Source: Asia News, via Assyrian International News Agency, December 24, 2013
In a new and important step towards the Christian minority, the Iraqi government accepted a request by the Chaldean Patriarchate to recognize December 25 as an official day of celebration and a national holiday for all of the country’s citizens.
In Karrada, a neighborhood on the eastern bank of the Tigris River where Christians, Shias, and Sunnis live peacefully together, the authorities had already set up a five-meter Christmas tree.
As a show of “solidarity,” the decision sends a signal meant to curb an exodus that has decimated the Christian community in the past ten years.
It comes after His Beatitude Mar Raphael Louis Sako I wrote a letter to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki last week, asking him to make December 25 a “day of rest for all Iraqis.”
For the patriarch, such a recognition would be a way to acknowledge the value and importance of a community that has for centuries actively contributed to the development of the nation.
In his letter, the Chaldean Patriarch explained that “Jesus did not come just for Christians, but for everyone,” stressing the “special respect” Muslims “have for him.”
» Listen to this very inspiring interview with the Anglican pastor called “the Vicar of Baghdad” (Compassion Radio).
» Other places have banned Christmas events. See Somalia Bans Christmas Celebrations (AINA) and, from Banda Aceh, Indonesia, Christmas and New Year Are Haram (Worthy News).