BETHLEHEM: Next to Easter, today marks Christendom’s most holy celebration. It is the day when Christians around the world celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the one to whom Christians turn for salvation in this world and the next. It is a by far the most joyous day of the Christian calendar.

Most Christians around the world are oblivious to the stark contrast this particular Christmas offers with Islam. This year Christmas runs headlong into Shiite Islam’s most mournful ceremony, Ashura. The Day of Ashura is observed on the 10th day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar. Muharram is one of the four sacred months of the year in which fighting is prohibited. Apparently this only means a holiday from fighting among Muslims themselves, as it appears it is always open season on Christians:

The deadly Christmas Eve ambush of a Christian bus driver in Iraq Thursday and a bombing earlier this week targeting a 1,200-year-old church are driving Iraq’s few remaining Christians quietly underground in the hours before the holy day begins.

Christmas has bumped into Shiite Islam’s most mournful ceremony this year, forcing Iraqi Christians to shutter their homes and hide the signs of their celebration…

Unidentified gunmen ambushed a Christian man in Mosul on Thursday, shooting him after pulling him from the bus he was driving, police said…

That shooting came on the heels of a deadlier attack Wednesday, when a bomb hidden in sacks of flour exploded outside a historic church in Mosul, killing two people and wounding five.

“Instead of performing Christmas Mass in this church, we will be busy removing rubble and debris,” said Hazim Ragheed, a priest at the Mar Toma Church. Fox News

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