Christmas of fear in Iraq

“The government has deployed security forces at the entrance of all churches and closed all access roads. Moreover, every area of the city has been allotted a security chief but the last days’ events and the recent attacks against some places of worship have spread fear among the faithful”, said Monsignor George Casmoussa, Syriac archbishop of Mosul, the Iraqi city which has been subjected to five terror attacks and many threats against local churches in the recent weeks.

“They always try to send the same message, they wish to intimidate us, but we try to resist, to maintain clam and hope” said the bishop as he headed to the Church of the Annunciation in Ein Bishara, to celebrate the Christmas Eve Mass.

“In this climate of fear and hatred the accounts of our Muslim brothers, who are near and suffer with us over the inconsiderate gestures of fundamentalists and political extremists, comfort us” adds the prelate, who mentioned the establishment of a common fund for Christians and Muslims, for families victimized by terrorism describing this and other gestures as “small sparks of hope and strength for the future”.

“May the Christmas we are about to celebrate – said the bishop – be a Christmas of prayer for all Iraqis, Christians and Muslims, such that the country find stability and the much awaited peace”.

Source: MISNA