CAIRO
The forced expulsion of Christians from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul dominated prayers by the representatives of Egypt's churches at an eastern Cairo church late on Thursday.
The prayers were organized by the Council of Egypt's Churches, an independent union of Egypt's five churches, for peace in the Middle East region.
But the condition of Iraq's Christians, who were asked by the militant Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) movement to either convert to Islam, pay a religious tax or face death, was a dominating theme in the gathering.
"We are meeting tonight for our dear country, Egypt, the Christians of Iraq, and the courageous Palestinian people as well as for peoples in Syria, Lebanon and Libya," council secretary-general Father Bishoy Helmi said at the beginning of the gathering.
"Christians were expelled from Mosul, while 30 churches were destroyed in a manner unprecedented in the history of Christianity in Mosul," Father Helmi added.
He said Mosul's Christian population had left the city altogether. Father Helmi added that aggressions against the Christians of Mosul bring nothing but loss to Iraq.
The head of the Anglican Church Father Safwat Bayadi, meanwhile, denounced the forced expulsion of Christians from Mosul.
He quoted a Christian woman from the Iraqi city as saying: "We used to teach them in schools and treat them in hospitals, but they forgot all this all of a sudden and turned into monsters".
ISIL, a group of local and foreign extremists, early this week asked the Christians of Mosul to either convert to Islam, pay a religious tax or face death. This was why almost all of the Christian residents of Mosul had fled the city.
By Hussein Qabani
www.aa.com.tr/en
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