First Nigerian Ebola virus patient discharged from hospital

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <br /></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">*Total of 12 EVD cases, four deaths. five recovering</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">*‎ 189 under surveillance in Lagos, six in Enugu</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">*‎ new 40-bed isolation ward in operation</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">* Nano Silver dropped, other candidate drugs under evaluation</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The first Nigerian Ebola patient has been discharged from the quarantine unit of the Emergency Operation Centre, EOC, at the Mainland Hospital, Yaba, Lagos.</span></div> <div class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_459012" style="border: 0px; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 20px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 422px;"> <a href="http://dvsl3w2q45hb8.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/ebola-doctors.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.2s linear, border-top-color; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: background-color 0.2s linear, border-top-color; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black;"><img alt="A file photo taken on June 28, 2014 shows a member of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) putting on protective gear at the isolation ward of the Donka Hospital in Conakry, where people infected with the Ebola virus are being treated. Guinea announced on August 9, 2014 it was closing its land borders with Liberia, Sierra Leone over Ebola fears. AFP PHOTO" class="wp-image-459012 size-full" height="250" src="http://dvsl3w2q45hb8.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/ebola-doctors.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: margin 0.2s linear, box-shadow; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.247059) 1px 1px 1px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: margin 0.2s linear, box-shadow;" width="412" /></span></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 8px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A file photo taken on June 28, 2014 shows a member of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) putting on protective gear at the isolation ward of the Donka Hospital in Conakry, where people infected with the Ebola virus are being treated. Guinea announced on August 9, 2014 it was closing its land borders with Liberia, Sierra Leone over Ebola fears. AFP PHOTO</span></div> </div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">News of the discharge of the unnamed female doctor, who was one of the primary contacts of the late American-Liberian ‎Patrick Sawyer, was broken, yesterday evening, by Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu .</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Chukwu, accompanied by Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris, and others on the Joint Federal/State EVD response team, to give an update on the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Nigeria, said the discharged patient had been given a clean bill of health  to go home</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">His words : “The EOC has advised me to announce that the first ‎Nigerian to be confirmed to have Ebola Virus Disease has this evening been discharged from the isolation unit at the Mainland Hospital, Lagos.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I have consulted with the experts, and they said clearly that there was a discharge protocol that was employed for this particular patient. It has been followed strictly and was concluded today‎ and what you are getting now is the final outcome.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Ordinarily, if she had been afflicted with another illness, she would have been discharged long before now”.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Earlier, the minister ‎pointed out that five of other Ebola patients had almost fully recovered.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“The total number of confirmed cases of EVD in the country was now 12, with four deaths and 189 under surveillance in Lagos and six in Enugu,” he stated.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Responding to questions concerning the welfare of the Ebola victims under the care of the response team at the EOC , Chukwu allayed the fear regarding the standard and quality of care.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“As you are aware, the patients under treatment have now been moved to the new 40-bed capacity isolation ward provided by Lagos State government. Additional equipment has also been made available to the new isolation ward by the Federal Government”.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On the controversy surrounding the experimental Ebola drug ‎being proposed for adoption by the Federal Government, the minister said the drug failed to meet the requirements for approval.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“You will recall that, last Thursday, I announced that we were ready to deploy an experimental drug, Nano Silver; it was not cleared by the National Health Research Ethics Committee.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Although the drug has since been made available to the EOC in Lagos, it has not been administered on any patient because we were awaiting clearance by ‎the National Health Research Ethics Committee.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I regret to inform you that the drug did not meet the requirements of the National Health Research Ethics Code. Accordingly, approval for its use was withheld by the National Health Research Ethics Committee.”</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The minister, however, informed that the other candidate drugs were under evaluation by the Treatment Research Group for EVD.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“As soon as any of the experimental drugs ‎is cleared by the National Health Research Ethics Committee and made available, we shall incident it in the treatment regeneration subject to the informed consent of the patient,” he stated.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ebola may escalate</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In the meantime, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), yesterday, said Ebola may escalate in the country as majority of the health personnel working on the management, monitoring and surveillance have been sacked.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">NMA warned about the risk of the deadly virus spreading at an alarming rate following the sack of 16,000 resident doctors, most of whom were said to be involved in the move to contain the virus.