Imbalances In Relations
If there are any doubts - and one doubts there are - that Christians are being deliberately targeted in Muslim-majority countries, those doubts should be put to rest by what has occurred recently in Iraq. Christians in Muslim countries are becoming a rapidly disappearing species. Muslims are becoming increasingly militarized, radicalized, insensitive and demanding.Where once the Middle East represented the birthplace of Christianity and Christians represented the dominant religious force, they are now being forced out of the geography.
Although Muslim predations on Christians are by no means confined to the Middle East.
Now, it seems somewhat ironic that the safety and security of Christians in Iraq was far more assured under Saddam Hussein's bloody, totalitarian rule than it is currently under the dysfunctional government democratically elected but not yet quite settled into governing position, yet purportedly prepared to represent the interests of all factions in Iraq; Sunni, Shia, Kurd, Christian and other minorities.
Al-Qaeda-in Iraq has other ideas, uniquely their own. But it is not only al-Qaeda that is responsible for the bloody turmoil that exists in Iraq and elsewhere in the Arab and Muslim world. Hamas rules in Gaza, and the plight of Christians in the Palestinian Territories is such that they are becoming a depleting demographic. And then there is Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Words of the recent Vatican Synod of Bishops in the Middle East to the contrary.
It is not Jews who are responsible for the misery of the Arab Christians. Nor is Israel involved in their plight. Rather, where Israel has domination of its own territory, Christians thrive, their population has increased, and they live in safety and security, peace and equality assured by law.
Which has not, in the event, stopped them from claiming Israel to be harming their presence. Blood seems thicker than faith in some instances.
Although faith of a sinister bent was involved in the carnage that occurred within the cathedral of the Syriac Catholic Church, Our Lady of Deliverance, during evening mass when gunmen killed a priest holding aloft a cross and begging mercy for his flock, and then another two priests followed by hostages, and the deadly blasts that shook the church when the jihadists set off their suicide-bomb vests.
"As in the past and still existent today, some imbalances are present in our relations", politely claimed the Synod of Bishops statement at the conclusion of their soul-searching conference on the Middle East.
"Allahu Akbar" was the last phrase the men, women and children worshipping in the cathedral heard on Sunday last, as Christians and Muslims each celebrated their devotion to God in their own way.
Labels: Human Relations, Middle East, Realities, Religion
posted by Pieface @ Friday, November 05, 2010
<< Home