Keeping Christmas Alive on a Baghdad Street Corner

[Kadie]

Keeping Christmas Alive on a Baghdad Street Corner
Perils Fail to Deter Lone Tree Vendor

By Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 24, 2006; Page A14

snip...
Dawoud has been selling trees at the same corner in the Karrada district every Christmas season for 10 years. At 77, he is not ready to abandon his spot.

He may have no choice. Christmas was once a holiday that Christians and a few Muslims in Iraq enjoyed. Now, they fear celebrating it. These days in Baghdad, buying a Christmas tree can lead to getting killed. "People now, they have a lot of things to worry about other than trees," Dawoud said, his mouth full of pumpkin seeds, a popular snack here.

On Monday, one week before Christmas, Dawoud was the only tree vendor on his street, which in times past had become Christmas tree row in early December. His colleagues, he said, were too afraid to join him.

"They said, 'You go check it out first. You're an old man,' " he said.

snip...
Dawoud is a Muslim, but he has lived among Christians in the mixed Karrada district for years. "We are brothers," he said, expressing a tolerance that is increasingly rare in Baghdad.

For centuries, including under the rule of Saddam Hussein, Iraq's Christian minority coexisted with Muslims. Hussein's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, was a Christian, one of an estimated 600,000 to 1 million people of the faith living in the country before the U.S.-led invasion overthrew Hussein in 2003.

more...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/23/AR2006122300826.html

[Kadie]

1. .

:kick:

[knitter4democracy]

2. Many of the Christians have left.

Same in Palestine.