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The NMA said the doctors, although on strike, had made their services available to government in the bid to combat Ebola.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The association vowed not to resume talks with government until it unconditionally reverses the sack of the doctors.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Chairman, Lagos State branch of the NMA, Dr Tope Ojo, who disclosed the association’s stand in Lagos, yesterday, said all attempts by government to divide the NMA would be resisted by the association.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“This sack action must have proven the unrepentant hatred of Mr. President and the Federal Government for doctors, considering that since this current regime, several unions have embarked on industrial actions for even longer periods, that witnessed several failed negotiations too, before eventual resolution and same punitive actions were never applied,” the NMA said at a press conference.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The body, however, urged its members to keep volunteering in the management of Ebola.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“This would further worsen the current Ebola scourge because a large majority of volunteers involved in case management and other levels of the Ebola Emergency Response Committee are resident doctors,” Ojo said..<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />“However, we will continue to participate in the Ebola Response as we have been doing, in spite of the purported sack, so as not to become insensitive to the plight of Nigerians like the Federal Government is demonstrating presently”.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">No Ebola death at Lagos General Hospital – State govt</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In a related development, Lagos State government, yesterday, said there was no death of any person infected with Ebola at the Alimosho General Hospital, Igando or any of its hospitals. In a statement by the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Lateef Ibirogba, the state government dispelled the rumour making the rounds that an Ebola infected person had died at the government owned hospital in Alimosho. He said the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris, addressed the issue during the last Ebola update press briefing, where he assured residents of Lagos that the hospital was safe and medically sound for them to patronize.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As part of the measures to contain the spread of Ebola, the state government, through the Ministry of the Environment, MOE, also yesterday, trained about 800 health workers and volunteers in all the 57 local governments and local council development areas on preventive measures.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Commissioner for the Environment, Mr Tunji Bello, who made the disclosure at a sensitisation campaign tagged: “Train the trainers’ Educative programme”, also said that government would not hesitate to invoke any relevant section of the laws on anyone who flouts the environmental laws.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The commissioner warned residents to desist from unsafe and unhealthy practices so as not to contract EVD, urging them not to attempt hiding persons with suspected symptoms of Ebola as government has the right to quarantine or isolate such persons to prevent the disease from spreading.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">OSOGBO FESTIVAL: Osun stops tourists</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Reports from Osun State, yesterday, said that following the outbreak of Ebola in the country, the state government barred tourists from participating in the forthcoming Osun Osogbo annual festival.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />This, the government said, was part of measures to prevent the spread of Ebola to the state.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Addressing a press conference in Osogbo, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Sunday Akere, noted that efforts were being taken by the state government to make Osun an Ebola free state.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Akere, who lamented the high spread of the Ebola virus, stressed the need for traditionalists, especially Osun devotees, to co-operate with the state government in its bid to prevent the spread of the deadly disease.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />According to him, this year’s Osun Osogbo festival would be low keyed, but with all traditional rites and sacrifices by the Osun devotees in Osogbo alone.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />He explained that the state government had restricted the movement of non-residents of Osun to the state, saying this would help to prevent the spread of the disease.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Kwara dismisses Ebola claim</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Also, yesterday, Senior Special Assistant to Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed on Primary Health, Prof Sunday Opabola, said there was no case of Ebola in the state, saying the patient that was referred to as having the disease was a case of mismanaged malaria fever.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Speaking on a local radio programme in Ilorin, Opabola said,”We took the blood samples of the boy and his mother and sent them to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) for screening. Unfortunately, we lost the boy.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“But the fortunate thing is that the results of the boy’s and mother’s tests came in yesterday night from LUTH and they were negative.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">” So I am happy to tell Kwarans that up till now we don’t have any report of a suspicious case not to talk about confirmed case. I can say that the boy’s case was a mismanaged malaria disease in the first hospital”.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Recalling the incident that led to the development, he said: “The history we later got was that when they could dehydrate him intravenously in the first hospital, they gave him an intubation (putting a tube through the nose into the stomach) to feed him. When he was not responding, they removed the tube and transferred him to the paediatrician hospital in town and the first vomiting the boy had contained blood. Intubation can cause bleeding from the stomach and that is exact what happened.‎”</span></div> </div>

First Nigerian Ebola virus patient discharged from hospital

*Total of 12 EVD cases, four deaths. five recovering *‎ 189 under surveillance in Lagos, six in Enugu *‎ new 40-bed isolation ward i...

