December 25, 2005

Posted on Christmas Day:

It is Christmas Eve. I am in an Arab country that has a sizable Christian minority. Some are celebrating Christmas tomorrow. A group preaching inter-faith understanding is holding a dawn mass in a few hours.

I cannot help but think of the Christians of Iraq. Although they may have not been as free as they would have liked to be, they were perhaps one of the most privileged Christian communities - save for in Lebanon - in the Middle East.

The Baathist order had separated Church from State, so to speak, although that may have wavered towards the end of the 90s. Nevertheless, Christians were not hunted down. They weren't forced to convert, as some have told me is currently happening in southern Iraq.

They weren't forced to veil.

And they weren't forced to celebrate Christmas hiding at home or going to Church in the morning having to look over their shoulders for fear of a crazed Arab Wahabi freak imported from abroad to create havoc and wanton destruction.

I remember in the 80s and once in the 90s journeying to Deir Behnam in the north of Iraq. I would remember many Muslim families journeying there, some lighting candles in reverence of the Blessed Virgin.

I do not know if that happens now. I would seriously doubt it.

The Christians have been in Iraq for 2000 years.

Two thousand years, countless generations. Dozens of invasions have come and gone. Many purges have come and gone. Baghdad has been burned to the ground and yet the Christians persevered. They stayed.

Now, three years after the so-called war of liberation, I find I do not know what to say anymore.

I spoke with a Christian friend living in New Zealand who informed me her cousins in Basra converted.

Forcible conversion for fear of death. And yet the word of the Holy Quran "There is no compulsion in matters of faith" still burns in me.

A contradiction?

I found this article about Christmas in Baghdad on Aljazeera which saddened me further:

When asked if her family would be leaving the country, Umm Ban said she would wait out the outcome of the 15 December elections.

"If the same people win the elections, then we will be leaving - there is nothing to stay for. The situation for Christians will go from bad to worse. We voted for a non-religious list because only they can ensure the rights of all religions in the country."

As the hours counted down to Christmas morning, Umm Ban reflected on the meaning of Christmas for her family.

"It is about being with the people you love and the family - and most of my family have left abroad for security fears. They are what I miss most..."