URGENT: ISIL destroys the Virgin Mary church in Mosul
File photo of a Virgin Mary statue destroyed by ISIL in Mosul. Image credit
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) On Saturday, the Ministry of Human Rights announced that the elements of the terrorist organization of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant blew up the Virgin Mary Church in Mosul.
The Ministry said, in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, that “today the terrorist elements of ISIL blew up the Virgin Mary church located in the city of Mosul, with a number of improvised explosive devices.”
On July18, 2014, the Niveneh Council member, Zuhair al-Chalabi said that the leader of the organization of the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi gave Christians an ultimatum to leave the province, convert to Islam or be killed, while he directed his followers to loot the property and possessions of fleeing Christians.
On June 20, 2014, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Iraq revealed that the organization of ISIL imposed the Jizya tribute to Christian citizens in Mosul, in an attempt to pressure them to convert to Islam or expel them from the city, calling on the government and the international community to put an end to that.
ISIL has been rampaging through Iraq, destroying world-famous antiquities and holy sites of Shia Muslims, Sufi Muslims, Christians, Yazidis and any other group they oppose as reported extensively by IraqiNews.com:
- URGENT: ISIL destroys Mosque of Biblical Jonah, Prophet Yunus
- URGENT: ISIL loots and destroys Shia mosques near Kirkuk
- URGENT: ISIL destroys Mosul mosques, pillages contents
- URGENT: ISIL dug up grave of Prophet Younis (biblical Jonah) in Mosul
- “ISIL blows up Shia mosque in Muqdadiyah, Diyala
- Iraqi Christian church burnings confirmed by EU delegation
- ISIL orders destruction of all churches in Mosul
- 2000 years of Christian history in Iraq may end – Iraqi Chaldean Church