Iraqi churches cancel Christmas celebrations
Associated Press correspondents Yahya Barzanji and Sameer N. Yacoub report:
KIRKUK, Iraq – No decorations, no midnight Mass. Even an appearance by Santa Claus has been nixed after Iraq's Christian leaders called off Christmas celebrations amid new al-Qaida threats on the tiny community still terrified from a bloody siege on a Baghdad church.
Christians across Iraq have been living in fear since the assault on Our Lady of Salvation Church as its Catholic congregation was celebrating Sunday Mass. Sixty-eight people were killed. Days later Islamic insurgents bombed Christian homes and neighborhoods across the capital.
On Tuesday, al-Qaida insurgents threatened more attacks on Iraq's beleaguered Christians, many of whom have fled their homes or the country since the church attack. A council representing Christian denominations across Iraq advised its followers to cancel public celebrations of Christmas out of concern for their lives and as a show of mourning for the victims.
"Nobody can ignore the threats of al-Qaida against Iraqi Christians," said Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako in Kirkuk. "We cannot find a single source of joy that makes us celebrate. The situation of the Christians is bleak."
Church officials in Baghdad, as well as in the northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul and the southern city of Basra, said they will not put up Christmas decorations or celebrate midnight Mass. They urged worshippers not to decorate their homes. Even an appearance by Santa Claus was called off.
"It's to avoid any attacks, but also to show that people are sad, not happy," said Younadim Kanna, a Christian lawmaker from Baghdad.
Even before the Oct. 31 church attack, thousands of Christians were fleeing Iraq. They make up more than a third of the 53,700 Iraqis resettled in the United States since 2007, according to State Department statistics.
Since the church attack, some 1,000 families have fled to Iraq's safer Kurdish-ruled north, according to the United Nations, which recently warned of a steady exodus of Iraqi Christians.
The latest threats were posted late Tuesday by the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida front group, on a website frequented by Islamic extremists. The group said it wants the release of two women it claims are being held captive by Egypt's Coptic Church.
Muslim extremists in Egypt accuse the Coptic Church of detaining the women for allegedly converting to Islam, an accusation the church denies. The message posted Tuesday was addressed to Iraq's Christian community and said it was designed to "pressure" Egypt.
Few reliable statistics exist on the number of Christians remaining in this nation of 29 million. A recent State Department report says Christian leaders estimate there are 400,000 to 600,000, down from a prewar level of some 1.4 million.
For those who remain, Christmas will be a somber affair.
In the northern city of Kirkuk, 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Sako said there will be no Christmas decorations outside churches and a traditional visit by Santa Claus has also been called off. Money usually used on celebrations or gifts will instead go to help Christian refugees.
Ashour Binyamin, a 55-year-old Christian from Kirkuk said he and his family would not go to church on Christmas and would celebrate at home.
At Baghdad's Our Lady of Salvation Church, where more than 120 parishioners were held hostage by gunmen during the four-hour siege, all Christmas Masses have been canceled. Only a modest manger display will mark the occasion.
"We have canceled all celebrations in the church," said Father Mukhlis. "We are still in deep sorrow over the innocent victims who fell during the evil attack."
In Baghdad's Karradah neighborhood, where many of the city's remaining Christians live, churches were guarded by security forces Wednesday and surrounded by razor wire. Shop owners said few people were buying the Christmas trees and Santa Claus toys on sale.
Ikhlas Bahnam, a Christian in the neighborhood, vowed to go to Mass on Christmas Day, despite what she called the government's failure to protect her small minority. But she won't be visiting friends during the holiday season because all of them have fled the city.
"We did not put any decorations inside or outside our house this year," Bahnam said. "We see no reason to celebrate."
In Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad, the Rev. Faiz Wadee, a Syrian Orthodox priest, said there will be no public Christmas celebrations there.
