(CNN)Perfumed
smoke fills the aisle as the priest swings incense back and forth in
the thurible, a small metal canister suspended from chains that holds
the pungent smoke. It is something priest Bishare al Shemani has done
for years, but this year he is doing it in a makeshift church thousands
of miles from his home church. It is not by choice but necessity.
Al Shemani is one of the hundreds of thousands of Christians forced to leave his country because of ISIS.
"They took our areas, our house, the places that we used to hold so dear," al Shemani said.
Parishioners
surround him. They are crossing themselves, singing and praying. All
fled for their lives fearing death, but nothing could kill their faith.
Nearly
2,000 miles from Mosul, Iraq, where ISIS has tormented their people
alongside their Muslim neighbors, they have found temporary refuge in
Turkey.
"My
last Christmas was in my family's house. It was me, my mom, and my dad
and my brother. We were all together. And we hope to be united as one
family in one place just once more," said Meryem Salim.
She is from Bashika, about 30 kilometers from Mosul.
But for now, they are just outside Istanbul, in Yalova province, praying and singing, a family torn apart.
They
sing Christmas carols, including "Jingle Bells" in Arabic, in an old
wedding hall that has been converted into a church for Christmas.
They
grieve for their losses but pray for their homeland, hoping one day to
return to Iraq as proud Christians with no fear of reprisals simply
because of their faith. They come from one of the oldest and
longest-standing Christian communities in the world.
Christianity is under siege in the very region where it was born.
Iraq's
Christian population was about 1.5 million 10 years ago. Now, it's
estimated there are only 500,000 still living there. The rest have
either fled or been killed.
In Syria, of the 1.1 million Christians, about 600,000 have fled or died.
In
the Middle East they call themselves by many names, including
Assyrians, Syriac and Chaldeans, but they are all Christians hoping to
practice their faith in peace.
Hundreds
of thousands are now spread across the world. Many are in Lebanon,
Jordan and Turkey alongside their Muslim brethren, who also have fled
their countries because of the threat of death or persecution based on
the Islamic sect they ascribe to.
On
this day, the Christians huddled together in their makeshift church near
Istanbul, humbly offering their thanks to their God that they have
survived to celebrate one of the most joyous days on the Christian
calendar.
"This Christmas, it is sad
to be far away from our country, it is sad to be away from our
neighbors, from our friends, from our families. It is not easy. But
something is better than nothing. Thanks for God, we have a priest here,
that we are gathering here. I hope that everything will be OK,"
Christian Iraqi refugee Johnson Razgin said.
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