Iraqi bishop urges world to act after Christians forced to flee
Reuters
A senior Iraqi bishop has urged the world to act after Islamic hardliners drove Mosul’s Christians from the northern Iraqi city, effectively ending a presence there dating back to Christianity’s earliest years.
“The world must act, speak out, consider human rights,” Chaldean Catholic Bishop Shlemon Warduni said on Sunday, a day after a deadline expired for Christians in Mosul to submit to the rule of the radical Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Isis) or die.
Hundreds of Christian families left the city ahead of the ultimatum, many of them stripped of their possessions as they fled for safety, the remnants of a community which once numbered in the tens of thousands.
“Gunmen lurking like thieves took everything from them - even women’s rings, cars, cell phones... because they are fanatics,” Warduni told Reuters by telephone from the city of Arbil, 80 km away in the autonomous Kurdish region.
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/iraqi-bishop-urges-world-to-act-after-christians-forced-to-flee-1.1872403