Opinion with Michael Coren The mass murder of Christians in Sri Lanka at the end of April stunned many observers, not only because of the obvious barbarism of the act, but because the prime target was Christians, during Easter and in church. For those of us who have been writing and broadcasting for decades about the persecution of Christians, however, this obscenity came as little surprise. Back in 2012, I was hosting a nightly television show and, on one occasion, my guest was a Christian minister from the Middle East. He politely and humbly asked me if he could put a Bible on the desk in front of him during the interview. I politely told him that I’d rather he didn’t, because it might look like proselytizing. He replied that he understood, but that this particular Bible might be of interest to the viewers. It had been in Our Lady of Salvation Syriac Catholic cathedral in Baghdad on October 31, 2010 when a Muslim terrorist group attacked the church, murdering 58 people and wounding more than 75. The book being held in front of me was almost beyond reading, as its pages were glued together in purple lumps, sticky with blood. This was not a holy book to be preached from, but a holy book of martyrdom that preached. The Baghdad attack was merely one example of the war on Christianity. Even Pope Francis, hardly militant in these areas, told a group of 40 Jewish leaders − including the then-head of theWorld Jewish Congress, Ronald S. Lauder − “First it was your turn and now it is our turn.” In February, 2014, U.S. representative Chris Smith − chairman of the congressional panel that oversees international human rights issues, told a congressional subcommittee that discussion of “anti-Christian persecution is not meant to minimize the suffering of other religious minorities who are imprisoned or killed for their beliefs,” but to make it clear that Christians “remain the most persecuted religious group the world over.” More than 300 million Christians are threatened with violence or face legal discrimination, forced conversion and daily threats. In countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Nigeria and elsewhere, they are frequently imprisoned and tortured on false charges of drinking and blasphemy and, in Iraq, the exodus of Christians has been so great that the faith may even cease to exist in any meaningful sense in years to come. But this is a good example of why we have to be very selective and informed regarding how and what we judge. Saddam Hussein was a brute, but he didn’t persecute Christians. It was the Western invasion of Iraq that smashed the stability of the place, empowering Islamist groups and leading to the full-scale attack on the Christian minority. Similarly, in Syria, Christians are generally protected and in Palestine, the national conversation was traditionally shaped by Greek Orthodox Christians. In Egypt, the story is sadly different; in Turkey, there is hardly even a concept of a “Turkish Christian”; and, in Pakistan, the once-respected Christian minority is now intimidated and frightened. This is not an issue of Islamrefusing to accept Christianity, but of radicalized Islam and of ignorant, sadistic fanatics not accepting anybody but their own – they also slaughter Muslims who refuse to adopt their gruesome twisting of the Muslim faith. Yet Christians are without doubt the main victims of this systemic persecution and violence, and theWestern world says relatively little. The reasons are complex, but one of the causes is that conservative Christians in North America and Europe so frequently claim victimhood, usually when they show intolerance towards LGBTQ people. This absurd boast of martyrdom leads to cynicism about the very real horrors experienced by Christians in other parts of the world. On a grander scale, when George W. Bush launched imperial campaigns in majority-Muslim areas and spoke of a Christian motive, there was an understandable if misplaced anger. If Bush and his people were Christian, how could Christians be vulnerable and persecuted? The inescapable fact is that Christians are indeed a highly persecuted group and that Christianity even faces disappearance in the places where it was born. It is not a western faith but one rooted deeply in the Middle East, and its adherents in much of that region, as well as in Asia and Africa, demand our help and solidarity. If we choose between marginalized groups, and ignore one for whatever reason we conjure, we are failing in our intelligence, compassion and humanity. 16 | www.snowbirds.org
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