Iraqis celebrate Easter amid tight security - 23 March 08

Iraq's Christians have turned out in their hundreds to celebrate Easter Sunday, despite the violence that wracks their country.

Only days earlier the kidnapping and murder of a Chaldean Archbishop, rocked the country's christian community, but as Al Jazeera's James Bays reports from Baghdad, they remain unbowed by the threat of more attacks.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• aljazeera
• Iraq
• Christian
• Baghdad
• James
• Bays
• Chaldean
• Archbishop

[AuroraKismet]

If you think Mr.Obama will end the war,you are mistaken.He is business as usual for the corporations who wanted and profit from this military campaign.And,he's one of those "silly Christians" you ridiculed!

[kevsmit00]

Nationalism, religious loyalties, ethnic/racist sentiments....all of these things cause so much problems in the world

[cloc05]

man god bless the assyrians. i am an iraqi muslims but i dont say that am an arab. iraqis are assyrians.iraqis are not arabs. iraqis must know our ancient history, and realize who we were.

[namatez]

most are in detroit

[PauloGVieira]

Exactly my point, the US is the world' biggest sponsor of terrorism - why do people think that because such brutal heinous crimes are committed by a national government that suddenly it is not terrorism.

[imnodog]

If that falls under the terrorist term, so would invade a country and create a mess out of that country (iraq), drop two nukes (japan), finance a 20 year military dictatorship of various countries (south America), among many other thing the US is responsible for. Since I can't really write a lot on these comments, I'll leave it at that. You have your 'terrorism' definition but can't see to agree that the US government plays a big role in those 'terrorism" definitions.

[PauloGVieira]

We seem to disagree on the very definition of "terrorist" incidents. The indiscriminate killing of civilians for political reasons falls under this category.

Whether it would be a small insurgent group or ordered by Saddam's President Guard such an act is an act of terror.

You have also failed to acknowledge the plight of Shia.

[imnodog]

I'm not being simplistic, just looking at the figures. Fist, I'm talking about terrorist incidents. Second, try 5,000 (that's how many were killed by saddam in his 1988 chemical move against the kurds). Now, look how many have died since the US invaded, more than 700 thousand Iraqis. That's 140x higher than the ones that died under the saddam regime. I'm not trying to defend saddam, he surely was an evil leader, I'm just saying iraq was better off with him.

[PauloGVieira]

Again you are being too simplistic and in the process display your own lack of understanding into this very complex issue.

How many Iraqis died because of Saddam Hussein's policies? Now lets think about the Iran-Iraq war, the Shia uprising and the gassing of the Kurds - if you want to put a number on it I would say over 1000000.

So what were you saying?

[TurboLoveTrain]

Easter was celebrated March 23rd--before Jewish passover. The dates never properly align because the Christian and Judaic leadership use different calenders and neither adjusts appropriately to the equinox. Note: the Judaic calender's beginning nearly overlaps the start of the Zodiac--star calender.

The equinox has been known for more than 3000 years. The sun is older than most modern religions. Jews love to forget the other meaning of "their" passover celebration: The harvest.

[blunt1984]

God Bless all of the Iraqi Christians. Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho is now a Martyr for our faith.

Too bad Bush couldn't comprehend what his misguided war would do to fellow Christians.

[TurboLoveTrain]

NOTE: I'm not claiming easter is a "made up date" I'm stating that the romans moved the christian resurrection celebration to coincide with the vernal equinox (spring birth and fertility) celebration which is much, much more ancient.