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ACTION BEING TAKEN TO HELP CHRISTIANS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
The Christian Post
May 20 2014
By Nina Shea, CP Op-Ed Contributor
May 20, 2014|9:31 am
On the morning of April 7, Dutch Jesuit priest Frans Van Der Lugt
was most likely in meditation, as was his custom, when gunmen burst
into his monastery in the old part of the Syrian town of Homs. They
grabbed the 75-year-old clergyman, beat him, dragged him outside and
shot him twice in the head. The assassins were probably jihadis who
then controlled Homs.
The priest was unarmed and for 50 years had come to be widely beloved
for his humanitarian work. Was he murdered, then, simply as an
"infidel", one of only a dozen or so Christians remaining there,
or because of his, and Syria's Christians', refusal to fight in
the conflict, or because of his long dedication to inter-religious
dialogue, anathema to extremists? What is certain, he did not die
a by-stander, caught in the cross fire of Syria's civil war. He was
singled out for his Christianity.
Syria's two million Christians follow some ten different faith
traditions and no group has been spared persecution. For three years,
they have seen their ancient churches deliberately destroyed in
Maaloula and many other places, and many clergy and laypeople targeted
for death, kidnapping, and intimidation. Two Orthodox bishops from
Aleppo have been hostages for a year. In Raqqa, another renowned Jesuit
and man of peace was abducted and reportedly executed last July. This
year, 20 of Raqqa's remaining Christian leaders were forced to sign
a so-called dhimmi contract, agreeing to pay "protection" money,
and submit to medieval Muslim blasphemy and social codes.
Recently, extremists stopped and searched a bus, and from its group
of largely Kurdish passengers separated out and beheaded two Armenian
Christians. These are just a few examples.
Those of us who follow religious freedom issues are deeply alarmed. We
have seen similar patterns of targeted violence by Islamic extremists
against Iraq's Christians over the last decade, with devastating
results, and, last August, the worst single attack in 700 years
hit Egypt's Coptic churches. UK's Coptic Orthodox Bishop Angaelos
stressed to Congress that the attacks by "radical elements" are not
merely aimed at individuals, but "the Christian and minority presence
in its entirety". Such persecution, coming on top of conflict and
political turmoil that Muslims and Christians, alike, are suffering,
has helped spur an exodus of many thousands of Christians from Syria,
Iraq and Egypt - today home to the vast majority of indigenous
Middle Eastern Christians. If this wave of persecution continues,
the indigenous Christian communities may soon be exiled from the
region of Christianity's birth.
The West has largely ignored this crisis. Though promoting religious
freedom is a key objective of US foreign policy and the tolerance of
religious minorities, as President Obama emphasizes, is a national
security concern, two successive administrations, Republican and
Democratic, have given short shrift to these Christians' unique
plight. Moreover, the Western Christian response has been noticeably
muted. Last December in Rome, at a conference sponsored by two private
American Christian universities, Iraq's Catholic Chaldean Patriarch
Louis Sako spoke searing words: "We feel forgotten and isolated. We
sometimes wonder, if they kill us all, what would be the reaction of
Christians in the West?"
Soon after, Prince Charles, visiting London's Eastern churches
with Jordan's Prince Ghazi bin Mohammed, a brave Muslim champion
of moderation, said: "We cannot ignore the fact that Christians
in the Middle East are, increasingly, being deliberately targeted
by fundamentalist Islamist militants. Christianity was, literally,
born in the Middle East and we must not forget our Middle Eastern
brothers and sisters in Christ."
In January, several of us agreed that an American Christian response
was needed. We set to work on an ecumenical pledge of solidarity that
could be taken up by the leaders of a majority of American churches. I
joined with a group of drafters that included Maronite Bishop Gregory
Mansour of Brooklyn, Dr. Elizabeth Prodromou, a conflict resolution
scholar and former Commissioner with whom I served on the independent
US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Joop
Koopman, who oversees communications for the Catholic pontifical agency
Aid to the Church in Need USA, and Father Nathanael Symeonides of the
Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the USA. Our effort was in
the tradition of other American ecumenical pledges, particularly one
in 1996 by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) that helped
lay the ground for institutionalizing religious freedom within the
State Department.
Christian Arab and Middle Eastern Churches Together (CAMECT) members,
with close regional ties, advised us throughout. Revisions followed
reviews by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the NAE, representing
45,000 local churches, and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission
of the Southern Baptist Convention, America's largest Protestant
denomination. The draft was re-edited to reflect the concerns of
the Catholic Bishops of the Holy Land and the Pledge hopefully will
bring greater moral, diplomatic and humanitarian help to the Middle
East's persecuted Christians. It has already refuted the charge that
Christians in the West are indifferent to their suffering.
