Displaced Yazidi people walk towards the Syrian border yesterday.

On July 20, during his Sunday homily from the Vatican, Pope Francis cried out loud and clear to an indifferent and apathetic world to listen to the cries of persecuted Christians in Iraq and Syria by a fanatical jihadist army known as ISIS, also the name of an ancient Egyptian goddess whose worship spread also throughout the Greco-Roman world.

Particularly in the ancient Iraqi city of Mosul, the provincial capital city of Niniveh and the second largest city after Baghdad, the jihadists evicted the Christians out of the city and, like the biblical Israelis, daubed their homes with the Arabic letter N to identify them as Christians, and confiscated their property.

Since the beginning of Christianity these communities had co-existed in peace and harmony, making a significant contribution to the welfare of society.

For the first time in 1,600 years there was no Mass in Mosul.

While we celebrate our feasts with devotional pomp and prayer, let us spare a lingering thought of our fellow Christian brethren in the Middle East.

Throughout the centuries, we have witnessed enough misery and killings in the name of God

If we sincerely believe in prayer please take note that the Christian holocaust has started with a vengeance: convert to Islam, pay a religion tax or face the sword.

Incidentally Niniveh, the biblical symbol of cruelty and decadence, has a tenuous connection with our island through the discovery of its ancient ruins in the mid-19th century by Sir Austen Layard, ex-Malta Times correspondent in the Orient.

This senseless persecution hitting at the very roots of our Christian faith is not without significance as with the exception of Israel, Iraq and Syria can boast of the greatest number of regions and cities with direct connection to the Bible.

It was in the ancient city of Ur of the Chaldees in Iraq where the patriarch Abraham was born; the Book of Jonah relates the spiritual revival of Niniveh; Isaac married Rebecca, a lovely maiden from northwest Iraq from where the 12 tribes of Israel originated.

So was the account of Daniel in the Lions’ Den and the story of Jacob’s ladder.

In Syria, ISIS is also systematically targetting Christian relics and shrines. In Aleppo they are intent on their extinction.

While the thick flames of rampant Islamic fundamentalism soar higher and higher with unabated reckless fury, European nations, with their heritage and culture deeply rooted in Christianity, remain frozen in the ice of their indifference.

They have given scant attention to the urgent pleas of the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri el-Maliki, a practising moderate Muslim, to save the thousands of displaced Christians in Mosul at the hands of what he described as “severe acts of criminality and terrorist nature of this group”. However, let us cast a backward glance and record the vociferous pleas of the European Union, and rightly so, condemning the ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Bosnia and Serbia a few decades ago.

ISIS has introduced a draconian version of Sharia law ushering in a new version of jihadism, harshly condemned by moderate Muslims, forcing minority groups to flee their cities as refugees initiating a new era of extreme international jihadism.

While the EU has hardly uttered a word of strong condemnation giving scant attention to this Christian holocaust, the United Nations through its Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has sternly warned that “any systematic attack on the civilian population or segment of it because of ethnic background, religious beliefs or faith may constitute a crime against humanity for which those responsible must be held accountable”.

It is well to remember that Pope Paul John II and the Christian bishops of Iraq, who had begged international leaders to use their influence to avoid any attempt to invade Iraq and cause extensive damage to this ancient nation, once the cradle of civilisation, warned that if this happened the Christians would become the target of extreme Islamic fundamentalism.

The consequences are all there to see. While showing solidarity with the persecuted Christians of Iraq and Syria, we trust in God that through diplomacy and good this ethnic religious cleansing in the name of Allah will stop.

Throughout the centuries, we have witnessed enough misery and killings in the name of God.