Human rights lawyer Nina Shea described the horror in Mosul to me: “(ISIS) took the Christians’ houses, took the cars they were driving to leave. They took all their money. One old woman had her life savings of $40,000, and she said, ‘Can I please have 100 dollars?’, and they said no. They took wedding rings off fingers, chopping off fingers if they couldn’t get the ring off.”
“We now have 5,000 destitute, homeless people with no future,” Shea said. “This is a crime against humanity.”
For the first time in 2,000 years, Mosul is devoid of Christians. “This is ancient Nineveh we are talking about,” Shea explained. “They took down all the crosses. They blew up the tomb of the prophet Jonah. An orthodox Cathedral has been turned into a mosque. … They are uprooting every vestige of Christianity.” University of Mosul professor Mahmoud Al ‘Asali, a Muslim, bravely spoke out against ISIS’ purging of Christians and was executed.
In a town where seemingly every religious activist is declared to be a “prophetic voice” on this-or-that, I can attest that Shea and Wolf actually are voices crying out for the downtrodden and oppressed.
Wolf, who usually works behind the scenes as a senior member and appropriations cardinal, has been especially outspoken in the past two weeks about the plight Iraqi Christians are in. We need more voices like his.
Powers again writes about news which others avoid. It helps now that she has become a Christian.