Joao Silva for The New York TimesMembers of the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra walking past a billboard with a picture of Jesus as they took to the stage at the Master of Souls Festival in Abu Nuwas Park in Baghdad.BAGHDAD — On the banks of the Tigris, Santa Claus — wearing a tatty red robe, stringy white beard, and frightening caucasian mask — was being mauled by children as he tried to pass out some trinkets. Poets on a nearby stage recited odes to Jesus, beneath a massive banner emblazoned with Christ’s image.
Watching over the artists were hundreds of heavily armed security officers, lining the closed street around the park and dotting the rooftops of nearby buildings.
This is what is known as “Jesus Day” (officially the “Master of Souls” festival) in Baghdad.
Joao Silva for The New York TimesIt was the second annual festival but the first to feature Christian imagery so prominently. Like other religious minorities, Christians in Iraq have found themselves the targets of militants in recent years. There were groups from eight churches in Baghdad invited to the festivities and they were brought there on buses for their own safety.
The event was sponsored by the Ministry of the Interior and while the stated objective was to promote tolerance and understanding, there was an obvious political calculation. The head of the ministry, Jawad al-Bolani, is one of the candidates challenging Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki in the upcoming national elections and the event provided him an opportunity to burnish his credentials among secularists.
Joao Silva for The New York TimesJawad al-Bolani, center, and Ahmed Abu Risha, robed at right, at the ceremony.
He arrived at the four hour festival with Ahmed Abu Risha, the Sunni leader who helped turn the tribes in Anbar province against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.
There were dozens of reporters on hand as well, but few actual Iraqi residents, despite a closing performance by Iraq’s
National Symphony Orchestra.
The relatively small attendance might have been as much about the security precautions as the theme of the festival. However, it was a chance to hear the orchestra, which, against great odds, has continued to perform in Iraq.
Joao Silva for The New York TimesThe stage was set up in front of Mohammed Ghani Hikmat’s famous statue of
Sheherazade — the fictional narrator of the tales of ‘A Thousand and One Nights’ — so Karim Wasfi, the symphony’s chief conductor, decided to open the performance with Rimsky-Korsakov’s piece dedicated to the Arabian storyteller.
As he took the stage, baton in hand, he had to wait a moment before beginning as two American Blackhawk helicopters flew overhead.
Joao Silva for The New York TimesIraqi security forces guarded the event, behind the riverside statue of Sheherezade.When his 85-member orchestra did play, it was possible to forget for a moment that one was in Iraq. The setting sun cast a red glow over the violin section, palm trees swaying gently in the background. The orchestra, in black formal wear, did not let a poor sound system or the whir of more helicopters overhead throw them off-stride.
It was beautiful, a phrase often hard to use in Iraq these last few years.
But a quick glance up to the gunners on the roofs, down to the trash-strewn ground, right to the armored vehicles lining the road, or left to the receding banks of the river, and the reality of Iraq was present again.
Joao Silva for The New York TimesMr. Wasfi is hopeful that in the future events like Wednesday’s festival will be able to be held in a genuinely open way.
But even as he holds onto his faith in Iraq, he continues to be challenged by some of the more extreme elements of society that hold sway in parts of the country.
The orchestra was scheduled to play its first ever concert in the Shiite holy city of Karbala this past weekend. Despite securing the support of key religious figures in the city, one prominent cleric denounced the planned concert as sacrilege. It was canceled for safety reasons.
“Music is not a threat to any religious ideology,” said Mr Wasfi.
Joao Silva for The New York Tim