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In 60 seconds: What is Ebola? World's Deadliest Disease?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-28105531<br /> <div class="player-wrapper" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="media-placeholder enabled" data-asset-id="28105531" id="media-asset-page-video" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: 269px; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 479px;"> <div class="HTML5figure media-item default-player has-caption" style="background-image: none; border: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 479px;"> <div class="media-container media-wrapper" id="media-76147118" style="background-position: 50% 50%; background-size: contain; border: 0px; cursor: pointer; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: 269px; margin: 0px 0px 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 479px;"> <div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 269px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 479px; z-index: 999;"> <iframe frameborder="0" id="smphtml5iframemedia-76147118" name="smphtml5iframemedia-76147118" scrolling="no" src="http://www.bbc.co.uk/emp/releases/smp-html/player.html?1.3.13" style="border-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: 269px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 479px;"></iframe></div> </div> <div class="HTML5figcaption" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class=" bbccom-advert bbccom_visibility_hidden bbccom_companion" id="bbccom_companion_76147118" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; height: 0px; margin: -1px auto auto; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: hidden; width: 300px;"> </div> <div class="text-wrapper" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="contains-more-text" id="media-asset-page-text" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 16px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <h1 data-asset-uri="/news/health-28105531" style="border: 0px; clear: both; margin: 11px 0px 16px; max-width: 91.66667175292969%; padding: 8px 0px 1px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In 60 seconds: What is Ebola?</span></span></h1> <div> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit;">The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for "drastic action" to contain the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which has killed nearly 500 people.</span></div> </div> </div> <div class="text-wrapper" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="contains-more-text" id="media-asset-page-text" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 16px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="map-body" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="hide-wrapper extra-content" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It is the world's largest outbreak in terms of cases, deaths and geographical spread.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The BBC explains why the disease is so dangerous - in 60 seconds.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"> <em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Video produced by Michael Hirst</em></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>

In 60 seconds: What is Ebola? World's Deadliest Disease?

Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-28105531 In 60 seconds: What is Ebola? The World Health Organization (WHO) has cal...

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Something is happening in the spirit realm and God help us not to just know it but to do something about our lives

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="inline-content inline-photo" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"> <h1 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.45em;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;">After leveling Iraq’s Tomb of Jonah, the Islamic State could destroy ‘anything in the Bible’</span></span></h1> <div class="left social-tools-wrapper" style="float: left;"> <ul class="social-tools inline top" style="display: inline; margin-bottom: 5px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px;"> <li class="first tool facebook" style="border: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213); cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: 0px 0px 30px -4px; padding: 0.8em 1.3em;"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/25/after-leveling-iraqs-tomb-of-jonah-the-islamic-state-could-destroy-anything-in-the-bible/?tid=pm_national_pop#" style="text-decoration: none;"><span class="fa fa-facebook-square" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); display: inline-block;"></span></a></li> </ul> </div> <br /> <article><div class="inline-content inline-video" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"> <div class="posttv-video-embed" data-processed="1" data-uuid="ba9f429c-1396-11e4-ac56-773e54a65906" style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 56.25% !important; position: relative;"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/c/embed/ba9f429c-1396-11e4-ac56-773e54a65906?e=null" style="height: 356px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 599px;"></iframe><em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></em></div> <div class="posttv-video-embed" data-processed="1" data-uuid="ba9f429c-1396-11e4-ac56-773e54a65906" style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 56.25% !important; position: relative;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Video of the destruction of the Tomb of Jonah, also known as the Mosque of Jonah, by the Islamic State. </span></div> </div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Jonah’s main appearance in the Old Testament is short, but none too sweet.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As recounted in the Book of Jonah, God asked Jonah to preach. Not thinking himself cut out for the evangelizing game, Jonah ran away to sea.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But then Yahweh sent a great storm. When Jonah’s shipmates found out he was running from the Man Upstairs, they regretfully threw him overboard. Rather than let Jonah drown, God sent a great fish (or a whale, depending on the translation) to swallow him and — yuck — vomit him on dry land. Once saved, Jonah did preach to the people — but then got angry with God when He spared the wicked.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The end.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But as reluctant a prophet as Jonah was, his purported tomb in Mosul, Iraq, is a holy site for Muslims – even though it’s not likely the final resting place of a man purported to live in a fish’s tummy for three days. Instead, wrote Columbia University Near Eastern history PhD student <a href="http://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2014/07/11/what-is-the-tomb-of-the-prophet-jonah/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">Christopher Jones</a>, the tomb is a sacred place “to meditate on the questions raised by the story of Jonah: questions of justice, obedience, providence, fairness and divine mercy.”