About 15 million Christians continue to live in the Middle East, the biggest non-Muslim minority left in the Muslim-majority countries of the region. Yet every year, more and more leave their homelands for overseas; pressurised into flight by systematic economic and social discrimination on the basis of their faith.
Of course, the Christians of the Middle East have not been alone in this. Starting with the sometimes sizeable Jewish minorities of the Arab world, religious minorities have been more or less forced out of the region since the end of World War II. Together with the Jews, Zoroastrians, Mandeans, Bahai, Yazidis, and other, smaller groups have all left the region that gave birth to all the monotheistic faiths. Those that remain have often been reduced to what one Christian commentator has called an underground, “catacomb” faith, recalling the persecuted faith of the Early Church.
Nina Shea, in a recent article, comments:
Within our lifetime, the Middle East could be wholly Islamicized for the first time in history. Without the experience of living alongside Christians and other non-Muslims at home, what would prepare it to peacefully coexist with the West? This religious polarization would undoubtedly have geopolitical significance.
She echoes the views of the Lebanese Catholic scholar, Habib Malik (son of the late Charles Malik, one of the drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights):
The existence of settled, stable, prosperous, and reasonably free and secure native Christian communities in the Middle East has served in many instances as a factor encouraging Islamic openness and moderation, creating an environment of pluralism that fosters acknowledgment of the different other. . . . In Lebanon, before the outbreak of war in 1975, Muslim communities lived with their Christian counterparts in a free atmosphere of mutual respect. The fruits of this coexistence are evident today, even after so many conflicts, among educated classes of Lebanese Sunnis and Shiites, who stand out in the broader Arab Islamic context as full-fledged examples of modernity in every way. Islamic moderation is strengthened when Muslims live with confident co-national adherents of communities that respect women, do not condone suicide bombing or religious domination, are compatible with liberal democracy, defend personal and group rights, and are comfortable with many features of secular life.
Charles Malik is the founding director of the Foundation of Human and Humanitarian Rights -Lebanon, an organisation dedicated to a secular, democratic and liberal future for all the communities of modern Lebanon.
Elsewhere, the Copts of Egypt continue to suffer between the hammer of Islamist pogrom and the anvil of the state’s continued complicity in discrimination against the Coptic Orthodox Christian community. Shea quotes the brave and indefatigable Bishop Thomas of the Coptic Church, who has single-handedly attempted to preserve the ancient Coptic language (the last living descendent of the language of ancient Egypt) and the fragile culture of the Egyptian Christian community. For his pains, Bishop Thomas has faced repeated death-threats. Bishop Thomas recalled his own upbringing as a Copt in Egypt and the hope that his faith brings him:
I grew up memorizing the Quran, and a lot of the Hadiths, hearing the stories of the history, how the Islamic troops were victorious. And we have to study that and we have to write it in our exams and we have to praise it. Nowadays, the media has the same style and, wherever you are, you hear Quranic reciting. It shouts everywhere, and this is part of the pressure that people are living with. Even though we are facing a lot of hardship, still we are not weak because, simply, truth is strong, love is strong, hope is strong, and that enables the Christians in Egypt to continue.
Finally, Shea discusses the incredibly brave Anglican priest, Canon Andrew White. She writes of her friend:
The 45-year-old Anglican priest, afflicted with multiple sclerosis, voluntarily gave up his prestigious post at Coventry Cathedral to minister in Iraq. Since 2003, he has negotiated hostage releases, reconciled Sunnis and Shiites, operated free medical clinics, and supported Baghdad’s eight remaining Jews. White is the pastor of St. George’s Church, an ecumenical congregation he established for the remnants of Baghdad’s Chaldean, Syriac Orthodox, and Assyrian communities. Scores of his congregation have been murdered, and White himself was featured on a sectarian group’s “wanted” posters. He was once bound and beaten by security police.
