Mideast Christian News reported the following:
Washington, May 14,MCN:
The Iraqi nun Diana Momeka told the Congress Wednesday that the Christian Iraqis have lost "everything including their dignity and history," while ISIS attempts to eliminate the Christian existence in the area.
Momeka, who was displaced by ISIS, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that although a year has passed since ISIS gained control over the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq, Christian Iraqi citizens are still in dire need of assistance in liberating their lands.
According to the Christian Post newspaper, Sister Diana, who works with the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena, escaped from Qaraqosh to the Kurdistan region last summer after ISIS assumed control over the Mosul region.
Diana explained in the hearing session held before Congress on Iraqi Christians that she is one of over 120,000 citizens who left their houses and property and fled to Kurdistan to escape from crimes committed by ISIS.
She asked, “Why should we leave our country? What have we done? The Christians of Iraq are the first people of the land.” She mentioned that ISIS aims to empty Iraq of Christians, so it displaces Christians forcibly.
“When you lose your house and everything you own, you lose your culture and heritage. Thus, you also lose your identity. We lost our identity,” she said.
Katharyn Hanson, a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Museum’s Cultural Heritage Center, testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on ISIS destruction of Iraqi cultural heritage. She pointed to a number of ancient cultural and religious sites and monuments destroyed by the terrorist group.
She mentioned that ISIS destroyed the tomb of the Prophet Jonah last June and also mentioned the video released by ISIS, which shows the destruction of 7th-century sculptures that were highly regarded by today's Assyrian Christians.