</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Until this month, when it was destroyed by the Islamic State.</span></div> <div class="inline-content inline-photo" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 20px 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img class="" data-hi-res-src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2014/07/04329142.jpg" data-low-res-src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=http://img.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2014/07/04329142.jpg&w=480" src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2014/07/04329142.jpg" style="border: 0px; width: 599px;" /><br /><span class="pb-caption">Iraqis inspect the wreckage of the grave of the Nebi Yunus, or the prophet Jonah, in Mosul, Iraq, on July 24, 2014. (EPA)</span></span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/iraq-jihadists-blow-jonahs-tomb-mosul-official-220531959.html" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">Agence France-Presse</a> confirmed rumors of the tomb’s fate with an Iraqi official. The official said Islamic State forces closed the mosque and took an hour wiring it with explosive charges. Then:</span></span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Boom.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Jonah’s tomb “has been turned to dust,” the official said.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Islamic State isn’t new to this. As it establishes a caliphate to spread its ultraconservative faith, it’s destroyed cultural artifacts including Sunni, Shia and Sufi sites, <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/isis-destroys-shiite-mosques-and-shrines-iraq-257683" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">according to Newsweek</a>, and replaced the crosses on Mosul’s Syrian Orthodox cathedral with black flags.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Why?</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It indicates they are going for total eradication not just of their enemies but even of the possibility of people living together under their rule,” Sam Hardy, a professor at the American University of Rome and author of the blog <a href="http://conflictantiquities.wordpress.com/about-contact-employ/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">Conflict Antiquities</a>, told The Washington Post in a phone interview.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Sometimes the practitioners of a new religion feel compelled to recognize a place as sacred, and develop their own reasons to continue to venerate it,”<a href="http://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/2014/07/11/what-is-the-tomb-of-the-prophet-jonah/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">Jones wrote</a>. “Other times, they choose to demonstrate the superiority of their own religion over other belief systems by destroying their sacred spaces and building their own in their place.”</span></div> <div class="inline-content inline-photo-right" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: right; margin: 0.5em 0px 10px 20px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; width: 300px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img alt="A combination photo of the 55-metre-high Buddha statue in Bamiyan, central Afghanistan in December 18, 1997 (left) and after its destruction on March 26, 2001. It has been ten years since the statue was destroyed by the Taliban on March 2, 2001. REUTERS/Muzammil Pasha, Sayed Salahuddin/Files (AFGHANISTAN - Tags: RELIGION POLITICS ANNIVERSARY)" src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2014/07/BUDDHAS01_1299357901_14_0_1592758172-300x227.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; width: auto;" /><br /><span class="pb-caption">Left: the 55-metre-high Buddha statue in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, on Dec. 18, 1997. Right: After its destruction on March 26, 2001. (REUTERS/Muzammil Pasha, Sayed Salahuddin)</span></span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Of course, governments and religions have destroyed antiquities since, well, antiquity. Romans destroyed Jerusalem’s Second Temple not long after Christ. During the Crusades, Christians destroyed mosques. The Nazis destroyed <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/24/tired-of-selling-guns-and-drugs-try-art-theft-the-third-most-profitable-criminal-endeavor/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">degenerate art</a>. And the Taliban destroyed the<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/28/AR2011022803105.html" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">Bamiyan Buddhas in 2001</a>.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The problem: In Iraq, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/in-northern-iraq-gains-by-islamic-state-threaten-centuries-old-christian-town/2014/07/19/7088f3b6-0f53-11e4-8c9a-923ecc0c7d23_story.html" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">the Islamic State is advancing.</a> If it’s willing to destroy anything other religions — even other Muslims — hold sacred, what’s next?</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Basically pretty much anything in the Bible,” Hardy said.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">What can be done?</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“If we didn’t intervene when they were killing people, it would be kind of grotesque to intervene over a building,” Hardy said.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Perhaps the Islamic State will stop on its own?</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“You think tactically they’d avoid provoking enemies,” Hardy said, but Islamic State forces “seem happy to do that. Possibly they are doing stuff to get media attention.”</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Mission accomplished.