Iraqi soldiers inspect the debris at St. George's Monastery, a historical Chaldean Catholic church on the outskirts of Mosul, which was destroyed by the Islamic State.(AFP)
ishtartv.com - middle-east-online.com
2017-03-10
Chaldean
Catholic church was important office for IS authorities tasked with making sure
Mosul residents had beard, wore short robes, followed their extremist convictions.
MOSUL
- The elegant columns of a west Mosul church stand plastered with Islamic State
group propaganda after the jihadists' infamous religious police took over the
Christian place of worship.
The
sign above the door of Um al-Mauna (Our Mother of Perpetual Help) in Iraq's
second city reads "Chaldean Catholic church", but its jihadist
occupants had other ideas.
"No
entry, by order of the Islamic State Hesba Division (the religious police),
they wrote on the building's outside wall.
Five
jihadists lie dead outside, their bodies twisted and one with the top of his
skull blown off, after Iraqi forces retook the neighbourhood from IS this week.
The
church "was an important office for the authorities tasked with making
sure (Mosul) residents had a beard, wore short robes and followed their
extremist convictions," says Lieutenant Colonel Abdulamir al-Mohammedawi
of the elite Rapid Response Division.
Iraqi
forces are pushing an offensive to retake the whole of Mosul, the jihadist
group's last major urban bastion in the country, after retaking its eastern
side in January.
IS
fighters took control of the city in 2014, imposing their harsh interpretation
of Islamic law on its inhabitants.
Above
the door of the ochre-coloured church, IS members have damaged a stone cross.
Not far away, they seem to have tried to rip another from a metal door off its
hinges.
Not
a single crucifix, or statue of Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary has survived in
the building's nave, from which all mark of Christianity has been methodically
removed.
Only
the grey marble altar remains. In the church's empty alcoves lies the base of a
statue that was probably also destroyed, decorated with red and yellow flowers.
The
posters on the church's marble columns give an indication of what life was like
under IS.
-
Chilling illustrations -
One
shows religious invocations to repeat in the mornings and evenings, while
another explains the benefits of praying in a mosque.
A
"town document" lists the 14 rules of life in Mosul under jihadist
rule: "The trade and consumption of alcohol, drugs and cigarettes is
banned."
Women
should wear modest attire and only appear in public "when necessary",
it says.
A
pamphlet on the rubble-covered ground explains the different forms of corporal
punishment prescribed for theft, alcohol consumption, adultery and
homosexuality.
It
comes complete with chilling illustrations.
Jihadists
have scribbled their noms de guerre on the church's walls, and a large
chandelier has been dumped in the yard.
In
the church's small side rooms, artificial flower garlands are draped near
posters explaining how to use a Kalashnikov rifle.
Chaldeans
make up the majority of Iraq's Christians. But a community that numbered more
than a million before the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein has since dwindled to
less than 350,000 in the face of recurring violence.
In
June 2014, jihadist fighters led by IS seized control of Mosul and ordered the
city's Christian community to convert to Islam, pay a special tax, leave or
face execution.
Weeks
later, the jihadists swept through Qaraqosh and the rest of the Nineveh Plain
east of Mosul, where an estimated 120,000 Christians lived, prompting them all
to flee.
But
the Um al-Mauna Church is in a better condition than most of the rest of the
Al-Dawasa neighbourhood, which has been ravaged by the fighting.
On
one of its empty trading streets, once flashy shop facades have been reduced to
contorted iron and shredded concrete.
On
one poster advertising male clothing, IS members -- whose interpretation of Islam
forbids human representation -- have blacked out the faces and bare arms of the
models.
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