Posted on 09/13/2013 6:45:17 PM PDT by chessplayer
As I write, the city of Maaloula in Syria has become a ghost town after being briefly occupied by members of the al Qaeda–linked jihadist group al-Nusra Front. Conflicting reports claim that al-Nusra fighters have desecrated churches and statues in what may be one of the oldest Christian cities in the world, a place where residents still speak Aramaic, the language presumably spoken by Jesus.
Sadly, the experience of Maaloula’s residents is becoming all too common in the Middle East, where examples of brutality against Christians have been mounting in recent weeks. In Egypt, the coup against President Mohamed Morsi was followed by a wave of Islamist pogroms against Christians in which 42 churches were attacked, 37 were burned or looted, and an untold number of Christians were assaulted or killed.
As tempting as it may be to attribute these events to the atmosphere of post-insurrectionary anarchy in Egypt and Syria, that is not the best vantage point from which to view the problem. Take a step back, and it becomes clear that the recent assaults are part of a bigger offensive against Middle Eastern Christians, one that can be traced back to decades-long developments in regional politics and Islamic society. The Arab Spring may be the proximate cause of some of the worst violence, but its roots run much deeper -- and the stakes are much higher than one might think. What we are witnessing is nothing less than a regional religious cleansing that will soon prove to be a historic disaster for Christians and Muslims alike.
At the start of World War I, the Christian population of the Middle East may have been as high as 20 percent. Today, it is roughly four percent. Although it is difficult to be exact, there are perhaps 13 million Christians left in the region, and that number has likely fallen further, given the continued destabilization of Syria and Egypt, two nations with historically large Christian populations. At the present rate of decline, there may very well be no significant Christian presence in the Middle East in another generation or two.
The story is the same in Western Europe.
In the purview of general global Christianity though, the faith is growing in sub-Saharan Africa, in the far east, and in Eastern Europe.
It’s upsetting however, that such ancient Christian communities, who could probably trace their ancestry back to people who quite literally met and talked with Jesus, are being torn asunder. Whose fault is it? Obama’s, plain and simple.
In Egypt, he was party to Mubarak’s ouster, and prolonged the tyrannical Muslim Brotherhood’s brief period in power.
In Syria, he failed to act at all when something could have been done, when we could have worked with a broad coalition of UN members, namely Russia, some African and Eastern European nations, and Armenia, to get an armed peacekeeping resolution, sending equipped UN troops into specific areas where minority groups who had no part in the civil war required protection, places just like Maaloula, where we could have helped these communities ride out the civil war.
And he dares claim some moral high ground. He has NONE.
Christianity is not a martial religion. When it was, it was sending missionaries and crusaders to conquer lands and peoples. Now, Islam is the martial religion, so it will dominate. When and if Islamics gain a bit of liberalism and become pacifists, Islam will be declining as well. Another martial religion will take over.
Save Thy people, O Lord,
and bless Thine inheritance.
Grant victory to Thy Church over her enemies,
and protect Thy people by Thy Holy Cross!
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