Members of the Christian minority in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk canceled public Christmas celebrations this year in part because of Switzerland"s ban on minarets, a priest said Friday, according to dpa. "For the first time, Christians in Kirkuk are canceling their holiday celebrations in sadness and pain," Father Haitham Saliywa, a priest at one of Kirkuk"s largest churches, told the German Press Agency dpa. "We have told our loved ones that the reason for cancellation is our sadness for the victims of the explosions in Mosul and Baghdad, and our solidarity with Muslims over the issue of the Swiss government"s ban on minarets," he said. In November, 57 per cent of Swiss voters and 22 out of 26 cantons voted in favour of a referendum seeking to ban the construction of minarets, the towers rising above mosques.
