World Religions
ISIS, the Islamic state that is taking over much of Iraq and part of Syria, recently issued an ultimatum to Christians in Mosul telling them to either convert, pay a poll tax, or die. Most fled with only the clothes on their back.
For the first time in almost 2000 years, Mosul will have no Christians. And, ISIS is destroying churches and religious icons like the tomb of Jonah and the statute of Mary.
How did Christians happen to settle in Mosul so long ago?
- According to Juan Cole, Christianity may have spread to the Jews of Babylon during the time of St. Peter.
- In fact, one historian “hypothesizes that when St Peter referred to ‘the Church at Babylon’, he may have been referring to an actual Jewish Christian community in the region of the Mesopotamian city, similar to other Nazarene communities which were springing up all over the Roman Empire to the west.”
How many Christians settled in Mosul?
- Over time as empires developed and as Islam spread, Christianity diminished.
- By 1987, notes Cole, there were about “1.4 million Iraqi Christians out of a then population, probably, of 19 million.”
- After the invasion of Iraq, the population decreased further to about 800,000 by 2003.
- Further declines occurred during the American occupation of Iraq leaving about 300,000 in Iraq in 2008
- Now, just before the order from ISIS, only a few thousand remained and most of them are fleeing
- According to the New York Times, some Christians remain hoping for some accommodation with ISIS.
- The Times says:
Chaldeans, Assyrians and other sects, including Mandeans, a Gnostic community who revere John the Baptist, could still be found in Iraq, and many made their home on the plains of Nineveh in the north of the country, an area mentioned in the Bible’s Book of Genesis.
What happened to historic Christian sites?
- ISIS destroyed some sites and burned others.
- The CNN clip below shows how ISIS destroyed the the Tomb of Jonah.
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