While many Middle East Christians are marking the holidays filled with worry about terrorist attacks and repression in a turbulent region, the diverse Armenian, Assyrian, Chaldean and Syriac communities in Iraq have something to cheer this year.
Santa Claus has come to Mosul.
A female Iraqi teenager inspired by the defeat of Islamic State in Iraq’s third-largest city said she wanted to don the red suit and beard and bring Christmas back to the town it was banished from for three long years.
“I decided to dress as Santa Claus, visit the people and give them a simple gift: a message of hope, love and peace,” Ghenwa Ghassan, 17, said as she handed out coloring books and toys.
A video of Ghenwa, a slim young woman meandering joyfully through the ruins of Mosul, has gone viral in Iraq, where Christmas now seems to be catching on as symbol of a better future even among some Muslims.
“It’s surprising to see shops selling Christmas trees and other holiday decorations,” said Ameen Al-Jaleeli, 29, a lecturer of English at Mosul University. “Even before ISIS, this would have been impossible here.[…]
Regional wars, combined with educational and entrepreneurial opportunities elsewhere, have led to a considerable decline in the Arab Christian population in the eastern Mediterranean: Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Some 30,000 Syrian Christians moved back to their ancestral home of Armenia since the start of the Syrian war.
Syrian Christian refugees from multiple sects also have often received preferences for resettlement in Western countries.
Lebanon’s Christian population lost its majority status decades ago, but the exact number is unknown. Because of political sensitivities in the divided country, Lebanese authorities have not conducted a census in 85 years.
Yet numbers from the country’s voter registry show that only 37 percent of the Lebanese electorate is Christian.
Christians comprise 35 percent of Lebanon’s current population, compared with 51 percent in 1932.
Still, Beirut prides itself as the most Christmas-friendly city in the region.
“You can’t miss the Christmas decorations in Beirut and its northern suburbs,” said Joe Saliba, a 32-year-old aircraft engineer.
Fireworks welcome in the season, and a massive tree is lit up in downtown’s Martyrs’ Square, equidistant from the Al-Amin Mosque and St. George’s Maronite Cathedral.
Mr. Saliba noted that those holiday lights stop in Hezbollah-dominated territory south of Beirut’s airport.