ICC Note: “Forgive them” cried the 12-year-old Christian with her dying breath. The girl died in Mosul when the jihadists set her home ablaze while she was in the shower. Jihadists arrived at the house demanding the payment of the jizya, a religious tax imposed on all non-muslims. When the mother asked for a moment as her daughter was indecent. The militants refused to wait and set the home ablaze. Both mother and daughter escaped, though the girl succumbs to her wounds soon after. As she died in her mother’s arms she echoed the words of Christ on the cross, “Forgive them.”

05/26/2016 Iraq (The Independent): A 12-year-old Christian girl who was burnt to death in her home by Isis urged her family to forgive them with her dying breath.

The girl’s mother described how jihadi fighters had set fire to the family home in Mosul, northern Iraq, after they failed to pay a religious tax on time.

The tax, known as the Jaziya, is imposed on all non-Muslims in Isis controlled territories and is calculated according to their estimated net worth.

The unnamed mother described how “foreign” Isis fighters had arrived at her door and said she had two choices, either “you are to leave now or you are to pay the Jaziya”.

Human rights advocate, Jacqueline Issac, said the mother told them she would pay, but asked for a “few seconds” as her daughter was in the shower.

The jihadis reportedly refused to wait and lit the house with a torch immediately.

Both the mother and her daughter managed to escape the burning house, but the child died from her fourth degree burns a few hours later.

Ms Issac told the Daily Express: “The daughter had fourth degree burns and the mother took her daughter, scrambling, doing anything to save her.

“She rushed her to the hospital and her daughter died in her arms.

“The last thing her daughter said was: ‘Forgive them’.”

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