And Christians in Iraq's second-largest city of Basra have also called off all celebrations, said Saad Matti, a Christian legislator on the Basra provincial council.
"There will be only a small Mass in one church in Basra without any signs of joy or decoration and under the protection of Iraqi security forces," he said. "We are fully aware of al-Qaida threats."
Matti said Christians were also toning down their celebrations out of respect for a Shiite holiday going on at the same time. The majority of Iraqis are Shiite Muslims, especially in the south.
Even among Iraqi Christians who've managed to escape the violence, the mood was subdued.
Maher Murqous, a Christian from Mosul who fled to neighboring Syria after being threatened by militants, said his relatives are still at risk in Iraq, and since they cannot celebrate, neither will he.
"We will pray for the sake of Iraq. That's all we can do," he said from his home in Damascus.
Yacoub reported from Amman, Jordan. Associated Press writers Sinan Salaheddin and Rebecca Santana in Baghdad and Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.
Comments
Iraqi Christians have been persecuted ever since their protective shield was removed, curiously enough by the Cheney/Bush cabal's illegal invasion. Prior to our invasion, the Christian community was protected by Saddam Hussein and enjoyed the freedom to practice their form of delusional belief with the same protection that Saddam's sect of Islam enjoyed. Once we arrived on the scene, both of the sub-cults of Islam began their persecution and Iraqi Christians started heading for neighboring countries (mostly to Jordon and Syria), where they were denied work permits. With starvation facing them, they had little choice but to turn their daughters into prostitutes and their major customers were men from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, who took sex junkets to Jordon and Syria to take advantage of their plight. George Bush's little resource war did more for turning Christians into hookers than any other event in history. PBS did an expose on the entire sorted affair, that somehow never made a splash in the main-stream media, and especially not in the Right-wing propaganda trough.
Posted by: Robert Littel | December 23, 2010 3:19 PM
Well Mr Hussein did quite a few inhumane things himself while in power, and I dont believe our invasion had any intent on turning anyone into anything other than a free person. If people who are non Christian want to be disobedient to God by killing others, they will all stand before Christ to answer for what they do, even yourself. God bless.
Posted by: Clay | December 25, 2010 2:45 PM
Are you suggesting that Robert would do such a thing Clay?
Posted by: Dana | December 25, 2010 6:58 PM
In Clay's deluded mind, it is better to kill everyone and let god sort it all out later.
Posted by: Robert Littel | December 26, 2010 9:46 AM
Even Robert will stand before Him, and I wasnt assuming that Robert had killed anyone. That is probably what you assumed I meant, but it gave you an opportunity for criticism. God bless.
Posted by: Clay | December 26, 2010 6:15 PM
Clay doesn't realize that if the fairy-tale he says is true, somehow was true, I would welcome the opportunity to face his god so I could ask it why it is such a SOB. Why all the suffering , why the painful deaths of children from cancer, why he let the prayers of hundreds of millions go unanswered that caused the death of 50 million people during WWII, when a simple blood clot in the heart or brain of one or two madmen would have spared so many of his presumed loved children? Bring your silly god on, that SOB has a lot to answer for.
Posted by: Robert Littel | December 27, 2010 9:53 AM
My guess (and hope) Robert is that when you come face to face with God you will be overcome with love and understanding, and all of your hurt will go away.
Heresy is much more offensive to God than atheism. In that regard Mr. Clay will have a more difficult accounting to make than you.
Posted by: Tomás de Torquemada | December 27, 2010 1:14 PM
The trashing of intellectualism that you poor saps go through, all to delude yourselves that you will somehow cheat the finality of death, is truly amazing. Sorry to disappoint you, but you will not meet your made up gods after death, they do not exist and wishing won't make them real. Dead means dead.
Posted by: Robert Littel | December 27, 2010 1:33 PM
If "dead means dead" then why are you so troubled about giving God a piece of your mind on judgment day?
