Britannia Radio

War on Christians in the Middle East must be stopped

By Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein

Monday, September 8th 2008

An Islamic court in  <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Shiraz+(Iran)>
Shiraz, Iran, has just convicted two men of being infidels. Their crime?
Converting to Christianity. The possible sentence? Death. Not too far away
in  <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Saudi+Arabia> Saudi Arabia, an
outraged father recently hacked his own daughter to death for the same
"abomination."

In the daily drumbeat of Mideast news, there is one story of historic
proportion that goes nearly unreported: the persecution and systematic
destruction in the Islamic world of some of the world's oldest Christian
communities.

Sure, we hear when a Catholic bishop is murdered in
<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Iraq> Iraq, when machete-armed fanatics
attack Egyptian Copt worshipers, or when churches are torched in
<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Hamas> Hamas-controlled
<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Gaza+Strip> Gaza.

But what about the jailing in Saudi Arabia of foreign workers for holding
forbidden Christian prayers? Or the arrest in
<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Pakistan> Pakistan of a Christian man for
marrying a Muslim woman? Or the continuing problem of an Islamic educational
system that teaches the young that Christians (as well as Jews) are "the
descendants of apes and pigs"?

The pattern is nearly the same wherever extremist Islam holds sway. From
<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Bangladesh> Bangladesh to
<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Darfur> Darfur, Christians have become
regular targets for Islamic thugs and the governments that back them. Just
this month, a Pakistani court upheld the kidnapping, conversion and
"marriage" to older Muslim men of two Christian sisters, aged 10 and 13.

Even in lands that are not under orthodox Sharia law, Christian communities
feel the pressure of persecution. In constitutionally secular
<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Turkey> Turkey, a legally recognized
Protestant church in the capital of
<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Ankara> Ankara is under threat of closure
by local police.

Many Christians in Islamic lands have become subject to such terror that
they are fleeing the homelands their ancestors have known almost since the
time of Jesus. Iraq's Christian sects now feel forced to pray in secret.
Others simply leave. Although they comprise less than 4% of Iraq's
population, Iraqi Christians now account for 40% of its refugees.

<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Lebanon> Lebanon's once politically
powerful Christian community has already shrunk almost beyond recognition.
Thirty years ago, Lebanon was 60% Christian; today it is barely 25%. And the
growing political power of  <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Iran>
Iran-backed  <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Hezbollah> Hezbollah is
encouraging further departures.

Even in the Holy Land, where Jesus walked, there is an increasing Christian
exodus from both the  <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/West+Bank> West
Bank and Gaza. Part of it surely stems from the continuing
Palestinian-Israeli conflict. But much of it results from a growing Islamic
campaign to force Christians to sell their property and leave.

The only place in the Mideast where Christian communities continue to grow
is in the Jewish  <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Israel> State of
Israel. Israel's tolerance is logical. What people of faith know the dangers
of religious persecution better than the people of Israel - especially those
whose families originated in the Islamic world? Between 1948 and 1956 more
than 850,000 Jews were forced to flee the Arab lands where their families
had lived for centuries.

When, in 2001, Afghan fanatics destroyed two ancient statues of Buddha, the
world was shocked. But between 1948 and 1967, when Islamic forces controlled
the Holy City of  <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Jerusalem> Jerusalem,
there was a systematic campaign to erase the historic Jewish presence.
Synagogues were destroyed and ancient Jewish gravestones carted away. Even
today, the
<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Palestinian+National+Authority>
Palestinian Authority denies Israel's right to consider itself a Jewish
state and denies the historic Jewish connection to Jerusalem.

If there is hope for true peace in the
<http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Middle+East> Middle East, it won't simply
come from Israeli and Palestinian leaders shaking hands at a formal
ceremony. It hinges on extremist Islam reforming its view of others. People
of commitment and tolerance all around the world - Christians, Jews, Muslims
and others - must speak out loudly and forcefully to prevent the Islamic
world's Christians from suffering the same fate as its now
all-but-nonexistent Jewish communities.

Eckstein is founder and president of the International Fellowship of
Christians and Jews.