"The most significant threat to our national security is our debt," Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, August 27, 2010


Monday, September 2, 2013

Christians in the Middle East

In the very lands where Jesus of Nazareth was born – where he nursed and took his first steps – where he worked along side his father – took care of his mother and his relatives – where he developed his thoughts and his beliefs and his commitment to his Father – where he walked and spoke and challenged us all – where he was rejected and tracked and detained and questioned and tortured and killed in a spectacle which to this day brings shame on those who complacently witnessed it or, even worse, participated, Jesus would not be welcome.  He would be persecuted today – he would be tracked, watched, detained, questioned and then he would be tortured and killed.

There are very few Christians left in the middle east.  They have been removed – either fled for their safety or just killed by the intolerance of those who now control the lands and the politics and the military of this mixture of religion and culture and terror and waste.  The Christians have no homeland – no place of safety – no protectorate – no military standing with them – in front of them – to guarantee their safety and their homeland rights.

Here are “facts” that we took from an article in The Jerusalem Post:

·         Despite Muslim domination of the region, Christians comprised an estimated 20 percent of the Middle East population until the early 20th century.

·         Today, however, Christians make up a mere 2% to 5% of the Middle East and their numbers are fast dwindling.

·         Home to one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, Egypt also has the largest Christian population in the Middle East, totaling 8-12 million people. But because Christian Copts make up only about 10% to 15% of Egypt’s estimated 80 million people, they have for decades lived in fear as second-class citizens, subjected to attacks on churches, villages, homes and shops, mob killings and the abduction and forced Islamic conversion of Christian women compelled to marry Muslim men.

·         The Christian population (in Lebanon)  is estimated to have dropped from over 50% (according to a 1932 census) to about 40%. Over the past few years, the de facto governing power in Lebanon has become Hezbollah, the radical and heavily-armed Shi’ite movement sponsored by Iran.

·         In Syria, 2.5 million Christians comprised about 10% of the population and enjoyed some protection under the secular and often brutal regimes of the Assad dynasty. But as jihadi groups fighting Assad extend their territorial control, the past protection of Christians is often the cause of their current persecution by resentful Sunnis who revile the Assad regime and seek to impose Sharia law wherever they can.

·         In Iraq, the bloody aftermath of the 2003 invasion demonstrated how dangerous life can become for a Christian minority when a multicultural society in the Middle East explodes into sectarian violence. By 2008, half of the 800,000 Iraqi Christians were estimated to have left, rendering those remaining even more insecure. In 2010, Salafist extremists attacked a Baghdad church during Sunday Mass, killing or wounding nearly the whole congregation.

·         Because Israel is the only non- Muslim state in all of the Middle East and North Africa, it represents a small victory for religious minorities in the region, and serves as the last protector of freedom and security for Jews, Christians, Bahai, Druse and others.
Notwithstanding the accuracy of the last observation point above, TheFundamentals can find no evidence to indicate that persecuted Christians are flocking or are encouraged to seek refuge in Israel.
Please read these recent articles –
Please watch this video from PBS News Hour, presented one year ago –

 
During Mr. Bush's Iraq adventure, many Christians, who had been protected under Saddam, fled to Syria where they received protection under Assad.   Today we seek to demonize and destroy Assad just as we previously demonized Saddam.  We do not hear much from Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama about this situation - the new fellow, Kerry, is equally silent as is his good buddy, Joe Biden, and others.
 
Do any of these "leaders" have a clue about what they are doing?  Are they using US taxpayer money, much of it from Christian US taxpayers, to terrorize Christians in the middle east?  Is it not time for America to come to the aid of Christians in the middle east?   To save Christian lives?


1 comment:

Pat said...

To paraphrase a question asked in the 1950's by the House on Unamerican Activities : Are you now, or have you ever been ....a Christian?"
The point is that Christianity is under as much attack, albeit without the violence(yet) in the U. S as the Middle East. Homosexuals, militant feminists, Muslims, liberal media( when was the last time you saw a tv series when there was a Christian protagonist?) and others mock and ridicule traditional Christian values incessantly. Pope John II warned us that a secular humanist society would destroy Western culture, i.e. the Christian world, and it is so obvious to anybody paying attention that it is coming to pass.
Part of the blame, of course, is due to the fact that organized religion has compromised it's principles in order to maintain it's relevancy. Abortion, divorce,homosexuality, etc. all once abhorred by Christian sects worldwide are now routinely accepted by dying sects of Christianity in an effort to to keep membership thriving. How many supposedly Christian churches have devolved into a "CHURCH OF WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW" theology so that somebody, anybody, will pay attention?
Add to that the scandals of recent times, particularly in the Catholic Church that have disgusted and ultimately driven away the once faithful.
Furthermore, as government expands and captures more of it's citizenry under the spell of caretaker, more and more unenlightened are substituting God for government.
Is Christianity in danger in the Middle East? You bet it is. But you don't have to go that far to smell the rot. Just open your window.