Christians leaving Iraq

THEIR cathedrals stand silent and their neighbourhoods are rapidly emptying. Now Iraq’s Christians face two further unthinkable realities: that Christmas this year is all but cancelled, and that few among them will stay around to celebrate future holy days. It has been the worst of years for the country’s Christians, with thousands fleeing in the past month and more leaving the country during 2010 than at any time since the invasion nearly eight years ago. Christian leaders say there have been few more defining years in their 2,000-year history in central Arabia.

The latest exodus follows a massacre led by Al Qaeda at a Chaldean Catholic church in central Baghdad on Oct 31, which left about 60 people dead, almost 100 maimed and an already apprehensive community terrified. Since then, the terror group has targeted Christians in their homes, including family members of those who survived the attack.

In Baghdad, as well as the northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, Christmas services have been cancelled for fear of further violence. Church leaders said they would not put up Christmas decorations or celebrate midnight mass. They told families not to deco rate their homes, for fear of attack after Al Qaeda reiterated its threat to target Christians earlier this week.

“Now more than 80 per cent of Christians are not going to the churches,” said the head of Iraq’s Christian Endowment group, Abdullah al-Noufali. “There is no more Sunday school, no school for teaching Christianity. ... We had a discussion about what we would do for Christmas. We took a decision just to do one mass. In years before we had many masses.” Noufali’s church was closed and barricaded in 2005 when violence was consuming Baghdad. Many others had stayed open since then. In the wake of the attack on the Our Lady of Salvation church, at least 10 churches are believed to have been closed. At others, congregations are down to a handful.

Iraq’s Christian population has halved since the ousting of Saddam Hussein. But in the past two months, the rate of departure has soared. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees is reporting high numbers of registrations by Christians in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. And in Iraq’s Kurdish north, the number of refugees is overwhelming. ¦ — The Guardian, London.