After the Liberation of Mosul, Christians do not Want to Return to Irak

When questioned by the website of ACN (Aid to the Church in Need) on July 20, Archbishop Petros Mouche, the Syriac Catholic archbishop of Mosul, said this was a “sign of hope for us Christians”. The Islamic State (IS) was driven off, and he hopes now that “the attitude of the people will change”. Although the city is completely destroyed, Christians could return. But the Iraqi prelate remains prudent: for now, it is a little too soon. “Perhaps in a few years. People will return from time to time to check on their houses, but at the moment one cannot permanently stay in Mosul.”

In La Croix on July 9, the president of the association Fraternité en Irak (Brotherhood in Iraq), Faraj Benoît Camurat, spoke of the Christians’ great “trauma”. “No one knows whether the families will be able to reclaim the land and houses expropriated by ISIS. The question they ask themselves now is whether they should return to Mosul or settle in another Christian town in Nineveh.”

For Haitham Behnam, a former citizen of Mosul who fled before the Islamic State, a return is out of the question. He is now living in Erbil, in the independent region of Iraqi Kurdistan, and he told AFP (Agence France-Presse) on July 21 that “we couldn’t go back even if we wanted to”.  He said that “people were brainwashed over the past three years. Even the children have become Daesh, they’ve been taught to slit throats”. A Muslim from Mosul also living in Iraqi Kurdistan, and who was staying near Bethnam, agreed: “If I was a Christian, I wouldn’t go back to Mosul until the residents prove to me that they’re ready to accept me”. AFP explains that after the battles were over, his parents had returned to Mosul, only to find their home occupied by the victorious security forces. “Neighbors told us to take the house of a Christian who used to live four houses down”. And he went on to say that “the imams in the mosques preach against IS… but the Salafists believe the Christians have no place there”.

On Vatican Radio on July 15, Fr. Behnam Benoka, a priest of the Syriac Catholic diocese of Mosul, also in exile in Erbil, also discouraged the idea of the Christians returning rapidly to Mosul, for there remain open wounds: “Former Muslim friends took our houses after our flight… They used to come eat in our homes, or come see us to get medicine. We welcomed them in our homes, but then they drove us out”.

Cath.ch relates that the Syriac Catholic priest, a professor in the Christian suburb of Erbil says there were many “betrayals and collaborations between former neighbors and the Islamic State to hurt the Christians” during Daesh’s occupation of the territory. That is why “fear of one’s neighbors has developed and trust has been broken”, which makes it “difficult to return to normal mutual relations”. After the victory over Daesh and the liberation of Mosul, “everything is not just suddenly going to return to a normal situation” for  Christians. He also recalls that “the survival of the Christian presence in Iraq was already doubtful even before the arrival of Daesh”. He points out “the slow migratory change in the Christian cities” encouraged by the different Iraqi governments. “So what matters is not whether or not the Islamic State is conquered or not. Maybe this is simply the last episode of the suffering of the Christians that already existed long before this”.

Fr. Benoka also recalled that “no one defended the Christians” when the Daesh terrorists showed up, “not even the Iraqi army” that has now liberated Mosul.