</span></div> </article><br /> <div class="post-body-sig-line" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; margin-bottom: 20px;"> <span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/pb/justin-moyer" style="text-decoration: none;"></a></span></span></div> <h1 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.45em;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-size: large;">In northern Iraq, gains by Islamic State threaten centuries-old Christian town</span></span></h1> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> </div> <div class="left social-tools-wrapper" style="float: left;"> <ul class="social-tools inline top" style="display: inline; margin-bottom: 5px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px;"> <li class="first tool facebook" style="border: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213); cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: 0px 0px 30px -4px; padding: 0.8em 1.3em;"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/in-northern-iraq-gains-by-islamic-state-threaten-centuries-old-christian-town/2014/07/19/7088f3b6-0f53-11e4-8c9a-923ecc0c7d23_story.html#" style="text-decoration: none;"><span class="fa fa-facebook-square" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); display: inline-block;"></span></a></li> </ul> </div> <br /> <h2 class="deck" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-top: 0px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; widows: auto;"> <div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px; margin-top: 0px;"> </div> </div> </h2> <div class="inline-content inline-video" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"> <div class="posttv-video-embed" data-processed="1" data-uuid="889e8220-104a-11e4-ac56-773e54a65906" style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 56.25% !important; position: relative;"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/c/embed/889e8220-104a-11e4-ac56-773e54a65906?e=null" style="height: 356px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 599px;"></iframe></div> <div class="inline-video-caption" style="margin: 4px 0px 0px;"> <span class="pb-caption" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Hundreds of Christians are driven out of Mosul after being issued an ultimatum by Islamic State fighters to either convert to Islam pay a religious tax, or face the sword. (Reuters)</span></div> <div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; color: #333333; font-family: FranklinITCProLight, HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue Light', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"> <span class="pb-caption" style="color: #6e6e6e; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></div> </div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="dateline">BAKHDIDA, Iraq —</span> In the center of this hardscrabble Christian town there’s a 12th-century church where visitors can peer into an underground passageway that once allowed the faithful to hide from Muslim marauders.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The tunnels below have since crumbled, but the threat still looms on northern Iraq’s surrounding plains.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">When advancing Islamic State militants launched mortar attacks in late June, nearly all of Bakhdida’s 50,000 residents <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/iraqi-christians-seek-safety-with-kurds-as-thousands-flee-isils-advance/article19346793/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">fled overland</a> to Irbil, the capital of the Iraqi region of Kurdistan, for protection. Were it not for Kurdish pesh merga forces that swept in to beat back the onslaught, this historic Christian enclave, known to locals as Qaraqosh, would be deserted.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In recent days, most people have come back to their homes. But dire water and fuel shortages, electrical blackouts and a lack of work are strangling returnees who must also grapple with the mental strain of living within firing range of al-Qaeda-inspired Sunni jihadists.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">With Iraq at risk of fracturing along sectarian fault lines, local leaders fear the loss of one of the world’s oldest Christian communities and its heritage as more and more residents move to Kurdish cities and neighboring countries. On Friday, the exodus was accelerated when the Islamic State<a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/07/iraq-christians-told-convert-face-death-2014718111040982432.html" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">decreed</a> that Christian holdouts in the city of Mosul must convert to Islam or pay a special tax — with death as a “last resort.’’</span></div> <div class="inline-content inline-video" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 20px 0px;"> <div class="posttv-video-embed" data-processed="1" data-uuid="d928b990-0f5f-11e4-b0dd-edc009ac1f9d" style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 56.25% !important; position: relative;"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/c/embed/d928b990-0f5f-11e4-b0dd-edc009ac1f9d?e=null" style="height: 356px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 599px;"></iframe></div> <div class="inline-video-caption" style="margin: 4px 0px 0px;"> <span class="pb-caption" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Five car bombs kill at least 26 people in mainly Shi'ite districts of Baghdad on Saturday. Sunni insurgents are within striking distance of Baghdad. (Reuters)</span></div> </div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Bags are packed; people are leaving for good because it’s almost impossible to live here right now,” said Louis Marcus Ayub, 54, a Syrian Catholic member of the Bakhdida city council. “If there is no political solution, we’re in danger of disappearing.”</span></div> <div class="wp-inline-bb pb-centered-bb has-subscribe-promo" id="slug_inline_bb" style="background-position: 123px -398px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; clear: both; float: none !important; height: 250px; margin: -20px auto 30px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 300px;"> <div id="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world_6__container__" style="border: 0pt none;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><iframe frameborder="0" height="250" id="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world_6" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world_6" scrolling="no" style="border-width: 0px; vertical-align: bottom; width: 300px;" width="300"></iframe></span></div> </div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Iraqi Christians have endured greater <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2010/11/24/november-26-2010-disappearing-christians-of-iraq/7568/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">persecution</a> since the 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. In the sectarian conflict that followed, a surge of harassment, church bombings and other deadly attacks caused the population to shrink from 1.5 million to about 400,000.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In 2008, a <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95343489" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;">wave of violence</a> targeted Christians living in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and an ancient hub of Christianity in the region. Without a militia of their own, thousands found safe haven in Bakhdida, about 19 miles to the southeast.