In the ongoing instability in Iraq, Christians are not necessarily safe even if they escape areas held by IS. Esam (an Iraqi Christian) said that friends of his who escaped Mosul after being forcibly converted to Islam have been ‘baptised back to Christianity’. Other aspects of their lives will take far longer to repair. Iraqi Christians who end up returning to Iraq know they return to a country whose sectarian fault-lines have been activated to lethal levels. Aid workers have warned that extensive reconciliation work is vital if Iraq’s many different faith and ethnic communities are to cohere again, especially as levels of trauma among all sectors of the population are thought to be extremely high. The ordeal at the hands of IS members in Mosul has been horrific. Iraqi Christians tell of crucifixions, torture and sex slavery. Esam concludes, ‘What happened is not easy, but in the end we must forgive.’