As conflict has spread across the Muslim world in the last few years, it has become a dangerous, even deadly thing for a Christian there to celebrate Christmas (not for the first time in history, sadly). Last year, dozens of Iraqi Christians were killed on Christmas Day in two Baghdad bombings; attacks have also occurred in Pakistan and Nigeria, and in Egypt, where Copts will not celebrate Christmas until January 7. This year, there seem to have been no mass attacks, a special blessing.
But that does not mean all Christians in the east were safe this Christmas. Reuters reports from Somalia:
Eight Islamist gunmen infiltrated the main African Union (AU) base in Mogadishu on Thursday and killed three peacekeepers and a civilian contractor, the AU mission in Somalia said.
Somali militant group al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, which lasted several hours, and said it had killed 14 peacekeepers. Witnesses reported hearing bomb blasts and volleys of gunfire through the day.
“We targeted the enemies at a time they were celebrating Christmas,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, told Reuters.
In the past, al Shabaab has exaggerated the number of soldiers it has killed, while officials have played down losses.
The al Qaeda-aligned militants want to topple the Western-backed Mogadishu government and describe AU troops as “Christian enemies”. The Islamist group also wants to impose its own strict version of sharia law in the country.
In some places in the Muslim world and the Middle East, there were just no Christians to be attacked. There was no public Christmas Mass celebrated anywhere in Nineveh Province, Iraq, this year for the first time for more than 1,400 years, Nina Shea recounted in an NRO piece earlier this week.
Wall Street Journal reporter Sam Dagher posted a number of pictures on his Twitter feed of a Christmas Eve Mass he attended in Mosul, the province’s capital, in 2008. Essentially the entire province has been under control of the Islamic State since earlier this year; the Iraqi government is still considering how to proceed in retaking it.