It's no secret that there's only one country in the Middle East where Christians have not become an endangered species, and where their population has grown over the last 100 years. You guessed it - it's Israel and I've written about it time and time again (search Bethlehem in the blog for some examples).
In Catch the Jew, Tuvia Tenenbaum writes about a meeting he had with a Christian in Bethlehem, who acknowledged that the town's Christian population had declined by more than 90% since 2000, as Christians fled. When he asked her why, she blamed it on... you guessed it: The 'Occupation.'
So what is it that these people don't get? Luma Simms, a Christian who grew up in Iraq tries to explain.
This is not just a Muslim problem. This anti-Semitism trickles down to
minority groups living in Islamic dominated lands. Middle Eastern
Christians manifest a hobbled prejudice since they lack the power to
politically act out against Israel. As I have observed my Middle Eastern
community over the years, there seems to be a Stockholm Syndrome
phenomenon. After being so long under Islamic rule and imbibing Islamic
propaganda, the Christians are apt to parrot their “captors” in the
Islamic authoritarian governments. I hold out hope that a free Arab
Christian culture could break this spell within a generation. But hope
is running out—Christianity may not survive in the Middle East.
Indeed it may not - at least outside of Israel. Simms goes on to explain why Israel is the last hope for Middle East Christians.
Israel is the last hope for Arab Christians; it’s as simple as that.
America is not leading on the refugee issue, especially for Iraqi
Christians. Yet helping them, doing good to the Christians in the Arab
world, would require Israel overcoming her neighbors’ anti-Semitism,
even of those Christians who will not ask for help because of their
prejudices.
Arab Christians in America and abroad feel caught between Muslim
interests on one side and Israeli interests on the other. They are
bitter. They are a weak minority, always overlooked. Arab Christians
have no power to negotiate or threaten, no money to buy arms, and no
land to cultivate and build. Their bitterness makes them miss an
important ally: Israel. As the genocide of Middle Eastern Christians
continues, the only hope of an Arab Christian remnant—a remnant that
would keep and pass on its beliefs, traditions, and customs—is through
help from the state of Israel. It is the humanitarian thing to do.
Israel already exemplifies this humane treatment
of her enemies. They have hospitals and medical units close to their
borders where they discreetly treat the wounded and injured who come to
them for medical help. These people eventually go back to their homes in
Syria. Patients keep the medical care quiet to protect themselves from
reprisal back home for receiving care from Israel. Sometimes the
patients are combatants and other times it is civilians caught in
crossfire; some arrive barely alive not even knowing they are in Israel,
regaining consciousness only to find themselves being cared for by the
very people they have been taught to hate. These doctors and nurses are “sowing seeds of peace.”
Another reason why helping Arab Christians would be good for Israel:
What better way to overcome jihad in the region than for Israel to forge
an alliance with Christians? For their part, Middle Eastern Christians
should see Israel as an ally, support its democratic state, and build an
alliance to combat Islamic terrorists. For too long Islam has used a
divide and conquer tactic on the Christians and Jews. For example, when
Arab Christians living in Nazareth wanted to integrate into Israeli
society and enlist in the Israel Defense Forces, they were harassed,
attacked, and threatened by Arab Muslim groups. What’s worse was the
accusation by Muslims and Christians that they were betraying
Palestine. Anyone thinking clearly can see this for what it is: Muslims
fearing the alliance of Arab Christians with Israel.
...
If Israel will not act, what’s to be done? It’s hard to find exact
numbers, but maybe there are between 200,000 and 400,00 Iraqi Christians
left. They will be killed in Iraq, or die trying to escape. Some, God
willing, may be allowed to emigrate. Elliot Abrams, during an AEI panel
on the Sykes-Picot Agreement, made the most courageous statements I have
heard from anyone regarding the situation:
Most of the Christian communities are dying, will never
be restored….nobody has that feeling toward Christian minorities in Iraq
[speaking of the desire to save the communities]…we don’t even take
Christian refugees…I am really struck by the hostility to the notion
that anything should be done for the Christian communities of the Middle
East…is anybody being persecuted more than the Iraqi Christians? Does
anybody have a more well-founded fear [of persecution]? They can’t even
go to U.N refugee camps safely. And we are doing nothing about that.
[Regarding the conundrum of liquidating Christianity from the area] It
would be like saying, in 1940, surely a 1000 years of Jewish history in
Germany, and Poland, and Hungary, we don’t want to kill it by taking
those people as refugees. They died. The Christians will die, or many of
them will die. So I think we don’t have the right to say, ‘Stay there
and maintain your churches,’ when they’re being killed.
Israel, rise up and lead that region of the world. You are the hope
for Iraqi Christians. Let it always be said: In the dark age of ISIS,
when desolation and despair covered the Arab world, Israel was the house
of light. Like the prophet Jonah whom God commanded to go to Nineveh
and offer redemption to the Assyrians, may Israel go and redeem
Assyria—redeem the Nineveh plains once again.
I have many Christian followers on Twitter. There are two in particular that I follow. Every time I tweet a link like this one, I tag them. One retweets me every time. The other never does. Why? I wish I knew.
This is Islam: ISIS systematically beheading Christian children in Iraq
This is what Islam is really all about. ISIS, the Islamic group that has taken over Iraq (thank you President Hussein Obama) is systematically beheading Christian children. By the way, the nearest part of Iraq is about 300 miles from Israel.
