Arab Christians In An Islamist Middle East
They have yet to demonstrate the courage of their convictions. After all, the Arab League collectively and their single member-states could, if they wished, make an end to the violence that has quaked Syria for close to a year. Back when it began, of course, other states had their own problems to solve, with their own Arab Spring protests to deal with. And deal with them they did.Bahrain's ruling family is Sunni, and the majority of its citizens are Shia, the reverse of the Syrian situation. Sunni Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates moved their militaries to Bahrain, to settle the dispute between its citizenry and its benevolent rulers. Setting a precedent? What precedent?
Tunisia, for example, has a new government. An ardently Islamist government. And while Egypt still has its old government for the time being, it too veers inevitably toward an Islamist government. Since the revolution and the removal of Hosni Mubarak, relations between Muslims and Coptic Christians have been testy, to say the least.
Libya now is in the hands of tribal loyalties that refused to defer to Gadhafi's clan any longer. The violence that they experienced coming at them from the regime's troops they turned right back on the loyalists as soon as the opportunity presented itself, ghoulishly murdering Gadhafi when that opportunity presented itself, as well. There too, the Islamists are in power.
Iranian Christians are now being persecuted, although of course Iran is Persian, not Arab, and Shia, not Sunni. Whereas in Syria, Iran's great ally in the region, Syrian Christians have led a protected lifestyle, much as they did in the Iraq of Saddam Hussein. With the new Islamist Shia leaders in Iraq, Christians have felt the pain.
As they do now in Syria, where the opposition, supported by Western sympathies against the brutalities of Bashar al-Assad, has been venting its hatred against the Syriac Christian minority, now fearing a bloodbath with the fall of the Assad dynasty. But of course the fate of Arab Christians in a largely Muslim Middle East is of little concern to the Arab League.
Labels: Arab League, Christianity, Conflict, Islamism, Syria
posted by Pieface @ Monday, February 13, 2012
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