Basra Churches Council “abolishes” Xmas celebrations:

BASRA / IraqiNews.com: Southern Iraq’s Basra Churches Council has decided to “abolish” this year’s Christmas and New Year celebrations and to concentrate on prayers, due to the coincidence of those occasions with the Muslim’s Muharram month and to honor the victims of Baghdad’s Christian “My Lady of Salvation” Church, who were killed by terrorists last October, according to a Council’s statement on Monday. “Basra’s Churches Council has abolished this year’s Glorious Christmas and New Year celebraions,” Saad Matti Petros told IraqiNews.com news agency, adding that the decision was taken “due to the coinicidence of the occasions with the inviolability and sanctity of of Muharram Month and in honor of the martyrs of My Lady of Salvation Church,” reiterating that the “prayers shall take place in Basra’s Churches.” A group of armed men belonging to al-Qaeda Organization had broken through My Lady of Salvation Church in central Baghdad’s Karrada district on October 31 last, killing and wounding dozens of worshippers, security men and other people, thing that created a wave of local and international “anxiety” towards the conditions of Christians in Iraq. Basra, the center of the Province carrying the same name, is 590 kms to the south of Baghdad. SKH 38