Christmas services and other celebrations are being held this weekend under the gaze of armed guards and security cameras in many countries after Islamic State (IS) group militants 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 that he intends to relocate the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
In Indonesia, which has the world’s biggest Muslim population, police said that they had stepped up security around churches and tourist sites, mindful of near-simultaneous attacks on churches there at Christmas in 2000 that killed about 20 people.
Muslim volunteers in Indonesia are also on standby to provide additional security if requested.
“If our brother 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 city’s Coptic cathedral killed at least 25 people in December last year, the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior said that police would conduct 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 over the past few 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 tomorrow, which marks Christmas Day for Catholic and Protestant Christians.
In the Pakistani city of Quetta, members of the Bethel Memorial Methodist Church were repairing the damage done by a pair of suicide bombers who attacked during a service on Sunday last week, killing 10 people and wounding more than 50.
“We’re making efforts to complete repairs and renovation before Christmas, but it seems difficult in view of the lot of damage,” said Pastor Simon Bashir, who was leading the service when the attackers struck, but was not hurt.
Balochistan Province, of which Quetta is the capital, plans to deploy 3,000 security personnel around 39 churches today and tomorrow.
In Lahore, where an Easter Day bombing in a park last year killed more than 70 people, police Deputy Inspector General Haider Ashraf said that every church would be monitored with CCTV cameras.
Christian resident Kaleem Masih lost his aunt in the Easter attack, which was claimed by IS, and his wife was wounded, but he said his family would be attending service.
“Christmas is our holy day,” Kaleem said. “We will fulfil our religious duty by celebrating it with smiles on our faces.”
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