ICC Note: The Naeem family is spending their first peaceful Christmas together in years. The Assyrian Christian family has suffered immensely under the Islamic rule of the Middle East and are still adjusting to a new life in Australia. The family is made up of nine people including three generations. They fled the Islamic State in Iraq leaving behind a successful jewelry business for a life in Lebanon. Now they live in Canberra and are enjoying full freedom in Christmas celebrations.

12/19/2016 Iraq (The Australian): Peace and joy at Christmas: those greeting-card words will have true meaning this year for four generations of the Naeem family, Iraqi Assyrian Christians who will celebrate together in Canberra after fleeing first Islamic State in Baghdad and then exile in Beirut.

The nine members of the family, including Ramzi Naeem’s aged parents, his children, son-in-law and baby Alan have benefited three times over from a series of extraordinary connections with Australia and New Zealand stretching back almost a century to World War I.

Grandfather Jameel, 77, well remembers when the family could mark Christmas at their home in Iraq.

Four-year-old Alan’s only memories are of the past 2½ years spent in exile in Lebanon. It will be their first Christmas complete as a family for 20 years.

The extended family migrated to Canberra earlier this month after fleeing an Islamic State advance on their predominantly Christian neighbourhood in Baghdad in 2014 and then spending more than two years in Beirut.

This week, visiting Parliament House as part of a difficult readjustment to a new peaceful life, Ramzi said: “I can’t believe you can just walk in.”

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