As she lay dying in her mother’s arms after an ISIS attack on her home, a 12 year-old Christian girl in Mosul, Iraq used her last breath to beg her mother to forgive her killers.
ExpressUK is reporting on the incredible story of a 12 year-old girl in Mosul who was taking a shower when ISIS militants came to the door of the family’s home to demand payment of the Jaziya – a tax levied on all religious minorities by the jihadis.
According to Jacqueline Isaac, Esq., president of the human rights advocacy group Roads of Success, ISIS fighters came to the door and told the girl’s mother, “You have two choices, you are to leave now or you are to pay the Jaziya.”
The woman reportedly said, “I will pay, give me a few seconds my daughter is in the shower.”
The jihadis said, “You don’t have a few seconds” and used a torch to set fire to the bathroom where the child was showering. Flames quickly engulfed the home as mother and daughter rushed to escape.
They both managed to get out alive but not before the daughter suffered serious burns.
“The daughter had fourth degree burns and the mother took her daughter, scrambling, doing anything to save her,” Isaac said. “Rushed her to the hospital and her daughter died in her arms. The last thing her daughter said was ‘Forgive them’.”
Much like Jesus’ last words from the cross, “ . . . Father forgive them; they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34), the girl’s final act of mercy not only surprised her mother, but has now gone viral, sending a powerful message around the world about what it means to be a true follower of Christ.
Word of the courageous act came after Isaac gave a riveting testimony about the episode at a conference on the persecution of Christians in New York late last month.
According to the Mirror, she said other parents had received similar knocks on the door but instead found plastic bags filled with the body parts of their daughters along with videos showing how the girls had been raped and tortured before being killed.
“They’re parents just like us,” Isaac said. “They’re mothers, they’re fathers. These are not numbers. They are living in an unfortunate part of the world.”
She added: “I promised I would not leave without sharing their voices with the entire world. This is a call for action.”
The Church, which existed in Iraq for more than 2,000 years, has been reduced to almost nothing in the wake of the Iraq war and subsequent invasion by ISIS jihadis who are forcing their fanatical version of Islam on the remaining population.
Let us pray to this courageous young martyr and ask her to intercede for Christians everywhere – in both the East and the West – who are enduring persecution for following in the loving footsteps of our Savior.