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">When Islamic State militants staged a lightning attack June 10 on Mosul and took over the city, fresh waves of Christians fled to Bakhdida; only this time, militants stayed on their heels. In less than 48 hours, a flurry of mortar rounds and stories of kidnapping and murder of their co-religionists in Syria combined to empty the town.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“They want to kill us,” said Martin Jameel, 25, a shopkeeper who had just come back from Ainkawa, a Christian suburb of Irbil full of displaced families, to check on his goods. “We have no oil, no weapons. We are not Muslims, so they think we are enemies.”</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Syrian Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Yohannna Petros Mouche, was one of the few who stayed behind. He understood that many families had left “to lead dignified lives,” but he’s resolved not to go.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“If we all leave, it sends the message that there is nowhere safe for Christians to live in Iraq — and this worries me,” he said, gripping the pewter cross that hung heavy from his neck.</span></div> <div class="wp-inline-bb pb-centered-bb has-subscribe-promo" id="slug_inline_bb_2" style="background-position: 123px -398px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; clear: both; float: none !important; margin: -20px auto 30px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 300px;"> <div id="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world_10__container__" style="border: 0pt none;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><iframe frameborder="0" height="250" id="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world_10" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world_10" scrolling="no" style="border-width: 0px; vertical-align: bottom; width: 300px;" width="300"></iframe></span></div> </div> <div class="inline-content inline-graphic" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 20px 0px;"> <span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/world/map-how-isis-is-carving-out-a-new-country/1095/" style="text-decoration: none;"><img class="" data-hi-res-src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/07/03/National-Enterprise/Graphics/w-isis-Iraq-Syria_7-2-14_promo.jpg?uuid=ZXqcLAMFEeSGbpQiagK8jQ" data-low-res-src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_400w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/07/03/National-Enterprise/Graphics/w-isis-Iraq-Syria_7-2-14_promo.jpg?uuid=ZXqcLAMFEeSGbpQiagK8jQ" src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/07/03/National-Enterprise/Graphics/w-isis-Iraq-Syria_7-2-14_promo.jpg?uuid=ZXqcLAMFEeSGbpQiagK8jQ" style="border: 0px; width: 599px;" /></a><br /><span class="pb-caption">How ISIS is carving out a new country</span></span></span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I’m not a vagabond. This is my home, and I will die here if necessary.”</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The seminary he overseas in Bakhdida had already become a way station for 35 Christian families and clergy from Mosul. According to Father Amanoel Adel Kalloo, one of the displaced, the city’s Christian community has plunged from about 3,000 to between 200 to 300 since the Islamic State takeover.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On two trips back to the city to collect belongings, he saw that the homes of religious leaders had been ransacked and taken over by militants, he said.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Muslims renting property from Christians have been ordered to pay the Islamic State instead, and employers have been told to lay off all Christian workers. For the first time in 1,600 years, there is no Sunday Mass.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">While lives have so far been spared, Kalloo said the early July disappearance of two women who ran an orphanage, along with three children under their care, has stoked anxieties. He believes the rebel group was behind the abduction, but no one has yet received any information on their condition or whereabouts.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In Bakhdida, residents are grateful to Kurdish forces that have established a security perimeter around the city, allowing some breathing room for people to return. The Kurds have since outfitted a local Christian “protection committee” with bulletproof vests and assault rifles to patrol the streets.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">No hostilities have been exchanged in more than two weeks, but if Islamic State militants go on the offensive again, “we will defend them [the Christians] until the last drop of blood,” vowed Capt. Mohammad Kamal Nader, a pesh merga officer in charge of the security at the town’s main checkpoint. “It is our duty.”</span></div> <div class="wp-inline-bb pb-centered-bb has-subscribe-promo" id="slug_inline_bb_3" style="background-position: 123px -398px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; clear: both; float: none !important; margin: -20px auto 30px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 300px;"> <div id="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world_9__container__" style="border: 0pt none;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><iframe frameborder="0" height="250" id="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world_9" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world_9" scrolling="no" style="border-width: 0px; vertical-align: bottom; width: 300px;" width="300"></iframe></span></div> </div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">For now, the overwhelming concern is water. Area taps have run dry since the Islamic State took Mosul and cut off the town’s Tigris River water supply amid 100-degree-plus temperatures.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">All water now has to be trucked in from outside at great expense.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Adding to people’s woes are electricity blackouts for the better part of each day. The main hospital is short of doctors who have stopped coming from Mosul. And without funds to pay town employees, heaps of garbage are piling up along sidewalks that remain largely empty throughout the day.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Bashar Toma, a 50-year-old mason, was among those preparing to leave. Last month, a pair of Islamic State mortars crashed onto the roof of the six-bedroom home Toma had painstakingly built to accommodate his children.