17-year-old Assyrian Christian Artist Nenous Thabit is resisting Islamic State (ISIS) Terrorism with Art

17-year-old Assyrian Christian Artist Nenous Thabit is resisting Islamic State (ISIS) Terrorism with Art

November 21, 2016: A 17-year-old Assyrian Christian artist and sculptor is resisting terrorism – with art. Nenous Thabit, who is from Mosul, fled the Islamic State as the group overtook the area two years ago.

A year after the initial invasion, ISIS also destroyed the ancient city of Nimrud, which is near Mosul and contained many historic artefacts and priceless works of ancient art because to them, these mere relics only symbolised idol worshipping, mentioned CNN.

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The United Nations cultural agency UNESCO has condemned the destruction at Nimrud as a war crime. "They waged a war on art and culture, so I decided to fight them with art," Thabit told CNN.

"In Iraq, there are people who are killed because they are sculptors; because they are artists. ISIS views them as apostate," he told CNN in an interview over the phone.

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Over the past year, Thabit has sculpted 18 Assyrian statues and one mural; the report said. He has also started sculpting workshops for kids. The destruction included three Lamassu sculptures – depicting a deity with the head of a man, the legs of an ox, the body of a lion and the wings of a vulture. Thabit can make a new one in about 15 days. This assault on his heritage and culture made him realise his true potential and fight against evil in a nonviolent yet threatening way, mentioned CNN.

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In the video released by ISIS, it showed the militants using sledgehammers and electric drills in order to destroy the artefacts. Such insults to a 3,000-year-old city that stands as the pride of a community could not be tolerated by an art-lover like Thabit. He is now sculpting the statues that resembled some of those destroyed in Nimrud in an apartment in the Kurdish city of Urbil where he and his family took refuge, Assyrian International News Agency reported.

– prepared by NewsGram team

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