I received a letter from him on October 25, which said in part, “I am very sorry to tell you that the two major bomb explosions in Baghdad this morning have done serious damage to the church compound. . . . Outside the church, at least 132 people were killed and over 600 injured. Destroyed fragments of their bodies have been thrown through windows of the church. . . . Many of our staff and church members remain unaccounted for. Lay Pastor Faiz and I have been trying in vain to reach them by telephone. Today was a terrible day for us. But even in the blood and trauma and turmoil, there are things for which we can, and indeed must, praise our G-d.”
There is a passage in the Gospel of Luke, one of many that never fails to move me. The Angel Gabriel has visited Mary. Mary is understandably troubled by the news that she is miraculously pregnant. Gabriel reminds her that her elderly kinswoman, Elizabeth, has also against the odds become pregnant:
And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.
For with G-d nothing shall be impossible.
One might think of the Churches of the Middle East as Elizabeth, elderly, seemingly barren – and of their brave and devout followers there, who hope on hope that their Churches may survive their present troubles, that they might too be part of the light that is so needed unto the nations of that troubled region. One does not have to be a Christian, nor even a believer of any kind, to understand the demands that anyone of a liberal, democratic and progressive stance must take on this issue. The freedom to worship in peace and safety is part of all of our universal human rights. Perhaps the dwindling Christian believers of the Middle East might take some comfort in those words of the Angel Gabriel, spoken so long ago, to a poor, confused, terrified young woman in the middle of the night:
For with G-d nothing shall be impossible.
Coptic Icon of the Annunciation
17 Comments
Beautiful.
Superb post. But I doubt the situation will improve as long as voices like yours in Muslim-majority societies which decry the treatment of their minorities are muted by the voices which say that Muslims are the universal victims. For every voice like yours, there are ten ready to upbraid the world for ‘victimising Muslims’ and shifting the debate or silencing them altogether.
Absolutely excellent post.
I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of cross-posting this one.
Excellent article and eloquently written.
One small-but-significant quibble:
Not all of them — Sikhism is also a monotheistic faith, but obviously does not originate in that region.
Neverthless, the message of the article is timely and much-needed, and the following quotes within the main article…..
…..are absolutely spot-on (present-day and historical India also provides numerous examples confirming this). These observations also apply equally to members of other religions, and are similarly applicable to racial/ethnic issues.
Abu Faris,
On a related note, the following article also makes some points which are directly associated with your own article’s basic premise. Hopefully you should find it interesting reading.
“Christianity and Islam in Mughal India”:
Part 1: http://www.pickledpolitics.com/archives/6912
Part 2: http://www.pickledpolitics.com/archives/6961
Many thanks for your comments, Jai – as usual they are pertinent and enlightening.
You are quite correct, of course. The Sikh faith is a monotheistic faith not born in Western Asia. Apologies.
I did some research, a few years back, on the history of India’s (and in the main Kerala’s) Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church. The Indian Orthodox Church (as it is popularly known) is an Oriental Orthodox Church (along with the Coptic, Syrian, Armenian, Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Churches) of great antiquity. One of the main in-print texts on the early history of the Oriental Orthodox communion is a product of one of its scholars, in fact.
A good enough overview is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Orthodox_Church
The Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church had a problematic relationship with the Jesuits during the Portuguese occupation of Goa. The Jesuits had developed some experience of working with Oriental Orthodox Churches in their penetration of Abyssinia in the early 17th Century.
However, the basic Jesuit intention of converting the locals from their Oriental Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism soon bought the Jesuits into conflict with the local Orthodox Churches in both Ethiopia and Goa. In Ethiopia it eventually led to the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Empire. In Portuguese-occupied Goa, it led to considerable repression of and division within the local Oriental Orthodox Church.
A good history of the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church of India can be found on its website, here:
http://www.orthodoxsyrianchurch.com/index.php/history?showall=1
Interesting post, Abu Faris. However, I would argue that the dwindling numbers of Jews in many Muslim-majority countries has more to do with the creation of Israel – ie a homeland – rather than a marked increase of Anti-Semitism. Or perhaps a combination of the 2.
