Weblog will return after the New Year. Have a merry Christmas.

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Christmas in Iraq:

• Baghdad Christians celebrate birth of Christ in fear of attacks | This year, Baghdad's Christians are celebrating the season of peace and goodwill discreetly and in fear of further attacks on their churches, in a climate of rising violence in war-torn Iraq (Agence France-Presse)
  
  
• A Christian exodus? | Bigotry and violent Muslim fanatics have forced many Christians to flee the region of Jesus' birth -- but the world has barely noticed, writes Salim Mansur (Salim Mansur, Toronto Sun)
  
  
• Iraqi Christians pray for peace on sombre Christmas | Iraqi Christians won't be celebrating Christmas this year. Midnight mass, the centerpiece of Christmas festivities in Iraq, has been canceled because of night-time curfews. (Reuters)
  
  
• Iraqi Christians | This Christmas season … at least for Christians in Iraq who celebrate the birth of Christ, it would appear the terrorists are winning. (WWTI, NY)
  
  

Christmas in Bethlehem:

• A sad new carol: Go ye from Bethlehem | In the town where Christians believe Christ was born, the Christians are leaving. Four years of violence, an economic free fall and the Israeli separation barrier have all contributed to the hardships facing Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem, one of the largest concentrations of Christians in the region. (New York Times)