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Tue 2 May, 2006 10:32 am
The Muslim world's new martyrs
It's one of today's most compelling news stories, yet it's all but ignored by most of the international media. I'm talking about the growing persecution of Christian minorities in the Islamic world.
It briefly made headlines last month when machete-armed Egyptian fanatics attacked worshipers in three Coptic churches in Alexandria and murdered one aged man at prayer. Then of course, there was March - when an Afghan man escaped a death sentence for the "crime" of converting to Christianity.
But how many people heard about the recent arrest and jailing in Saudi Arabia of a group of Filipino guest workers for holding Christian prayer services in the privacy of their home? Or who knows about the three Sunday School teachers charged in Indonesia last year with the crime of "Christianization" and summarily sentenced to three years in prison?
The story is similar wherever Sharia - orthodox Islamic law - reigns supreme. From Pakistan to Darfur, Christians have become regular targets for Islamic gangs who shoot at worshipers, then torch their houses of worship.
Even in Islamic countries not strictly run by Sharia law, pressures mount on local Christians to leave the homes they've known for centuries. Iraq's Christian sects, among the oldest Christian communities anywhere in the world, have been directly targeted by terrorist bombs, and Christians are now high on the list of those fleeing Iraq's sectarian strife. Thirty years ago, Lebanon was 60% Christian. Since then, an estimated 3.5 million Christians have emigrated, reducing the country's Christian population percentage to barely 25%. And in the Palestinian territories, direct and indirect pressures have also led to an increasing Christian exodus. One striking result: Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus and once a predominantly Christian Arab community now has an overwhelming Muslim majority.
Few people seem prepared to connect the dots. Some American evangelical groups like the Washington-based International Christian Concern try to raise the alarm. And America's Copts, especially those based in the New York area, actively lobby against the legal and social discrimination that face their Egyptian co-religionists. Yet most mainstream church groups seem to ignore the threat.
During certain periods, Islamic countries did allow "the peoples of the book" to live in relative peace among them. But the rise of Islamic extremism is silencing even voices of limited tolerance. More than 800,000 Jews were forced to flee the Islamic world between 1948 and 1955. Unless there is an outcry against the new wave of discrimination now facing Christians, these ancient communities are also doomed to disappear.
Where is the cry or even the whimper from the Christian communities around the world.
au, Where have you been all this time? The christians are doing the same in our country, the US of A. They continue to push ID into our science courses, deny gay marriage, and is working to overthrow Roe vs Wade - and a whole bunch of other rights they're working to deny to legalize their religious agenda. The Muslims are the least of my worries while this administration and the fundamentalist christians take away our Constitutional and Bill of Rights.
Actually, CI, I think you will find that clearly christians ARE persecuted in some Muslim countries, in a way that Muslims are not currently persecuted by Christians in the west (although invading Iraq might be seen as a counterbalance to that...and Muslims certainly have been subject to persecution by some idiots) and it is a bloody disgrace in my view.
dlowan, It's not only our unjustified attack on Iraq to start this war, and the subsequent killing of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis. It's also the long history of Israel and the treatment of Palestinians while the US government continues to call Israel a democracy. If I were a Muslim or Arab, I'd surely resent those things that looks one-sided; and family members and friends getting killed.
I'm not sure how I would react if somebody attacked our country for some created justification that later turned out to be false - while having killed my family and friends. That happened to them for the past three years plus.
It's a toss up from my perspective; depends on which side of the coin you want up.
Yeah...thing is, it's possible for BOTH sides of the coin to be wrong in some ways and right in others.
It is not an either/or.
In my view, where Islam has become intolerant and persecutes the people of its country for their faith, then that is just wrong (just as it was for the christians in all their long history of doing the same).
The grinch that stole Christmas
*******************************
Growing influence of religious radicalism undermining Palestinian
Christians
Avi Hein
A grinch has stolen Christmas. Few Christians will be celebrating
Christmas this year in Bethlehem. No, the grinch is not Israel.
Laying the blame on Israel obscures the true culprit: The growing
influence of religious radicalism in the Palestinian Authority.
The Christian population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has
plummeted in the past decades. Christians now make up less than two
percent of the total Palestinian population.
In 1948, Christians made up eighty percent of the population in
Bethlehem. Muslims now make up eighty-five percent of the population.
The Palestinian Authority has been co-opted by radical Islamic
fundamentalism. Today, Bethlehem is ruled by Hamas.
With the radical Islamic Hamas' ascent to power, their desire for a
fundamentalist Muslim state ruled by Islamic law seems closer than
ever to being realized. Christians under the PA are reduced to
dhimmis, second class citizens. Muslim Palestinians threaten their
Christian neighbors with violence on a daily basis because, as one
Christian Palestinian noted, the Christians "want to live in peace."
Palestinian Christians don't live in peace. They live in fear, unable
to practice their own religion. The Christians are pushed out of
their homes due to the continual segregation and establishment of
Muslim-only housing projects. Muslims boycott their Christian
neighbors' shops and businesses.
Christians live in fear for their life. Under the Palestinian
Authority, Christians have been forced to observe the strict
restrictions of Ramadan and must observe Islamic sharia law. This
past September, Muslims burnt down the YMCA in Qalqiliya,
warning Christian organizations to shut down or face more violence.
Two weeks ago, Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh, at a Holocaust-denial
conference in Iran, stated in the name of the Hamas-led government
that "we are the trustful protectors of the Islamic land of
Palestine."
Christians have been leaving the territories in droves; flocking to
refuge in North America, Europe, and even Cuba
anywhere seems to be
better than the despotic Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. Ibrahim
Shomali, a Christian restaurant owner in Bethlehem, is selling what
he can before he leaves for Michigan with his family. "We Christians
now feel like we are on the cross," he said.
Radical groups which claim to protect Palestinian Christians but
defend their abusers, such as the Sabeel Liberation Theology Center,
use the cover of Christianity to further Islamic fundamentalism and
persecution against Palestine's Christian minority. These radical
organizations often use the cover of support from mainstream churches
in the United States and Europe to defend and justify violence.
This suicidal approach is dangerous to the precarious Christian
minority. Despite their popularity abroad these organizations do not
have the support of the indigenous Christian population. As one
Bethlehem man noted, "Our leaders are liars: They tell the newspapers
that everything is OK. But when Christians go to the market, they're
afraid to wear crosses."
Peace and harmony
Despite the hardship, Christians from around the world plan on
converging onto Bethlehem this Christmas. If the world stands by idly
or misdirects the blame unto Israel, while Christians are being
persecuted in the Palestinian Authority, than the grinch may soon get
his way and steal Christmas. Justus Weiner, a human rights lawyer in
Jerusalem, noted that in another 15 years, Bethlehem runs the risk
"of becoming a Christian theme park for tourists" with no native
Christians.
I live in Jerusalem, near a street that leads to Bethlehem. Looking
out over the Old City of Jerusalem and its many thriving holy sites,
I look forward to watching my Christian neighbors celebrate Christmas.
I wish that Palestinian Muslims could experience the same
co-existence with their Christian neighbors that prevails among
Israeli Jews. I look forward to the time in which Israeli Christians
and Palestinian Christians can meet together in the biblical town of
Bethlehem to celebrate Christmas in peace and harmony.
Avi Hein is a Legacy Heritage Fellow at StandWithUs Israel and
Europe. He lives in Jerusalem
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