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He thanked God that no one was hurt. But the constant psychological stress of living less than three miles from an aggressive and well-armed rebel force — whose forward positions are visible from his roof — has become too much to bear for the lifelong resident.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In the morning, Toma would move his family to a cramped apartment in Irbil.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It hurts my heart to leave,” he said, “but I fear it will only get worse here.”</span></div> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: large;"><b>What Jihadists are Doing in Syria and Iraq While Gaza Grabs the Headlines</b></span><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By Ishaan Tharoor</span></div> <div class="inline-content inline-photo" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"> <br /> <br /> <article><div class="inline-content inline-photo" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="border-bottom-width: 0px; width: 599px;"><img class="" data-hi-res-src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_908w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/07/05/Foreign/Images/Nic6346128.jpg" data-low-res-src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=http://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_908w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/07/05/Foreign/Images/Nic6346128.jpg&w=480" src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_908w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/07/05/Foreign/Images/Nic6346128.jpg" style="border: 0px; width: 599px;" /></span><br /><span class="pb-caption">An image grab taken from a propaganda video released on July 5, 2014, by al-Furqan Media allegedly shows the leader of the Islamic State  jihadist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a.k.a Caliph Ibrahim, adressing Muslim worshippers at a mosque in the militant-held northern Iraqi city of Mosul.  (AFP PHOTO/HO/AL-FURQAN MEDIA)</span></span></div> </article></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The world is transfixed by the conflict in Gaza, as the death tolls of both Palestinians and Israelis killed in the fighting continue to rise. It has animated global public opinion and <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/07/22/how-the-gaza-conflict-is-being-fought-in-8-cities-across-the-world/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;" target="_blank">sparked protests</a> in myriad far-flung cities.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But as the rockets and bombs fall, a deadlier war next door rolls on. The Syrian civil war has claimed 170,000 lives in three years; this past weekend's death toll in Syria was greater than what took place in Gaza. By some accounts, the past week may have been <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28454655" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;" target="_blank">the deadliest</a> in the conflict's grim history. Meanwhile, the extremist insurgents of the Islamic State (also <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/06/18/isis-or-isil-the-debate-over-what-to-call-iraqs-terror-group/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;" target="_blank">known as ISIS</a>), have continued their ravages over a swath of territory stretching from eastern Syria to the environs of Baghdad, Iraq's capital; the spike in violence in Iraq has led to more than <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/18/iraqi-civilian-death-toll-5500-2014-isis" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;" target="_blank">5,500 civilian deaths</a> in the first six months of this year.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Over the weekend, Islamic State militants battled forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over a gas field in central Syria. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, some 700 people have died in just two days of fighting, <a href="http://syriahr.com/en/index.php?option=com_news&nid=2361&Itemid=2&task=displaynews#.U9A-1vldXTo" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;" target="_blank">including employees</a> working at the facility.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Hundreds of miles away in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, activists and observers <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/07/19/iraq-isis-abducting-killing-expelling-minorities" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;" target="_blank">report</a> a ferocious campaign against religious minorities waged by the Islamic State, which earlier declared <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/06/30/the-new-islamic-caliphate-and-its-war-against-history/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;" target="_blank">the establishment of a "caliphate"</a> in the lands it controls. The jihadists, who espouse a puritanical, intolerant brand of Sunni Islam, have instituted strict sharia law. According to the Associated Press, the militants have even forced shopkeepers in Mosul to <a href="http://english.alarabiya.net/en/variety/2014/07/22/Veil-your-mannequins-ISIS-tells-Iraqi-shopkeepers.html" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;" target="_blank">place veils</a> over the mannequins in their storefront windows.</span></div> <div class="wp-inline-bb pb-centered-bb has-subscribe-promo" id="slug_inline_bb" style="background-position: 123px -398px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; clear: both; float: none !important; height: 250px; margin: -20px auto 30px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 300px;"> <div id="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world/worldviews/blog/worldviews_6__container__" style="border: 0pt none;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><iframe frameborder="0" height="250" id="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world/worldviews/blog/worldviews_6" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world/worldviews/blog/worldviews_6" scrolling="no" style="border-width: 0px; vertical-align: bottom; width: 300px;" width="300"></iframe></span></div> </div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Their other activities are far less amusing. On Thursday, a UN official told the BBC that the Islamic State had <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28466434" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;" target="_blank">issued a fatwa</a>, ordering female circumcision for all girls and women between the ages of 11 and 46. But according to at least <a href="https://twitter.com/LeilaFadel/status/492292473272561665" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;" target="_blank">one journalist</a>, who spoke with residents in Mosul, that report may be false.