The year 2023 ends tonight, while in many African and Asian countries, especially in the Middle East, Near East and Eastern Europe, even Christians are not in the mood to celebrate. Wars, bombings, droughts, floods, earthquakes, and storms, followed by displacement, famine, and disease, have put people in more pressure and hardship than ever before.
In some Arab and Islamic countries, due to the presence of a relatively significant population of the Christian minority, both the Hijri calendar and the Gregorian calendar are used. For this reason, the New Year is celebrated with festive decorations, lights, and decorated pine trees, and Santa Claus in some Christian neighborhoods, representing the end of the previous year and the beginning of the new year.
But this year’s New Year’s celebration has a different atmosphere around the world as it happens in the midst of the war between Hamas and Israel. Not only in Islamic and Arab countries, but also in Western European and North American countries, a number of Christian charity associations canceled the 2024 New Year celebration and experienced a new style of benevolent and humanitarian celebration by collecting gifts for the children of Gaza.
In 2023, Afghanistan was one of the biggest victims of famine, floods and economic pressures. In addition to the drought and the impossibility of cultivation, another part of the country was a victim of floods and earthquakes, and the newly elected government was unable to provide relief to the victims, and the international community provided inadequake aid relief and support, fearing the Taliban would seize the provisions,
Last year, the Taliban, despite repeated promises, practically left the problem of girls going to school unsolved and showed that neither the international pressures nor the internal pressures of the people could stop this radical group from their regressive agenda.
In the last months of 2023, coinciding the escalation of war between Hamas and Israel, the rocket attack of American military bases in Iraq by militia groups supported by Iran and, in some cases, the American response caused casualties on both sides of the conflict. These attacks included shelling and drone attacks.
At the same time, the Houthis, who have been in control of Yemen since 2014, affected the maritime security of one of the busiest sea crossings by attacking the ships passing through the Bab al-Mandeb strait to Israel.
In response to this action by the Houthis, the United States announced that it will launch a global coalition to establish maritime security in this strait, but it seems that at least until today, the European allies of the United States have withdrawn from participating in this naval operation.
The earthquake in Turkey and Syria that happened in February marked another bitter event of 2023. This earthquake shook the south and west of Türkiye and the north of Syria. The earthquake killed 59,000 people in Turkey and 8,000 people in Syria.
Other events of 2023 include the capture of Nagorno-Karabakh by the Republic of Azerbaijan following the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the civil war in Sudan, the continuation of tensions between the United States and China, and the raging of the war between Ukraine and Russia.
Climate change and the subsequent increase in global temperatures set 2023 as the hottest year on record, leading to historic fires and severe droughts on five continents.
In the field of digital technology, the unveiling of artificial intelligence in its various forms and levels made 2023 a history-making year in this field. Also, changing the name of the universal social network Twitter to X through an acquisition is considered one of the other important events in this field.
Along with the sad news and events of last year, undoubtedly the most important world event through which humanity can observe the essence of hope, excellence, love, spirituality and growth towards the global justice was the 2023 Arbaeen Walk.
More than 30 million Shiites and devotees of Ahl al-Bayt from all over the world showed that the path of devotion and love for Aba Abdullah Al-Hussein and Ahl al-Bayt, peace be upon them, is a continuous path that shines more gloriously than ever before.
