The tragedy that befell the Christian population in Mosul has raised concern in Lebanon, leading to a state of alert on the ecclesiastical and official levels and daily meetings on the matter. After the Islamic State (IS) threw out the Christian residents of Mosul, Lebanese ecclesiastical institutions and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs — which is led by Gebran Bassil, a Christian minister representing the largest Christian parliamentary bloc in Lebanon — have been in a state of frenzy. The flurry began on July 23, when church representatives concerned with the crisis in Iraq met in the headquarters of the Syriac Catholic Patriarchate in Beirut.
Habib Efrem, the secretary-general of Christian Associations in Lebanon, was tasked with coordinating the work of the church’s "crisis cell," which is following the Mosul case closely. He told Al-Monitor that what happened in Mosul was a real humanitarian tragedy, but it's even more dangerous for the case to not be accorded the attention it deserves. Efrem said that two weeks ago, 15,000 Christians were living in Mosul. Today, according to the data from the Syriac Catholic Church, there are less than 20.
The 20 Christians who could not flee are elderly. This is why they chose to stay and declare their conversion to Islam, as demanded by IS, to escape death. The rest of Mosul’s Christian population joined the 17,000 Christians who are now living in the villages of the Nineveh plain.
Efrem informed Al-Monitor that the participating Lebanese churches have set political, humanitarian and diplomatic plans to highlight the most recent case of displacement in the region, currently met with eerie international silence. In the next few days, a delegation from the Vatican will come to Erbil to follow up and learn of the situation of the displaced Christians. Efrem said that the IS militants were only 2,000 km (1,200 miles) away from the hosting village of Qaraqosh, or Bakhdida, as its is known to Muslims. The situation is still precarious and the tragedy there may deteriorate into violence if the extremists advance north.
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