ISIS Told Me To Convert To Islam Or Die, But I Would Not Denounce Jesus: See What Happens Next

The June 2014 day broke like almost any other day in Mosul, Iraq: hot and dusty and teeming with people, traffic, and trade. People flocked to marketplaces in Iraq’s second-largest city.

That’s when Abu Fadi, a sixty-five-year-old Mosul native living just miles from the city, received the phone call that changed everything.

‘Abu,’ said a friend in Arabic, ‘ISIS is coming. We have heard from someone we trust. Today is the day.’

For weeks the rumour mill had been churning that self-proclaimed ISIS terrorists who had been ravaging cities elsewhere in Iraq would take Mosul next. That’s where Abu’s mother and sister still lived. As Christians, they would be in grave danger. The ultimatum to followers of Jesus is: Convert to Islam, pay an outlandishly high tax, leave, or be killed.

‘How can we hope to get my mother and sister out?’ asked Abu. Both women were disabled and in wheelchairs.

Baroom.

An ISIS military water tanker, rigged with explosives, blew up near the Mosul Hotel, where government security officers were stationed. Abu’s friend hung up the phone. Chaos descended on Mosul.

Armoured vehicles rumbled down streets. ISIS troops began freeing the first of what would be about 1,000 prisoners. Gunfire broke out. A woman who had planned to celebrate this day as her wedding day died in a blast.

ISIS fighters ripped down the cross on the Syriac Orthodox cathedral of Mar (meaning ‘saint’ or ‘martyr’) Afram. They replaced the cross with loudspeakers proclaiming that Islam, not Jesus, was the way.

ISIS is coming. We have heard from someone we trust. Today is the day

Abu did not want to leave his mother and sister in Mosul. But for sixteen days, ISIS occupied the area where Abu lived – sixteen days that to Abu seemed like sixteen years. Abu had no chance to get his mother because he’d be going against the surge of frantic people escaping the city. His mother and sister were allowed to stay with a Muslim neighbour for the night, but the ISIS soldier confiscated their house, pulled a can of spray paint from a bag, and tagged the front of the house with ن – an Arabic ‘n’ for ‘Nazarene’ – Christians live here. Property of the Islamic State.

Unable to go to his mother and sister, Abu arranged for a Muslim friend to drive the women to him. After reuniting they all crammed the few possessions they could fit into the car and headed east for relative safety in the city of Erbil.

Soon the car arrived at the first checkpoint. ISIS guards stood with firearms and swords. Abu had prayed about this moment—for courage to stand for his beliefs.