The Los Angeles Times reports that Iraqi Christians are returning to Iraq after fleeing over the past few years when the US invasion made life for Christians very dangerous:
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Three years ago, a note appeared at Lita Kaseer’s door. It contained a bullet and a one-word message: “Leave.
Kaseer fled, along with hundreds of other Christian families in the Dora neighborhood in southwest Baghdad, once a vibrant Christian community.
This year, she returned home from Syria, and on Thursday, attended Christmas Mass with her husband and 7-month-old son.
“It’s always better to come home,” said her husband, Khalid Kamil, 34. “In any other place, you are a stranger. . . . This is not the way our life should be.”
Hundreds of Christians gathered to celebrate Christmas in Baghdad, most acknowledging that improved security conditions have allowed them to move more freely throughout the city after returning from years-long exiles in Syria, Egypt, Jordan or Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region.
In the Christian neighborhood of Karada on Thursday, a Santa Claus handed out religious CDs and pamphlets, including “25 Stories From the Bible” and “The Greatest Gift.” In recent years, such an act could have resulted in death.
Christians are estimated to make up less than 3% of Iraq’s population of 27 million, and some reports say that about half fled after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of the country.
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