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 Shi’ite 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 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 Shi’ite Muslims in our neighborhood because of Ashoura.’’
The lunar Islamic calendar varies against the West’s, and this year Ashoura happens to climax on Dec. 27. Shi’ites are the majority of Iraq’s 28.9 million people and now dominate the country politically, giving other sects more reason to accommodate them. Few weddings are held during Ashoura, and any business associated with beauty - flower shops, jewelry stores, photography studios - loses money.
The archbishop of the southern Shi’ite-dominated city of Basra, Imad al-Banna, called on Christians “to respect the feelings of Muslims during Ashoura and not hold the public celebrations during Christmas. . . . to hold Mass in the church only and not receive guests or show joyful appearances.’’
Some 1.25 million Christians, 80 percent of them Catholic, used to live in Iraq. An exodus that began after the 1991 Gulf War, when Saddam Hussein imposed more Islamic policies, intensified after 2003, when Christians became targets of sectarian violence, and some 868,000 are left.
Iraq’s top Catholic prelate, Chaldean Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, said he used to hold Mass at midnight on Christmas Eve but in recent years switched the services to daylight hours, when the streets are safer. He said he was unaware of the Basra priest’s Ashoura edict.
“We will do our religious rituals as usual and on its dates, and our Muslim brothers will feel happy that each one has his own dear religion,’’ Delly said.
The Defense Ministry said patrols will be stepped up around churches, Christian neighborhoods, and places of celebration, mostly in Baghdad, Mosul, and Kirkuk. That didn’t stop unidentified gunmen from ambushing a Christian man in Mosul yesterday, shooting him after pulling him from the bus he was driving in Mosul, police said. It was not clear whether the attack was religiously based.
The added security also didn’t deter Mosul bombers from attacking the Mar Toma Church, or the Church of St. Thomas, on Wednesday with an explosive hidden in an abandoned cart a few yards away. Two Muslim passers-by were killed, police said.
Adnan al-Sudani, a cleric in the Shi’ite-dominated Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, said Christmas generates no ill will among his followers.
“We as Shi’ites respect Christian occasions and share their happiness in our hearts,’’ he said.
