Members of an ancient Christian community fled Iraq’s second largest city after it was seized by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on June 10th. For the first time in 1600 years, the city was silent to the sound of church bells on Sunday (via The Daily Beast). 

Despite the horrors that have occurred after the arrival of the ISIS, the Western media has had little to report on the state of terror currently plaguing Mosul. Few corroborated reports have emerged from ISIS-occupied parts of Iraq, but the group’s record of mass killings and crucifixions lend credibility to the worst possibilities. 

Since the fall of Mosul, tens of thousands of Christians from other parts of Iraq have fled the ISIS onslaught. Their presence on the Nineveh plains, which dates back to the earliest centuries of Christianity has come to an abrupt end. 

The tragedy in Mosul is only part of a larger narrative in the fall of minority religions in the Middle East, as religious extremism takes hold through both official political channels and insurgent attacks. To Iraq’s Christians, an independent Kurdistan to the north may provide them with the greatest hope to remain in their ancestral home. Whether that possibility is realized, however will depend on actions 

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