Threats, Ashoura bring blue Christmas in Iraq, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

Threats, Ashoura bring blue Christmas in Iraq

Christians keep their celebrations under tighter wraps than usual, write Lara Jakes & Bushra Juhi

Christmas is bumping into Shiite Islam’s most mournful ceremony this year, forcing Iraqi Christians to keep their celebrations under tighter wraps than usual.

Midnight Mass will again be celebrated in daylight across Baghdad, and security around churches is heavier for a community that’s been threatened by sectarian violence since the 2003 US-led invasion.

A deadly Christmas eve ambush of a Christian bus driver and a bombing earlier this week targeting a 1,200-year-old church, both in Mosul, underscored their concerns.

But this year, Christians feeling an extra need for caution are toning down the Christmas glitz, and the plastic Santas aren’t selling as well as usual. At least one Catholic archbishop has discouraged Christmas decorations and public merrymaking out of respect for Ashoura, a period of Shiite mourning and self-flagellation.

“We used to put the Christmas tree with its bright lights close to the window in the entrance of our home,” said Mr Saad Matti, a 51-year-old surgeon and Basra city councilman.

“But this year, we put it away from the window as a kind of respect for the feelings of Shiite Muslims in our neighbourhood because of Ashoura,” he said.

Ashoura caps a 10-day period of self-flagellation and mourning for the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Imam Hussein, killed in 680 AD during a battle that sealed the split between Shiites and Sunnis.

During the 10 days, throngs of Shiite pilgrims march to the holy Iraqi city of Karbala, 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Baghdad.

The lunar Islamic calendar varies against the West’s, and this year Ashoura happens to climax on December 27.

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'New Age Islam', 'Moderate Islam' or 'Satanic-Illuminati-Masonic-Islam', Letter to the Editor, NewAgeIslam.com

Letter to the Editor

'New Age Islam', 'Moderate Islam' or 'Satanic-Illuminati-Masonic-Islam'

The call, which is being described as a fatwa, or Islamic decree, came from Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradawi, an influential firebrand cleric criticized in the West for his controversial rulings.

“Egypt has over the last two decades been infiltrated by Wahhabism,” Magdi Khalil, executive editor of Watani International and the Middle East Freedom Forum told The Media Line. “This culture and atmosphere is new in Egypt.”

The Egyptian-born Al-Qaradawi denounced the purchasing and selling of Christmas gifts, including Santa Claus dolls, Christmas trees and turkeys for Christmas dinner as “Christian and Western.”

Sales of Christmas gifts in Egypt have gone down by nearly a third this year because of the edict, according to one news report.

Christians contacted by The Media Line said they were unaware the fatwa had affected the celebrations or the Christmas revenues, but did express concern over the wider ramifications the fatwa may have on Christian minorities in Egypt and elsewhere.

In a Friday sermon, Al-Qaradawi criticized public celebrations of Christmas in Qatar and elsewhere in the Muslim world, claiming they undermined Islamic identity.

“Such appearances are prohibited by Islam,” he said. “Muslims participating in them are ignorant of Islamic teachings in this regard.”

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