demolished them and covered them with texts.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">At her own place of worship, the Syriac Orthodox Church of Saint Ephraim, Butti said: \u201cI can\u2019t believe my eyes when I see what Daesh has done to my church.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cI\u2019m not sure my church will ever be fully restored\u2026 the reconstruction of this church will cost a lot of money and energy, and for whom are we rebuilding it? All the Christians have left Mosul.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">But seeing an image of Christ\u2019s face, she added: \u201cWhen I just looked up, I suddenly felt intense happiness. I saw that the blue dome with Jesus\u2019s image had survived the occupation of Daesh reasonably well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cAnd, although not much of its beauty has remained, this image shows how beautiful my church was.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cThe jihadists have only been able to destroy the edges of the picture. Seeing Jesus above me, in this destroyed church, gave me great joy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">ACN is supporting thousands of returning Christians to their towns and villages in the Nineveh Plains of northern Iraq, including the rebuilding of more than 780 families\u2019 homes.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>ACN International<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IRAQ Fear persists in Mosul where ISIS \u201crobbed and demolished every church\u201d A Christian woman has spoken of her heartbreak seeing Mosul\u2019s desecrated churches \u2013 and remains fearful of Daesh (ISIS) collaborators in the city. Nadia Younis Butti, who returned to Mosul, northern Iraq, for the first time since Daesh seized it in summer 2014,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27814,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>IRAQ: Fear persists in Mosul where ISIS \u201crobbed and demolished every church\u201d - ACN International - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/03\/20\/iraq-fear-persists-mosul-isis-robbed-demolished-every-church-acn-international\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"IRAQ: Fear persists in Mosul where ISIS \u201crobbed and demolished every church\u201d - ACN International - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"IRAQ Fear persists in Mosul where ISIS \u201crobbed and demolished every church\u201d A Christian woman has spoken of her heartbreak seeing Mosul\u2019s desecrated churches \u2013 and remains fearful of Daesh (ISIS) collaborators in the city. 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