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An economically, religiously and morally weak society will usually seek to blame the ‘other’, and the existence of pockets of Christians/Druze/Jews etc in the Muslim world present a very convenient ‘other’ to demonise. Examples abound, of Europeans doing much the same during their own tumultuous history. Whilst the Europeans have (for the most part) become beacons of tolerance and justice, much of the world is still plagued with emnity and mistrust – one only has to look at the persecution of Gujrati Muslims in the late nineties, or the recently ceased hostilities in Ireland to know that religious difference can bring out the worst, and best in people.
Anywho, I would like to end on a slightly more optimistic note. I recently attended a talk in which the Bishop of East Anglia told of his travels to the holy land, where he was accompanied by a Muslim sheikh. The 2 travelled to a small village (the name escapes me) in the west bank, with sizeable Muslim and Orthdox Christian communities. On the occasion of a Muslim wedding, the Muslims would proceed to the mosque to carry out the nikkah. During this time, the orthodox christians would busy themselves with preparing the wedding feast and decorating the wedding hall. Upon finishing with the religious ceremony, the 2 communities would celebrate the wedding together. The roles were reverse whenever there was a Christian wedding in the village. This was, I thought, a wonderful example of community cohesion. Indeed, it is a modern-day example we could all learn from.
Hassan
Unfortunately, your comment reads rather as if you are blaming the Jews for their own persecution!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_under_Muslim_rule
You do not address the main issue of this thread – that the continued dispersal of Christians (and others) from the Middle East will lead to a situation where Islam occupies a very unwanted monopoly in the region (for the reasons given in the above-the-line post).
Whilst it is heartening to learn of anecdotal accounts of cases of inter communal harmony in some communities in the Middle East, these are neither the general experience of many religious minorities in that region, nor do they disprove the main issues of the original piece.
It is interesting to note well, however, that your example of such harmony would appear to have come from an Arab community living in Israel – a country where the freedom to worship in peace and security is guaranteed its religious minorities. Unlike the conditions prevalent in most of the surrounding Muslim-majority states.
I was merely implying that many Jews emigrated to Israel upon its creation. Hence the dwindling numbers in Muslim countries. Although I agree that anti-semitism was a factor, as I noted in my previous post.
Indeed this will be a loss to a region. The loss of any well-entrenched community is a loss, especially one with such religious vitality.
Without wishing to split hairs, I believe the example was of a village in the West Bank, which is (loosely) under the control of the Palestinian Authority. I did note, however, that such harmony is something that we could ALL learn from. Surrounding Muslim states certainly not excluded from that.
Hassan
The vast majority of Jews in the Arab world left for Israel because the chance arose to escape centuries of discrimination against Jews in the Muslim-majority countries – and directly because of increased discrimination (up to and including pogroms) against the Jewish communities there, post WWII. Most left, having to leave behind all their worldly wealth. If you think that this was an example of “free” migration, I am afraid history rather disproves your position.
The West Bank may not be Israel, Hassan – but I suggest you take a closer look at the conditions under which the Christians of Palestine exist.
The 2008 US State Department report on religious freedom in the Palestinian Authority-administered (PA) areas includes these from Bethlehem, on the West Bank of the Jordan River:
Meanwhile, in Hamas Islamist-controlled Gaza the situation is even worse:
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2008/108484.htm
Abu Faris,
I was not hoping to disprove the entire premise of your piece with a solitary counter-example. I just think it’s nice to show examples of tolerance amidst the madness; you know, something people of the region, and further a field, can learn from.
christianity also decline in the west and islam is spreading
=====================
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clash of civilization.
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Kope
I will decline that kind offer. Thanks all the same.
A very important post indeed.
The fate of the Alevis is not pleasant to hear either.
Andrew,
Mike Marqusee and a very dear (now departed) American (and also British-based) friend of mine shared a passion for cricket and knew each other quite well, I believe.
It was sad to read on your blog of Mike’s illness.
Abu Faris, thanks for the information earlier. It’s not widely known here in the West that Christians have been in India for a very long time indeed. In fact, the subcontinent had settled communities of Christians centuries before northern Europe did.