EASTERN Orthodox Christmas celebrations this week were overshadowed in at least two regions of the Middle East by an atmosphere of intimidation and violence against church property.
The small and dwindling Christian community in the Gaza Strip generally kept a low profile during the Christmas period. Christians say churches have been attacked over recent months, and individuals have been threatened by Islamic militants.
Last October, a Greek Orthodox activist, Rami Ayyad, was killed. The Hamas government denounced the murder, and assured Christians that they would receive full protection and be free to worship. Nevertheless, on Eastern Orthodox Christmas Day, church attendance was low, and Christians say sporadic acts of intimidation are continuing.
“How could we celebrate Christmas in this atmosphere?” Jamila Madani, a university student, asked. “Many of our Christian friends have left Gaza, and I will do the same if I get the chance. There is no future for us here.”
The Christian community is today estimated to have falled below 3000. Chronic economic problems have compounded the fear about the future felt by many of the remaining Christians.
A similar sense of uncertainty is afflicting the minority Christian community in Iraq. The Eastern Orthodox Christmas period witnessed a number of apparently co-ordinated attacks on church property in Baghdad and Mosul.
In the capital, a small bomb damaged a doorway to St George’s Chaldean Church, a mortar bomb damaged a Greek Orthodox Church, and a bomb was targeted at a Chaldean convent. In Mosul, bombs exploded at the Chaldean churches of St Paul and of Maskanta, the Assyrian Church of the Virgin Mary, and a monastery. People were slightly injured in both cities.
Iraqi leaders, both Muslim and Christian, condemned the attacks. The Vice-President, Tariq al-Hashemi, said they had “changed [Christians’] joy to sadness and anxiety”: Christians were part of the Iraqi family.
The last official estimate indicates that Christians represent about three per cent of the total Iraqi population.