ICC Note: A 17-year-old displaced Iraqi Christian is fighting back against ISIS’s genocide by recreating ancient artifacts destroyed by the group. Nenous Thabit is a sculptor and artist looking to save his Assyrian culture and history by resculpting the many artifacts destroyed by Islamic State militants. The teen has already reproduced 18 Assyrian sculptures and one mural over the past year.

11/24/2016 Iraq (Christian Post): A displaced Iraqi Christian teenager has taken it upon himself to recreate historic Assyrian artifacts destroyed during the Islamic State’s rampage through ancient Assyrian villages and settlements in the last two years.

Nenous Thabit, a 17-year-old Assyrian Christian who is now living in Erbil after fleeing his home in Mosul, told CNN that he has recreated at least 18 Assyrian sculptures and one mural over the last year to help restore the ancient Assyrian history destroyed by IS, which is also known as ISIS, ISIL and Daesh.

Thabit said it was in 2015, after IS ravaged the 3,300-year-old settlement of Nimrud — also known as the biblical settlement of Calah — that he decided to fight back against IS’ war on his cultural heritage.

IS militants attempted to destroy all traces of Christian heritage and history they came across as they took over the Nineveh Plains, and used sledgehammers, jackhammers, power tools, bulldozers and explosives to callously destroy ancient monestaries, churches and cultural artifacts that Thabit considers to be his ancestors’ works of art.

“They waged a war on art and culture,” Thabit told CNN. “So, I decided to fight them with art.”

“In Iraq, there are people who are killed because they are sculptors; because they are artists. ISIS view them as apostate,” he added. “So, continuing to sculpt is a message that we will not be intimidated by those devils.”

One of Thabit’s favorite sculptures is the protective Assyrian deity Lamassu, which has a human head, the body of an ox or lion, and wings like a vulture. He explained that it took him about 15 days to complete the Lamassu statue.

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