Christians worldwide prepare for holidays with eye on security
QUETTA (Reuters) — Christmas church services and other celebrations are being held this weekend under the gaze of armed guards and security cameras in many countries after Islamic State gunmen attacked a Methodist church in Pakistan as a Sunday service began.
Majority-Muslim countries in Asia and the Middle East were particularly nervous after US President Donald Trump’s recent announcement he intends to relocate the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a decision that has outraged many Muslims.
In Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country, the police said they had stepped up security around churches and tourist sites, mindful of near-simultaneous attacks on churches there during Christmas in 2000 that killed about 20 people.
Muslim volunteers in Indonesia are also on standby to provide additional security if requested.
“If our brothers and sisters who celebrate Christmas need...to maintain their security to worship, we will help,” said Yaqut Chiolil Qoumas, chairman of the youth wing of the Nahdlatul Ulema, one of the country’s biggest Muslim organizations.
In Cairo, where a bombing at the Egyptian capital’s largest Coptic cathedral killed at least 25 people earlier this month, the interior ministry said the police would conduct regular searches of streets around churches ahead of the Coptic celebration of Christmas on Jan. 7.
Egypt’s Christian minority has been targeted in several attacks in recent years, including the bombing of two churches in the north of the country on Palm Sunday in April.
At the Heliopolis Basilica, a Catholic cathedral in northeastern Cairo, security forces had set up metal detectors at the main doors and police vehicles were stationed outside ahead of masses on Dec. 25, which marks Christmas Day for Catholic and Protestant Christians.