For Iraq’s Christians, a Bittersweet First Christmas Home After ISIS

For Iraq’s Christians, a Bittersweet First Christmas Home After ISIS
Iraqi Christian children attend a mass at Church of Saint George in Teleskof, Iraq Dec. 24, 2017. Reuters/Ari Jalal
Reuters
Updated:

TELESKOF, Iraq–Inside the newly renovated Church of Saint George in the Northern Iraqi town of Teleskof, Hayat Chamoun Daoud led children while dressed as Santa Claus and singing “Jingle Bells” in Aramaic.

Like every other resident of Teleskof, this was Daoud’s first Christmas back home in three years, since ISIS terrorists overran her town and forcibly displaced its 12,000-strong Chaldean Christian community.