Abbreviating and Sealing Off Christmas in Iraq

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By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS

BAGHDAD — As a priest led prayers for a few dozen worshipers inside St. Joseph Chaldean Church here on Sunday, Iraqi police officers stood guard outside. They blocked the street to traffic and frisked those who entered for explosive belts.

At churches in Baghdad this week, Christians are being asked for identification to determine if they have names that security force members recognize as Christian. Some churches around the northern city of Mosul are digging in, surrounding their buildings with giant earthen berms to prevent car bombers from getting too close.

For Christians in Iraq, this will be a year of canceled holiday celebrations and of Christmas Masses spent under the protective watch of police officers and soldiers because of a spate of threats by extremist groups to bomb churches on Christmas Day.

“I’m very sad that we are not able to have our rituals for Christmas this year and not have a sermon, but we do not want any Christians to be harmed,” said Edward Poles, a Christian priest at Sa’a Church in Mosul, which was bombed last week, though no one was killed.

In Baghdad, Christians said they are as fearful as they have been since 2006, when the outbreak of sectarian warfare forced many to leave their neighborhoods for months at a time.

“There will be no celebration or anything of that sort,” said Duraid Issam, a 41-year-old clerk. “We will keep it quiet because things are really bad. We are not targeted only at churches, but even in our houses because they will plant bombs outside our homes as well.”

There are no dependable figures on the number of Christians in Iraq, but the community had been estimated to number about 750,000 before the United States-led invasion in 2003.

Since then, they have become targets of killings and kidnappings, leading thousands to flee.

Many who remain are frightened and have taken precautions to conceal signs of their faith. Celebrations this year will be even more low key because Christmas coincides with the Muslim observance of Ashura, a time of mourning for Shiite Muslims.

“Our celebrations will not be open and will be restricted to going to the church in the morning,” said Naeil Victor, a 58-year-old teacher in the southern city of Basra. “My children are upset because they have been waiting for this Christmas for a year now, but my wife and my father understand what is going on around them.”

Some churches have dozens of soldiers and police officers positioned around them after the government placed security personnel on high alert because they received the names of churches that extremist groups said would be bombed on Christmas Day. Other churches have received individual threats.

In Mosul, during the past month, three churches have been bombed, killing a baby and wounding 40 other people. Last week, a Christian man in Mosul was shot dead as he walked down a street.

At least one church there has decided to relocate its Christmas Mass from Mosul to a small town about 30 miles north because parishioners feel it will be safer for them.

“We have moved the rituals for Christmas to the town of Qereqush, fearing that the Christians might be harmed in this insecure and unsafe city,” said the Rev. Behnam Asaad of Qahira Church. “We have distributed cards and fliers to the Christian families of this church informing them about the time and place where we will have the celebration, but we fear that assassinations might take place even after Christmas.”

Father Asaad said that he had received letters as recently as Monday from armed groups threatening to blow up churches and monasteries, including his own, if they celebrated Christmas.

Many Christians however, said they were unconcerned about the possibility of being attacked, saying they were suffering no more than other Iraqis.

“They are targeting not only us, but all Iraqis,” said Ann Benjamin, 26, after she walked through a phalanx of security personnel to attend Mass this week at Al Qaleb Al Aqdas (Sacred Heart) Church in the Karada district of Baghdad. “I am not afraid of going to church — even if I die there, I will be happy to die in God’s home.”

Those who plan to celebrate said they will mark Christmas by attending Mass, buying gifts and making traditional sweets, like klecha, a date-filled pastry.

“Today I bought my Christmas tree and decorated it just like every year and bought gifts and new clothes for the children,” said Sami Jalal, a 33-year-old engineer in Basra.

Mr. Jalal said what he desired most however, was for Iraq’s long period of violence against Christian and Muslim alike to come to an end.

“I hope,” he said, “that this ordeal will soon be wiped off the nation.”

Reporting was contributed by Duraid Adnan, Sa’ad al-Izzi and Muhammed al-Obaidi from Baghdad, and employees of The New York Times from Mosul and Basra.