Merry Christmas
Perhaps not so merry if you're a Christian in a Muslim world. Not much respect from fundamentalist Islamists who believe non-Muslims are trash, hardly human.
When parts of the Middle East were quasi-secular politically, at least more tolerant, Christians lived fairly amicably among their ethnic brethren, in Lebanon, for example and in the Palestinian Territories. With the emergence of a hard-core interpretation of the Koran and fundamentalist ideals and the rise of jihad, their tenure has become tenuous, to say the least.
In biblical-fabled Bethlehem the Christian population, once predominant at 80%, has been diminished to 25%. Arab Christians are loathe to place all the blame on Arab Muslims, and they point also to the Israeli presence: "After the intifada - and three or four years of curfews - there was the Lebanon war, the economic crisis and all the time we have the [security] wall. Last year things picked up, but this year it is bad again."
In Gaza, Christian shops are firebombed, their owners threatened. Businesses owned by Coptic Christians in Egypt were burned in riots in the south of the country, leaving people in a traumatized state of fear. In Iraq it isn't just Shia and Sunni Muslims and al-Qaeda in Iraq wreaking atrocities against one another; the Christians of Iraq are a fast-diminishing minority, forced to flee the country.
"We were driven out. They bombed our churches. They killed us deliberately so we would leave. It was organized", raged one Iraqi Christian after Pope Benedict remarked during his Middle East tour, "The Catholic community here is deeply touched by the difficulties and uncertainties which affect all the people of the Middle East." Uneasy under Saddam Hussein, they still numbered at least a million-strong.
"The Pope talks about Muslims and mosques while in Germany, and we [experience revenge] explosions two or three days later. We are the biggest losers of this war, and yet we are the original inhabitants." Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Christians have moved from their traditional communities to the northern areas. In Amman, Jordan Chaldean Christians from Iraq seek temporary safety, joining Christian communities there.
In Jerusalem's Old City, the scourge of fundamentalist intolerance regardless of the religion, sees spitting attacks by Orthodox Jewish youth upon cross-wearing Christians. In Egypt Muslims attacked a Christian neighbourhood, rioting against a new church, forcing its closure. But then, Christians are also under attack in parts of India, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere in the world.
Intolerance is wide-spread, directed against people of all minority faiths living in majority theocratic countries resenting the presence of religious minorities. This represents yet another massive failure of the human condition.
When parts of the Middle East were quasi-secular politically, at least more tolerant, Christians lived fairly amicably among their ethnic brethren, in Lebanon, for example and in the Palestinian Territories. With the emergence of a hard-core interpretation of the Koran and fundamentalist ideals and the rise of jihad, their tenure has become tenuous, to say the least.
In biblical-fabled Bethlehem the Christian population, once predominant at 80%, has been diminished to 25%. Arab Christians are loathe to place all the blame on Arab Muslims, and they point also to the Israeli presence: "After the intifada - and three or four years of curfews - there was the Lebanon war, the economic crisis and all the time we have the [security] wall. Last year things picked up, but this year it is bad again."
In Gaza, Christian shops are firebombed, their owners threatened. Businesses owned by Coptic Christians in Egypt were burned in riots in the south of the country, leaving people in a traumatized state of fear. In Iraq it isn't just Shia and Sunni Muslims and al-Qaeda in Iraq wreaking atrocities against one another; the Christians of Iraq are a fast-diminishing minority, forced to flee the country.
"We were driven out. They bombed our churches. They killed us deliberately so we would leave. It was organized", raged one Iraqi Christian after Pope Benedict remarked during his Middle East tour, "The Catholic community here is deeply touched by the difficulties and uncertainties which affect all the people of the Middle East." Uneasy under Saddam Hussein, they still numbered at least a million-strong.
"The Pope talks about Muslims and mosques while in Germany, and we [experience revenge] explosions two or three days later. We are the biggest losers of this war, and yet we are the original inhabitants." Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Christians have moved from their traditional communities to the northern areas. In Amman, Jordan Chaldean Christians from Iraq seek temporary safety, joining Christian communities there.
In Jerusalem's Old City, the scourge of fundamentalist intolerance regardless of the religion, sees spitting attacks by Orthodox Jewish youth upon cross-wearing Christians. In Egypt Muslims attacked a Christian neighbourhood, rioting against a new church, forcing its closure. But then, Christians are also under attack in parts of India, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere in the world.
Intolerance is wide-spread, directed against people of all minority faiths living in majority theocratic countries resenting the presence of religious minorities. This represents yet another massive failure of the human condition.
Labels: Human Relations, Realities, religion
posted by Pieface @ 7:06 PM
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