Muslim and Christian leaders in the United States have condemned the vandalism of an Assyrian church with graffiti that references the killings of 185,000 Middle Eastern Christians.
The words "Jehovah lives!" and "2 Kings 19:35" were spray-painted onto Mar Shaleeta Ancient Church of the East which has been in San Fernando Valley in California for two decades.
The Bible passage in Kings reads: "Then it happened that night that the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were dead."
Father Athanasis Toma, parish priest, told the Los Angeles Daily News: "When I read the verse, I realised it's really not just graffiti. It's aimed toward a specific nation. It's hatred toward a nation. The meaning of that verse struck me hard. That's someone who knew what they were talking about.
"In a civil society, things like this should not be happening. It doesn't matter what ethnicity."
Hussam Ayloush, of the Los Angeles Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations voiced solidarity with the Christian community after the attack. He said: "We condemn the implied threat in this apparently bias-motivated vandalism, and offer the Muslim community's solidarity and support in dealing with this incident."
The graffiti also included a reference to Matthew 19:26: "And looking at them Jesus said to them, 'With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.'"
Assyrians in Iraq have endured some of the worst sufferings of any Christian community in the world during the occupation of Mosul and the Nineveh Plain by Islamic State. Thousands have been murdered, tortured, and sold into sexual slavery.
The US is home to the world's third-largest Assyrian community. Many fled there to escape the genocide in the early 20th Century.
The Assyrian American Association of Southern California condemned the vandalism in a statement posted on Facebook:
"We as Assyrians in the United States have faced many struggles in the past that have made us more united and rigorous here in the United States and in our ancestral lands. We have been the subject to many accounts of bigotry, hate and discrimination. But those trials and testaments have only made us stronger as a community. Assyrians here in the Southern California region have repeatedly shown their strength, pride and resilience when our community has been affected. We have shown that we are one large family that stands together through sorrow and joy."
