The Plight of the Christian Minorities in the
Middle East – Shame on World Christianity
For some strange
reason, Christians in the Middle East are not getting the attention and the
protection that they deserve. This is an old and very long story and ironically
the so-called Arabic spring has made things much worse. People are killed and churches
are burnt. The desperation is such that these minority Christians are tempted
to side with strong armed men for protection. Just think of it, the new pope of
the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt, Tawadros II, found it decent and
appropriate to stand next to military leader al-Sisi (on the other side was el-Tayeb
of the al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo) when he declared the Muslim Brotherhood
illegal and that its democratically elected President Morsi had been overthrown
as he and the party were a threat to the nation (See Time, April 21 – 2014).
Any decent person
would have big problems with recent developments in Egypt and yet, we are
facing an existential dilemma of all democracy. The nature of democracy is such
that you may vote democracy out of existence (in a particular country). Therefore,
military or other powers feel now and then called to stage a coup in order to
safeguard just democracy. How absurd. Exactly this scenario we have seen in
Algeria and now also in Egypt. The Coptic pope may get protection in the short term,
but in the long term not.
If you are a minority
you are tempted to think in terms of being a minority for ever. But the history
of Egypt can talk about a majority church (for example in the 4th
century) and why could that not happen again? It may be better to work towards
an open and democratic society for any Christian group, in the long run, for
all parties.
And the number of
Christians are shrinking all the time, be it Egypt, Syria or Iraq. A census in
1914 could tell that about a quarter of the population of the Middle East were
Christians. Today one could count on about 5% only. Of the total eight million
that you find there today, more than half could be found in exile within the
next couple of years (Time).
It is not unreasonable
that Christians in this region should have the right to worship and also to propagate
their faith, i.e. tell everyone that cares to listen, what Christian faith is
all about. There has been talk about Euroislam as a possible new departure
where Muslims in Europe would stand up for human rights and democracy. Will this
happen? And let’s be fair, just as Muslims in Europe must enjoy their rights to
religion and to make their religion known, so Christians in the Middle East
must have a right to the same. Anything else would be hypocrisy. And there is
some hypocrisy around. One gets the sense that people are uneasy about the
whole issue, they rather not talk about it. Nobody, in the politically correct
Sweden for example, would like to give the impression that they favour
Christianity instead of Islam. So they hold their peace. But for how long?
There are two
instances in Sweden that smell hypocritical. First, last year in October there
was a manifestation in Stockholm organized by the Christian Council in
solidarity with religious minorities (in the Middle East). Unbelievable. Even though
there are other minorities there, there is general agreement that the
Christians are the ones that are in real danger. But one could not say the word
“Christian”. Secondly, in the politically impotent Church Assembly of Church of
Sweden (see my blog on party politics in the Church of Sweden), motions were
made regarding the need to show solidarity with the Christian minorities in the
Middle East, but these were rejected. Instead, support was given to the
document Kairos Palestine, a document
drawn up by Christian Palestinians claiming their right of a decent existence
alongside the Israelis. Only in a party political church set-up could this
happen. Those who sided with the Palestinians must have felt that it would be inappropriate
to give support to Christians as a group. The party political agenda would
immediately stereotype the discussion. It is absurd because in actual fact both
these issues go together. The future of Palestinians has a lot to do with
giving rights to minorities in the region. In addition, many in the Palestinian
leadership are themselves Christian.
But unfortunately it
is not only in churches with ages old establishment allegiances, like in
Sweden, where the support of Christians in the Middle East is weak.
To my consternation
and disbelief I have come to realize, after many years in the ecumenical
movement, that the very body for international solidarity, the World Council of
Churches, has hesitated for decades to make the plight of the Christians in the
Middle East their priority.
We could have done
more, all of us, world-wide, to show support of these Christians. Many of them
are very conservative, in all sorts of ways. But are they still not human
beings, with a faith in Jesus Christ??
Jesus said: “Truly I
say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it
to me” (Matthew 25.40). This text is to be understood to mean my brother, my
sister in need (hungry, sick, in prison etc.). But equally, it is also about my
Christian brother and sister in need. And if we are not prepared to stand by
those who share the most precious thing in life, our faith, with us, how on
earth would we ever be believed when showing solidarity with anybody else?
Shame on the Christians world-wide who are not taking the plight of the Christian brothers and sisters in the Middle East seriously!
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