Kurdish fighters replaced the cross on the dome of the Immaculate Cathedral last month in Qaraqosh. Credit Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
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By SERGEY
PONOMAREV and TIM ARANGODEC. 23, 2016
QARAQOSH,
Iraq — Despite their hometowns having been recently freed from the Islamic
State, the Christians of Iraq are still in a state of
mourning as Christmas approaches.
Old
towns on the edge of Mosul, where Christians lived for many centuries, have
become wastelands. Most churches are still standing, but badly damaged and
ransacked. When a liberating soldier hoists a cross atop a church, or a priest
returns to take stock of the losses and light a candle, the scenes feel more
sad than hopeful — especially when weighed against the widely felt sentiments
of displaced Christians that they will never go home.
Some
of the early gains in the campaign to retake Mosul from the Islamic State,
which began in mid-October and is grinding into its third month, were the
liberations of historically Christian villages and towns, including Qaraqosh,
Iraq’s largest Christian city, and Bartella.
There
were early feelings of jubilation. Some families returned to celebrate
alongside some of the Christian militia fighters who participated in the
battles. But just as quickly it became apparent that rebirth for the Christian
community in Iraq is unlikely, given how few seem to want to return.
“There
is no guarantee that we can go back and be safe,” said Haseeb Saleem, 65, a
Christian from the Mosul area who left more than two years ago and now lives in
the Kurdish city of Erbil, the regional capital.
Mr.
Saleem echoed a deeply felt belief among Iraq’s minorities that the American
invasion of Iraq in 2003, by removing a dictatorship that at least promised
them security, marked the beginning of the community’s demise in their own
country.
“Before
2003, believe me, my neighbor didn’t know what I was,” he said. “No one could
ask, are you Sunni? Or Shia? Or Muslim? Or Christian?”
In
2003, an estimated 1.5 million Christians lived in Iraq. By the time the
Islamic State swept through northern Iraq in 2014, that figure had fallen to
roughly 400,000.
Since
then, many thousands more have left the country, or fled from Mosul to the
relative safety of the Kurdish region. There, in Erbil, Christians are
clustered in the neighborhood of Ainkawa, and many of the displaced were taken
in by local churches. The neighborhood is perhaps the last center of a vibrant
Christian culture in Iraq; shops these days are filled with Christmas
decorations, and it is always easy to find wine or pork.
When
the Islamic State seized Mosul and outlying areas in the summer of 2014, the
militants stole the money, jewelry and property of Christians, and gave them a
choice if they wished to stay: either convert to Islam or pay a special tax.
Nearly every Christian left home and joined Iraq’s growing community of the
displaced.
But
there were two Christians, two old women in their late 70s, who stayed. Cut off
from their families during the chaos of two summers ago, Badrea Gigues and
Zarifa Bakoos found themselves left behind in Qaraqosh. Then, each had ailing
husbands.
But
soon after their hometown fell to the Islamic State, their husbands died. The
two widows, old friends, found themselves living together, and facing together
the brutality of new rulers who stole their money and demanded they renounce
their faith and convert to Islam.
“Sometimes
we prayed, and sometimes we cried,” said Ms. Gigues, who is blind and largely
deaf, in a recent interview after Qaraqosh was liberated and the security
forces found her. “We talked about our husbands, our memories, our children,
what it was like when we were young.”
The
women said that Islamic State fighters forced them to spit on a cross and to
stomp on a picture of the Virgin Mary.
“Sorry,
Mary, that I did that,” Ms. Bakoos recalled thinking. “Please forgive me.”
Even
for former residents of Qaraqosh who might wish to return and stay, it is not
yet safe. Rubble and destruction are everywhere. Weeks after the battle to
retake the city, Christian militia fighters who secured the town are still on
alert for possible counterattacks.
The
Christians of Iraq may have lost much to the Islamic State — houses, gold,
money. But some say the experience has strengthened their faith.
“They
can destroy our houses, our things, but not our souls,” said Huda Khudhur, a
nun from Qaraqosh.
Ignatius Ephrem Joseph III Yonan, a dignitary of the Syriac Catholic Church. Credit Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
Zarifa Bakoos, left, and Badrea Gigues, Christian refugees from Mosul. Credit Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
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