Posted by: Anonymous | December 27, 2010 2:06 PM
(Clay) Anonymous - The made-up fairy-tale I was referring to includes the absurdity of surviving death. I would love to live forever, but surrendering my intellect so that I can face the moment of death believing I am seconds away from entering an eternal Disneyland, is just too far below the threshold of rational thought. Only a weak minded dolt can swallow that vat of bilge and Clay is the weakest mind I have ever met outside of a nursing home, and not wearing a drool bucket.
Posted by: Robert Littel | December 28, 2010 2:52 PM
A strong mind can never make up for a strong heart. God isnt impressed by intelligence because he gave it to us. But our decisions from our heart as to what we choose are ours. We have free will. Otherwise we would just be robots. Of course He wants us to feel His love and to love Him and others around us. That can never be done with intellect. Intellect, even here, can get in the way of love. We can be smart enough to figure out that we need love, but we cant have it unless we open up our hearts, and that involves letting go of pride and being humble. Thanks.
Posted by: Clay | December 28, 2010 3:32 PM
Clay, I don’t think anyone here is concerned with “impressing” God. You sound more than a little confused. People don’t make decisions with their hearts. Decision making is a cognitive function. Even such basic decisions as the fight or flight response are made in the brain (limbic system) Clay. Your anti-intellect opinion comes from your own insecurities. Please do not project your failings onto God.
Your argument that intellect does not “impress” God because he gave it to us is an argument that could be made about our capacity to love also. Neither is diminished as a result of having been a gift from God. That is ludicrous. If I give my son a computer (for instance) he may use it to get on the Dean’s List at college or he may use it to surf porn. His free will determines the fruits of my gift. So it is, too, with the gifts we receive from God. They are not diminished by virtue of the identity of the giver.
This is true of the intellect. One might use a gift of intellect to design a weapon of mass destruction. Or it could be used to create a new way to extract a renewable energy source. One can create new drugs to cure or new drugs to abuse. Such is the nature of free will.
He has given us the gift of the ability to love, too. We can use this to love only our neighbors or we can use it to love our enemies as well. We can embrace all of humanity, or we can pick and choose, as some do, leaving out large groups of people who are “different” than us.
Posted by: Dana | December 29, 2010 7:25 AM
Like I said, you can say whatever you want about my posts. I dont see the point of responding to what you continue to do and say. God bless.
Posted by: Clay | December 29, 2010 12:46 PM
Clay - You can rest assured that I will continue to comment on your posts, but only to point out that the examination of your thought processes more resembles the dilemma involved in trying to pick up a turd by the clean end.
Posted by: Robert Littel | December 29, 2010 2:43 PM
Robert, you can borrow my ayster tongs. Jes' boil them when your done dredging up the clay.
Posted by: Choptank Charlie | December 29, 2010 3:24 PM
The great majority of people here are negative and against God and His people. I dont see the point of Christians making comments. There certainly arent many here who say that they truly love God.
Posted by: Clay | December 30, 2010 11:11 AM
Clay,
I assume you count me among those who are "negative and against God and His people."
I submit I am none of those.
I am "neutral" on God, just as I am on other mythologic figures. I am certainly not "against" godly people (I find them amusing and interesting, from an anthropological perspective.), except when they require that I subscribe to their beliefs or model my life according to those beliefs.
Too often, Clay, religious folk feel persecuted by the non-religious, when all the latter wish is to be left alone and unmolested.
Posted by: BankStreet | December 30, 2010 12:07 PM
WWJD Clay? What would Jesus do if he thought he were among non-believers? What if, say, he found himself among tax collectors and sinners? (Hint: Matthew 11)
Nobody here has said anything against God except for Robert. But he doesn’t believe in God. I’m not really sure that that counts as “against.” You are confused again. You think that when people disagree with YOU it is the same as disagreeing with GOD. How arrogant, how un-Christian, how Clay.
Posted by: Anonymous | December 30, 2010 1:22 PM