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September 21, 2014

Scholar decries ‘plague’ wiping out history

University of Toronto Professor Amir Harrak (top left) has spent his life studying Aramaic-speaking Iraq and Syria. The rich expression of Christianity in Mesopotamia, including this inscribed ceremonial cross of St. John’s Church in Qaraqosh (top centre), the mid-13th century Gate of Two Baptisms at Mar Behnam south of Mosul (right) and a 1653 genealogy of Jesus (above) are all threatened by the Islamic State

As Amir Harrak watched the news this summer, the Toronto scholar saw a history, culture and language that he devoted his life to understanding being turned to dust. Churches, monasteries, mosques blown up, libraries full of ancient manuscripts burned and the people who still speak and live according to the language of Jesus and his Apostles dispersed. The news out of Iraq could not have been worse.

Published in Canada