A quick scan of Youtube shows the truth of what Arabo is saying -
there are gruesome videos of heads on spikes, and many of live
beheadings (one poor Christian is forced to say the Shahada 'there is no
God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet' and then beheaded anyway.)
Warning: don't google these things unless you have a strong stomach.
"They are absolutely killing every Christian they see," Arabo said of
ISIS. "This is absolutely a genocide in every sense of the word. They
want everyone to convert, and they want sharia law to be the law of the
land."
When George Bush left office, United States armed forces were protecting Iraq. At the rate this is going, Barack Hussein Obama is becoming the enemy of all humanity.
Aren't you proud that Obama got the US military out of Iraq? The message of that 'withdrawal' resounds throughout this region. And if the Islamists can, God Forbid, they would do the same to all of us.
Conference on persecuted Christians in the Middle East
I received this via email:
The Persecuted Church: Christian Believers in the Middle East -- March 12, 2011
Recent attacks against churches in Iraq and Egypt demonstrate that Christianity faces an uncertain future in the Middle East. More than a dozen church and human rights organizations are hosting a one-day conference to educate the general public about the ongoing threat to Christianity in the Middle East. The event, co-sponsored by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), will take place in Downers Grove, IL, on March 12, 2011.
Walid Phares, author of The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East , will be the keynote speaker.
Representatives from Christian communities in Iraq and Egypt will speak about the day-to-day threats faced by Christian believers in the region. Activists serving the persecuted church in Muslim-majority countries will describe their efforts to promote human rights in the Middle East.
The event will take place at the Doubletree Guest Suites & Conference Center in Downers Grove at 2111 Butterfield Road, Downers Grove, IL. It will last from 9 a.m., to 4 p.m.
Advanced registration ($20) is required. To register, call 888 736-3672.
Journalists who wish to cover the event should contact Dexter Van Zile at (617) 789-3672 or dexter@camera.org
CONTACT: Dexter Van Zile of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, +1-617-789-3672, dexter@camera.org
SOURCE Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
I suspect I know some people who will be interested in going.
Sweden returns five asylum-seeking Iraqi Christians
How low can one government go? Sweden is trying to show us. They have decided to return five asylum-seeking Iraqi Christians to Iraq because there is 'relative peace' in that country. This, about a month after a massacre in an Iraqi Christian church.
Even the UN called them out on this one. "Five Iraqi Christians seeking asylum returned from Stockholm. UN protest," from AsiaNews, December 18:
Baghdad (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Harsh criticism of the Swedish government by the United Nations Commission for Refugees after they forcibly returned five Iraqi Christians seeking asylum in Sweden. The five were part of a group of at least 20 people from Iraq. Thousands of Christians have sought a safe haven outside the borders after the massacre of 31 October in the Syrian Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation. According to unofficial sources the authorities justify the refusal by citing a situation of relative peace in the country.
Perhaps those authorities would like to go for a field trip and enjoy the "relative peace" the remaining Christians are living in.
"We have heard many stories of people fleeing their homes after receiving direct threats. Many new arrivals explain that they left Iraq for fear of an attack, after what happened on October 31," says Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the UN body in Geneva.
One of the people I follow on Twitter often retweets Sweden's infamous foreign minister, Carl Bildt. In one tweet on Sunday, Bildt wrote:
Disturbing reports of security forces gathering in the centre of Minsk. The rights of everyone must be respected also in Belarus!
How about respecting the 'rights of everyone' in Sweden, including the rights of Jews and the rights of those who are foolish enough to arrive in Sweden hoping to escape persecution? Ought that not to be the first concern of the Swedish foreign minister?
There was a massacre in a church in Baghdad a couple of weeks ago, and as a result, the flight of Iraqi Christians from the country has accelerated.
"Yes, we may shed some tears. We may have sadness, but we will not give up," the Rev. Mukhlis Shasha preached to about 50 people during one of a series of special Catholic Masses for the dead this week. Some that came to pray, sitting against plaster walls gouged with bullet holes, were not Christians, but neighbors who had come to pay their respects.
Just a few weeks ago, before the Oct. 31 massacre, more than 350 people regularly attended Sunday Masses here. But now, many from this ancient Syriac Catholic community have fled. Others are too afraid to attend Mass in a place they think is being targeted by extremist groups and militias that have plagued the country during more than seven years of war.
"People tell me the Bible says if the land does not want us we must leave," Shasha said. "I tell them you have to stand tall in these lands. If we all leave the country, who will remember this massacre, who will witness the resurrection of this church again?"
Since the attack, Christian homes across the capital have been hit by bombs, two Christian men were killed in Mosul and Christian families have made their way out of the country or fled to the much safer northern Iraq, where Kurdish security forces control the area. Christians have not been the only victims of violence in the past month, but the attacks against them are disproportionate to the size of the vulnerable minority.
The new wave of displacement could devastate an already dwindling Christian community. Some worry that if something doesn't change, there will soon be no Christians left in Iraq.
There are now half as many Christians in Iraq as there were when the US toppled Sadam in 2003.
Let's go to the videotape.
But the Catholic church decided last month that this is Israel's fault. And so did the UPI news agency. What could go wrong?
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
