{"id":1143646,"date":"2021-12-22T19:49:38","date_gmt":"2021-12-23T00:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1143646"},"modified":"2021-12-22T19:49:41","modified_gmt":"2021-12-23T00:49:41","slug":"iraqi-santa-claus-stars-in-christmas-parade-in-christian-town-once-invaded-by-isis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/iraqi-santa-claus-stars-in-christmas-parade-in-christian-town-once-invaded-by-isis\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraqi &#039;Santa Claus&#039; Stars in Christmas Parade in Christian Town Once Invaded by ISIS"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Firaqi-santa-claus-stars-in-christmas-parade-in-christian-town-once-invaded-by-isis%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1143646&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">Several residents of Al-Hamdaniya, an Iraqi Christian town, dressed up as Santa Claus to <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/santa-claus-roams-christian-town-041501539.html\">stage<\/a> an uplifting Christmas parade for local children on Sunday, roughly seven years after the community was invaded by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Monday.<\/p>\n<p>About one dozen local men donned Santa Claus costumes, including his iconic white beard, and gathered in the center of Al-Hamdaniya to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euronews.com\/2021\/12\/21\/santa-claus-roams-christian-town-of-iraq-putting-smiles-on-children-s-faces\">distribute<\/a> colorfully wrapped sweet pastries to children on the evening of December 20. The Santas were assisted by a&nbsp;man dressed in Biblical-era garb who led a donkey as it pulled a wooden cart carrying the treats. Another resident dressed as Disney\u2019s Mickey Mouse and accompanied the Christmas parade.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n[embedded content]\n<p>\u201cPraise be to God, we saw Santa this year and children rejoiced,\u201d Al-Hamdaniya resident Christian Boutros told AFP on December 20.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe could not see Santa before because of the difficult coronavirus situation, and in the previous years there was Daesh [ISIS],\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWe are distributing gifts, or let\u2019s say sweets to children,\u201d Rani Bassem, one of the Al-Hamdaniya residents who dressed up as Santa Claus, told AFP on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m doing this to make the children and their families happy, to put smiles on children\u2019s faces,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause Iraqi people have suffered a lot,\u201d he added, referring to the country\u2019s invasion by ISIS starting in about June 2014.<\/p>\n<p>Al-Hamdaniya is located just eight miles south of Qaraqosh, which is known as Iraq\u2019s Christian capital. ISIS terrorists overran Qaraqosh, also known as Bakhdida, in June 2014.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEyewitnesses in Qaraqosh said IS militants were taking down crosses in churches and burning religious manuscripts,\u201d the BBC <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-middle-east-28686998\">reported<\/a> in August 2014.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>Qaraqosh is located 19 miles southeast of Mosul, which was captured by ISIS in June 2014.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast month [July 2014], hundreds of Christian families fled Mosul after the Islamist rebels gave them an ultimatum to convert to Islam, pay a special tax or be executed,\u201d the BBC reported.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_15991746\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Islamic-State.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15991746\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Islamic-State.png\" alt=\"Begum\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">An ISIL billboard is seen destroyed in the middle of the road on November 8, 2016, in Qaraqosh, Iraq. The NPU is a military organization made up of Assyrian Christians and was formed in late 2014 to defend against ISIL. Qaraqosh, a largely Assyrian City just 32km southeast of Mosul was taken by ISIL in August, 2014, forcing all residents to flee, the town was largely destroyed with all of the churches burned or heavily damaged. (Photo by Chris McGrath\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Iraq is home to an ancient Christian population that largely <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chaldeannews.com\/culture-and-history\/2021\/9\/30\/genocide-in-the-21st-century-isis-invasion\">resides<\/a> in the country\u2019s Nineveh Plains region, which is where both Al-Hamdaniya and Qaraqosh are situated. Christians constitute a minority in Iraq, which is officially an Islamic country. About 97 percent of Iraq\u2019s population identifies as Muslim.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChristian leaders estimate there are fewer than 250,000 Christians remaining in the country [Iraq], with the largest population \u2013 at least 200,000 \u2013 living in the Ninewa Plain and the IKR [Iraqi Kurdistan Region] in the north of the country,\u201d the U.S. State Department wrote in 2019 as part of an International Religious Freedom <a href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/reports\/2019-report-on-international-religious-freedom\/iraq\/\">report<\/a> for Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>Iraq\u2019s Christian population has significantly declined from a pre-2002 population estimate of 800,000 to 1.4 million.<\/p>\n<p>About 67 percent of Iraqi Christians identify as Chaldean Catholics, which is \u201can eastern rite of the Roman Catholic Church,\u201d according to the U.S. State Department report.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[N]early 20 percent are members of the Assyrian Church of the East. The remainder are Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholic, Armenian Catholic, Armenian Apostolic, and Anglican and other Protestants,\u201d the U.S. government agency observed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are approximately 2,000 registered members of evangelical Christian churches in the IKR, while an unknown number, mostly converts from Islam, practice the religion secretly,\u201d the report revealed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Several residents of Al-Hamdaniya, an Iraqi Christian town, dressed up as Santa Claus to stage an uplifting Christmas parade for local children on Sunday, roughly seven years after the community &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1143646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1143646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1143646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1143646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1143646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}