Hope rings out in former ISIS stronghold of Mosul

MOSUL -- In Mosul, a city in northern Iraq that once served as the de facto capital of the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS), newly installed church bells are ringing out in an area where hope, reconstruction and unity now prevail.

"They ring for everyone," United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) general director Audrey Azoulay said during a March 7 visit to the northern metropolis, where the agency is rebuilding churches, mosques and other buildings devastated by ISIS.

Mosul, which is known for its religious and cultural diversity, suffered deeply under the extremist group's brutal three-year occupation, and reconstruction is still under way, along with efforts to restore the morale and character of the city.

ISIS was pushed out in 2017, but the battle to retake Mosul reduced its Old City to rubble.

For Azoulay, who was visiting the city to demonstrate UNESCO's support for the rebuilding of Iraq, the sound of the bells is "a symbol of a return to peace, connection to history but also a symbol of hope for the future".

Since 2018, UNESCO has raised more than $150 million for projects in Iraq, mostly the reconstruction of Mosul -- rebuilding mosques, churches and century-old houses as part of its "Revive the Spirit of Mosul" initiative.

Bells named for archangels

Among the most prominent of the restorations is al-Saa (Our Lady of the Hour convent), where the three church bells newly arrived from France pealed from the bell tower where they have been installed.

The so-called "clock church" was named for a timepiece given by France in 1880 to recognise the Dominicans' cultural and social work.

Azoulay said the convent provided Iraq's first school for girls and first teachers' college for women. The site also hosted the first printing press in Mesopotamia, she said.

Its three new bronze bells are named after the archangels Gabriel, Michael and Raphael, the heaviest of which weighs 270kg.

They were cast at the same French foundry in Normandy that made the bells of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, said Azoulay, a former French culture minister.

"We are in a place of religion, of culture, of co-existence, of education ... very symbolic place," she said.

The walls of the church have been restored with "magnificent stone", said Dominican Father Olivier Poquillon.

The sound of dialogue

UNESCO also is restoring Mosul's al-Nuri mosque and its al-Hadba or "hunchback", minaret, which dates back to the 12th century.

They were destroyed during the battle to retake the city from ISIS. Iraq's army accused ISIS of planting explosives at the site and blowing it up.

The mosque was the last area of the city under the group's control, and when news of its destruction reached then-Prime Minister Haider al-Abbadi, he described the group's actions as "an official declaration of defeat".

The ISIS incursion further decimated an Iraqi Christian population that has lived in the region for millennia but has shrunk to about 400,000.

Still, "we are seeing life return to the area," Poquillon said in February as he supervised installation of the bells that he hopes will regain "a function of dialogue".

In Mosul's Old City, the church bells and the mosque minaret are neighbours and residents can hear them both calling their faithful to prayer, he said.