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Even then, the Islamic State has moved rapidly away from earlier proclamations encouraging coexistence. They ordered all Christians to either convert or leave towns and cities where the Islamic State holds sway by July 19. Otherwise, they would face execution. That edict triggered a sad exodus of Christian minorities in Iraq's embattled Nineveh plains, once the heartland for some of the world's most ancient Christian communities. The militants have <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/19/world/middleeast/isis-forces-last-iraqi-christians-to-flee-mosul.html" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;" target="_blank">defiled historic tombs</a>, seized monasteries, kidnapped nuns and killed other minorities.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In total, more than 600,000 Iraqis were driven from their homes in June alone, a direct result of the Islamic State's dramatic advance through the country. (See the map below to get a sense of how Iraq's many upheavals have shaken its population since the 2003 U.S. invasion.)</span></div> <div class="has-subscribe-promo borB1S borT1S marB26 padB10 padT10"> </div> <div class="inline-content inline-photo inline-photo-center" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 20px 0px; text-align: center;"> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img alt="Two Million Iraq Displacement v4" src="http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2014/07/iraqrefugeemap.jpg" style="border: 0px; max-width: 600px; width: 599px;" /></span></div> <div class="pb-caption" style="margin: 0px auto; max-width: 600px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Courtesy of the International Rescue Committee.</span></div> </div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A report from Human Rights Watch published last week <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/07/19/iraq-isis-abducting-killing-expelling-minorities" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;" target="_blank">documented</a>recent murders, abductions and attacks suffered by religious and ethnic minorities in and around Mosul:</span></div> <blockquote class="citation" style="border-left-width: 0px; margin: auto; padding: 0px; text-align: center; width: 509px;"> <div style="margin-bottom: 22px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Since capturing Mosul on June 10, 2014, the armed Sunni extremist group has seized at least 200 Turkmen, Shabaks, and Yazidis, killed at least 11 of them, and ordered all Christians to convert to Islam, pay “tribute” money, or leave Mosul by July 19.<br /><br />On June 29, ISIS abducted two nuns and three Christian orphans, whom it held for 15 days. Around that same time, ISIS issued orders barring Yazidi and Christian employees, as well as ethnic Kurds, from returning to their government jobs in Mosul, two regional government officials and a priest told Human Rights Watch.<br /><br />Virtually all Turkmen and Shabaks – tens of thousands of families – have fled their communities near Mosul as a result of ISIS raids, in which the fighters seize local men and pillage homes and places of worship, residents of those villages said. Mosul’s few remaining Christian families also have fled, local priests said.</span></div> </blockquote> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On Sunday in Baghdad, the country's foremost Christian cleric, the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako, lamented in a special sermon the fate of his flock. "How in the 21st century could people be forced from their houses just because they are Christian, or Shi'ite or Sunni or Yazidi?" he <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/21/isis-genghis-khan-iraq-chaldean_n_5603939.html?ir=Religion" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;" target="_blank">asked</a>. "Christian families have been expelled from their houses and their valuables were stolen and ...their houses and property expropriated in the name of the Islamic State."</span></div> <div class="wp-inline-bb pb-centered-bb has-subscribe-promo" id="slug_inline_bb_2" style="background-position: 123px -398px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; clear: both; float: none !important; margin: -20px auto 30px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 300px;"> <div id="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world/worldviews/blog/worldviews_7__container__" style="border: 0pt none;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><iframe frameborder="0" height="250" id="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world/worldviews/blog/worldviews_7" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="google_ads_iframe_/701/wpni.world/worldviews/blog/worldviews_7" scrolling="no" style="border-width: 0px; vertical-align: bottom; width: 300px;" width="300"></iframe></span></div> </div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He went on to make a chilling, grand historic proclamation: "This has never happened in Christian or Islamic history. Even Genghis Khan or Hulagu didn't do this," he said. Hulagu Khan was the Mongol warlord whose horde swept through Mosul en route to sacking Baghdad in 1258, a bloody slaughter that snuffed out <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Abbasid_Caliphate.html" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;" target="_blank">the proud Abbasid caliphate</a> that had flourished there since the 8th century. Baghdad would take hundreds of years to reemerge as a political center. Sako may be indulging in hyperbole, but he echoes the sense of fear and uncertainty now gripping the region.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In the face of these traumas, some construe the heated attention on casualties in Gaza to reflect a kind of <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/07/obsessing-about-gaza-ignoring-syria-and-most-everything-else/374898/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;" target="_blank">anti-Israeli bias</a>. That's a bit much: the thorny Israeli-Palestinian crisis is at the heart of regional geopolitics and polarizes the conversation in ways the upheavals further east just don't. No one, for example, is <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2014/07/23/the-most-vile-op-ed-you-will-read-about-gaza/?hpid=z3" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; text-decoration: none; zoom: 1;" target="_blank">trying to make excuses</a> for the loss of civilian life in Iraq or Syria. But many more should be aware of how alarming the situation has grown.</span></div> </div>

Something is happening in the spirit realm and God help us not to just know it but to do something about our lives

After leveling Iraq’s Tomb of Jonah, the Islamic State could destroy ‘anything in the Bible’ Video of the destruction of the T...

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