Between Black Friday and Christmas Eve I thought about Christmas crimes. I’m not referring to some prankster vandalizing a nativity scene, I’m referring to illegal Christmas celebrations.
A couple years ago, a headline read, “11 Christians arrested in Laos for celebrating Christmas.” Last year, I read that five converts were arrested during a police raid on a house in Tehran where they were meeting to celebrate Christmas. (Here the crime was conversion to Christianity, an act of apostasy punishable by death, not the actual celebration, but making an effort to celebrate Christmas was evidence.)
This year I read that Tajikistan has tightened restrictions on festive season celebrations, banning Christmas trees and gift-giving in schools.
Somalia issued a ban on Christmas and the Somali police were instructed to “prevent Christmas celebrations.” (Notice the instructions aren’t to arrest celebrators they’re instructed to prevent celebrations, by what method?)
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