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In the wake of ISIS

Posted on by Michigan
Father Emanuel Youkhana walks through the rubble of a church in Mosul, Iraq. The church belonged to the Ancient Church of the East. According to neighbors, the Islamic State group--which took over the city in 2014--used the building as a warehouse until the final weeks of their occupation, when they awarded the building to a contractor who began to demolish it in order to salvage the steel rebar in the walls. Photo © Paul Jeffrey.

Missionary and photojournalist Paul Jeffrey tells the story of Christians suffering in Iraq. 

REV. PAUL JEFFREY
United Methodist News Service

As Iraqi soldiers raised their country’s flag over eastern Mosul on Jan. 27, celebrating the liberation of half the city from control by the Islamic State group, many residents took to the streets to celebrate, waving flags and snapping selfies with elite counter-terrorism troops.

Yet some citizens of Mosul could find little to celebrate in the slow but steady defeat of ISIS.

“I don’t see a future for Christians in Mosul,” said Father Emanuel Youkhana, a priest of the Assyrian Church of the East who tagged along with me on a trip into Mosul, helping me with translation. We entered the city in a military convoy, but once inside were free to move around.

I went to Mosul as part of a 10-day reporting trip to war-weary Iraq. During the first half of the trip, I accompanied an international delegation of church leaders who met with government officials and religious authorities.

We focused particularly on the situation of Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities who have suffered a harsh fate at the hands of ISIS, which took over Mosul and the Nineveh Plain in 2014, causing people to flee into makeshift camps for the internally displaced around Erbil and other cities in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region.

Many of those Christians would like to leave Iraq, and over the last two years, tens of thousands have departed for Europe, Australia and North America. The exodus continues, though President Donald Trump’s ban on visas to all Iraqis removes the United States as a destination for now.

Choosing to stay or leave is a painful decision.

Read and view more of Jeffrey’s photo-essay.

Last Updated on January 9, 2023

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The Michigan Conference