Former Lebanese President Amine Gemayel has issued a stark warning about the fate of Christians in the Middle East, endangered by what he called “the rise of religious extremists.” Speaking last week at an event sponsored by Christian Solidarity International (CSI), Gemayel, who is himself Maronite Catholic, called on the international community to pay attention to the plight of religious minorities in the Middle East. The former Lebanese president paid particular attention to Christians who are fleeing the Middle East “in an exodus approaching biblical proportions.”
Although it is estimated that Christians made up twenty percent of the Middle East’s population a century ago, the most recent Pew survey puts their current share of the population at less than four percent. The shrinking presence of Christians in the Middle East has been noted by scholars over the last two decades, who point to a variety of pressures imposed by the majority Muslim population. But the process has accelerated in recent years, causing observers to worry about the future of Christianity in the region of its birth.
In his speech Gemayel cited a number of incidents that have been in the news.
For example, in Egypt—in so many ways the leading Arab nation—the Coptic community has been subjected to church burnings, physical assaults, and even killings. In Iraq, Christians face a similar onslaught of murder and church desecrations.
As for Syria, this audience is well aware of the wholesale destruction that the war is inflicting on all Syrians, regardless of faith. Compounding their particular difficulties, Syrian Christians have been under sustained attack by extremists, as demonstrated by the separate, high-profile kidnappings of two Syrian bishops and a group of nuns.
While Gemayel praised a recent United States State Department condemnation of persecution of Christians in Syria as “eloquent words,” he asked for “urgent actions to back them up.”
Gemayel’s fears have been exacerbated by recent events including the Arab Spring and the Syrian civil war. These events have empowered political Islamists who have little tolerance for non-Muslims as Syrian born academic Bassam Tibi said in a speech last fall that “the political interpretation of Islamic Sharia law … leaves no room for Christians, Jews and other religious minorities.”
In Israel, unlike elsewhere in the Middle East, the Christian community is growing and thriving. Yet at a time when Christians enjoy more freedom and acceptance in Israel than anywhere else in the Middle East, it is ironic that an increasing number of Western Christian anti-Israel activists are faulting Israel for the conflict in the Middle East–promoting what one recent study called “classical anti-Jewish theologies” to drive home their message.
The approach of these critics, exclusively blaming Israel for the dispossession of Palestinians has provoked a response. Lyn Julius, whose parents were forced out of Iraq blasts a Presbyterian study guide for dismissing the “the mass persecution and expulsion” of hundreds of thousands of Jews from Arab lands. Joe Samuels, an Iraqi born Jew, to ask in a recent Times of Israel column, “shouldn’t your priority be to advocate for your Christian brothers?”
This February, The Tower Magazine featured a photo essay giving a glimpse into the lives of Israel’s Christian community.
[Photo: ChristSolidarInt / YouTube ]