Merry Christmas Baghdad!
I am posting a little earlier than I normally do in the week. I wanted to start the week off on a good note, and wanted to share this while it’s still fresh news. I have been working on a piece addressing the Rand report that CJ wrote about two weeks ago. That is an issue worth revisiting and I have some encouraging news on the topic. However, today I am straying a little from my normal posting habits to share some other encouraging news.
Iraqi’s celebrated their first ever open and public Christmas in Baghdad.
I think in order to understand the significance of this celebration we need to consider that the Christian population was cut nearly in half after Saddam came into power (from 20% to 10%). Then after the first Gulf War and then the Iraqi invasion they dwindled down to just 4%. This drastic decline is often cited as a result of radicals and terrorist groups targeting Christians causing them to go into exile.
Is this a sign that Iraqi Christians can go home now? I don’t know. I hope for their sake it does. I know that this is an intended consequence of this war — that is tolerance and minorities openly celebrating their faith without fear of persecution or death from the government. One of President Bush’s principles through out this war has been that “religious tolerance offers a path to peace.” It most certainly had to be fought for, but this open celebration is just one of many such instances where we see that pathway to peace being tread. This trail to peace was not blazed by so called “peace activists.” This trail has been blazed by American Soldiers and Marines and our Allied Forces.
Merry Christmas to the Iraqi Christians, to President and Mrs. Bush, and to our dedicated and incredible men and women serving in our Armed Forces. The fruit of their labor, of their sacrifices, are being realized. I hope every American who reads the story posted below feels pride knowing that our bravest and finest made this day possible for a minority in Iraq who would have been slaughtered for such a display just a few years ago. If this isn’t a Christmas miracle, I don’t know what is!
Excerpt of CNN article:
Baghdad celebrates first public Christmas amid hope, memories
By Jill Dougherty
CNN
Dec 21, 2008
Excerpt
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — From a distance, it looks like an apparition: a huge multi-colored hot-air balloon floating in the Baghdad sky, bearing a large poster of Jesus Christ. Below it, an Iraqi flag.Welcome to the first-ever public Christmas celebration in Baghdad, held Saturday and sponsored by the Iraqi Interior Ministry. Once thought to be infiltrated by death squads, the Ministry now is trying to root out sectarian violence — as well as improve its P.R. image.
The event takes place in a public park in eastern Baghdad, ringed with security checkpoints. Interior Ministry forces deployed on surrounding rooftops peer down at the scene: a Christmas tree decorated with ornaments and tinsel; a red-costumed Santa Claus waving to the crowd, an Iraqi flag draped over his shoulders; a red-and-black-uniformed military band playing stirring martial music, not Christmas carols.
On a large stage, children dressed in costumes representing Iraq’s many ethnic and religious groups — Kurds, Turkmen, Yazidis, Christians, Arab Muslims not defined as Sunni or Shiite — hold their hands aloft and sing “We are building Iraq!” Two young boys, a mini-policeman and a mini-soldier sporting painted-on mustaches, march stiffly and salute.
Even before I can ask Interior Ministry spokesman Major-General Abdul Karim Khalaf a question, he greets me with a big smile. “All Iraqis are Christian today!” he says.
Khalaf says sectarian and ethnic violence killed thousands of Iraqis. “Now that we have crossed that hurdle and destroyed the incubators of terrorism,” he says, “and the security situation is good, we have to go back and strengthen community ties.” READ MORE
