Iraqi Christians ponder their future
Afternoon prayer at the St. George Church in the historic Assyrian Christian town of Alqosh in the Nineveh Plain of Iraqi Kurdistan. Locals adhere to the Chaldeon Catholic religion. The town was nearly overrun by Islamic fighters earlier this summer, when Peshmerga forces withdrew their forces, abandoning the Christian town. Photo by Jodi Hilton, Religion News Service
Basima al-Safar retouches a painting of Jesus outside her house overlooking the flat Nineveh plains, 30 miles north of Mosul.
The murals she paints tell the story of her people, Christians in Iraq. But with Islamic State militants nearby, she is worried that life in Alqosh and towns like it could soon come to an end.
The Assyrian Christian town of around 6,000 people sits on a hill below the seventh-century Rabban Hormizd monastery, temporarily closed because of the security situation. This summer residents of Alqosh fled ahead of Islamic State militants. About 70 percent of the town’s residents have returned, yet a sense of unease hangs in the air.
