Ever think you would see something like this?

A public celebration of Christmas in unabashedly Muslim Iraq?

 Well. . .today you have seen it.

 And this is noteworthy. . .in fact, I think it is fair to say that though this news will probably go unnoticed by mos,t its actually history in the making.  After all, we’re talking about Iraq, you know, the Middle East - the roots of Islam.  In fact, Islam (religion) and the Middle East (geographic culture) have been intertwined for so long they seem nearly inseparable.

 Islam has existed some 2,600 years and it has certainly had a shaky history with Christianity to put it mildly (and vice versa). So to see a picture of Jesus flying over Baghdad is truly a landmark in Middle Eastern history. . .world history.  To see the doors of the Middle East eek open to other religious and cultural perspectives in such a public manner and in the capital of Iraq is truly ground-breaking.

The impacts of this could and hopefully will be progressive.  Hopefully, Iraq will continue to broaden its embrace of diversity realizing it isn’t inherently threatening to their own.  Hopefully other countries, Middle Eastern and/or Islamic in majority, and truthfully all other countries, will see this as an example of being open to other perspectives, even if they are not the majority viewpoint.

Thank you Iraq for showing us the kind of openness, understanding, and celebration that we can all share in when we are humbly willing to put our own preferences and convictions aside and learn in those of others.

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