Source: The Christian Science Monitor Kristen Chick Correspondent | @kristenchick They are deciding whether to return to villages once held by Islamic State – a decision that could affect the stability and religious diversity of the Middle East. JANUARY 14, 2017 QARAQOSH, IRAQ—It is Raghad Abada’s first glimpse of her hometown since August 2014, when she and her husband gathered their children, grabbed a few documents, and fled for their lives ahead of the Islamic State (IS) invasion. More than two years later, she stares out the window of a white Hyundai Tucson as her husband’s brother, Nawar Boulis Karomi,…
Browsing: Iraqi Christians
Source: Newsweek By Jack Moore Isis has announced that it is to convert one of Mosul’s largest churches into a mosque for the group’s “mujahideen” in notices posted in the streets exactly a year after the group launched a successful offensive on Iraq’s second city. The radical Islamists distributed the notices around the city, which has been under the group’s control for a year to the day, announcing the conversion of the Syrian Orthodox Church of St. Ephraim, according to Fides, the Vatican’s news agency. In the weeks before Isis advanced in June last year, the number of Christians in Mosul reportedly dwindled…