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Religions of Mosul


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The majority of people in Mosul are Sunni Muslims, though Mosul had a proportion of Assyrian Christians who also have a presence in the villages around of Mosul in ancient Nineveh since the foundation of the city (majority follow the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church and the Syriac Orthodox Church, and a minority follow the Assyrian Church of the East). There is also a number of Arab Christians which belong to the Greek Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Church, some follow Chaldean Catholic Church and Syriac Orthodox Church, and have a number of Protestant churches. Other religions, such as Yazidi, Yarsan and Mandean religions also call Mosul home.

Long before the Muslim conquest of the 7th century, the old city Nineveh was Christianized when the Assyrians converted to Christianity during the 1st and 2nd centuries.

Despite institutional ethnic persecution by various political powers, including the Ba'ath Party regime, Mosul has maintained a multicultural and multi-religious mosaic. The difficult history of Mosul, however, still contributes to tensions among its modern inhabitants.

Mosul had a Jewish population. Like most Iraqi Jews, most left in 1950�51. A larger number may have converted to Islam in the past century but some traditions have been retained. It is very difficult to give a reliable estimate of the Jewish population in Iraq because of the remaining Jews have adapted to the Islamic culture. Most Iraqi Jews have moved to Israel, some to the United States. A rabbi in the American army found an abandoned, dilapidated synagogue in Mosul dating back to the 13th century
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