Thursday, December 23, 2004
NO HAPPY CHRISTMAS IN IRAQ THIS YEAR
Associated Press writer Rawya Rageh reports in theledger.com:
Basman Sabah doesn't feel it's Christmas. He'll stay home and skip Mass. Most of his friends and relatives have fled the country. He didn't even buy a Christmas tree.
"The feeling of festivity is no more there," said the 27-year-old electrical engineer.
For Iraqi Christians, it will be a gloomy Christmas.
Saddam Hussein's secular regime did not persecute the Christian community, though his government did give rough treatment to some other religious and ethnic groups. But since the U.S. occupation of Iraq last year, radical militants have regularly attacked churches.
As a result, Iraq's community of 700,000 Christians have called off celebrations this year.
