Iraqi Churches are canceling Christmas celebrations, or toning down festivities this week, for fear of agitating the country's Shiite Muslims, whose Day of Ashura comes 2 days later this year. Today's Washington Post offers a stark and somber look into the deteriorating situation of Christians in the war-torn country.
According to Louis Sako, chief archbishop of Kirkuk for the Chaldean Christians, a Catholic sect that originated in Iraq, none of the northern archdiocese's nine churches has scheduled a Christmas Mass this year.
"This is the first time we have had to cancel our celebrations," he said.
Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Iraq's Christian minority has faced constant persecution, including dozens of church bombings, executions, kidnappings and forced expulsions, devastating some communities and reducing the overall Christian population by at least 25 percent.
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This year, with Christmas falling so close to Ashura, church officials in Baghdad and other cities say they have received warnings of attacks, forcing them to limit services to indoors and caution followers to keep family gatherings discreet.
I read plenty of news – to follow religious liberty developments and otherwise – and this has to be about the most depressing story I have come across in a while. It's practically taken for granted that it makes any sense whatsoever for one religious community to be violently offended by the mere fact of another religious community celebrating. The violence that marks religious conflict around the world is maddening, and heartbreaking, and all too commonplace.
[UPDATE – Wed, 12/23: A NYTimes update reports on the violence against both Christian and Muslim targets that has erupted today.