Nina Shea is director of Hudson Institute's Center for Religious
Freedom and co-author of Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians
(Thomas Nelson Publishers, March 2013).
http://www.christianpost.com/news/action-being-taken-to-help-christians-in-the-middle-east-120040/
The Christian Post
May 20 2014
By Nina Shea, CP Op-Ed Contributor
May 20, 2014|9:31 am
On the morning of April 7, Dutch Jesuit priest Frans Van Der Lugt
was most likely in meditation, as was his custom, when gunmen burst
into his monastery in the old part of the Syrian town of Homs. They
grabbed the 75-year-old clergyman, beat him, dragged him outside and
shot him twice in the head. The assassins were probably jihadis who
then controlled Homs.
The priest was unarmed and for 50 years had come to be widely beloved
for his humanitarian work. Was he murdered, then, simply as an
"infidel", one of only a dozen or so Christians remaining there,
or because of his, and Syria's Christians', refusal to fight in
the conflict, or because of his long dedication to inter-religious
dialogue, anathema to extremists? What is certain, he did not die
a by-stander, caught in the cross fire of Syria's civil war. He was
singled out for his Christianity.
Syria's two million Christians follow some ten different faith
traditions and no group has been spared persecution. For three years,
they have seen their ancient churches deliberately destroyed in
Maaloula and many other places, and many clergy and laypeople targeted
for death, kidnapping, and intimidation. Two Orthodox bishops from
Aleppo have been hostages for a year. In Raqqa, another renowned Jesuit
and man of peace was abducted and reportedly executed last July. This
year, 20 of Raqqa's remaining Christian leaders were forced to sign
a so-called dhimmi contract, agreeing to pay "protection" money,
and submit to medieval Muslim blasphemy and social codes.
Recently, extremists stopped and searched a bus, and from its group
of largely Kurdish passengers separated out and beheaded two Armenian
Christians. These are just a few examples.
Those of us who follow religious freedom issues are deeply alarmed. We
have seen similar patterns of targeted violence by Islamic extremists
against Iraq's Christians over the last decade, with devastating
results, and, last August, the worst single attack in 700 years
hit Egypt's Coptic churches. UK's Coptic Orthodox Bishop Angaelos
stressed to Congress that the attacks by "radical elements" are not
merely aimed at individuals, but "the Christian and minority presence
in its entirety". Such persecution, coming on top of conflict and
political turmoil that Muslims and Christians, alike, are suffering,
has helped spur an exodus of many thousands of Christians from Syria,
Iraq and Egypt - today home to the vast majority of indigenous
Middle Eastern Christians. If this wave of persecution continues,
the indigenous Christian communities may soon be exiled from the
region of Christianity's birth.
The West has largely ignored this crisis. Though promoting religious
freedom is a key objective of US foreign policy and the tolerance of
religious minorities, as President Obama emphasizes, is a national
security concern, two successive administrations, Republican and
Democratic, have given short shrift to these Christians' unique
plight. Moreover, the Western Christian response has been noticeably
muted. Last December in Rome, at a conference sponsored by two private
American Christian universities, Iraq's Catholic Chaldean Patriarch
Louis Sako spoke searing words: "We feel forgotten and isolated. We
sometimes wonder, if they kill us all, what would be the reaction of
Christians in the West?"
Soon after, Prince Charles, visiting London's Eastern churches
with Jordan's Prince Ghazi bin Mohammed, a brave Muslim champion
of moderation, said: "We cannot ignore the fact that Christians
in the Middle East are, increasingly, being deliberately targeted
by fundamentalist Islamist militants. Christianity was, literally,
born in the Middle East and we must not forget our Middle Eastern
brothers and sisters in Christ."
In January, several of us agreed that an American Christian response
was needed. We set to work on an ecumenical pledge of solidarity that
could be taken up by the leaders of a majority of American churches. I
joined with a group of drafters that included Maronite Bishop Gregory
Mansour of Brooklyn, Dr. Elizabeth Prodromou, a conflict resolution
scholar and former Commissioner with whom I served on the independent
US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Joop
Koopman, who oversees communications for the Catholic pontifical agency
Aid to the Church in Need USA, and Father Nathanael Symeonides of the
Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the USA. Our effort was in
the tradition of other American ecumenical pledges, particularly one
in 1996 by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) that helped
lay the ground for institutionalizing religious freedom within the
State Department.
Christian Arab and Middle Eastern Churches Together (CAMECT) members,
with close regional ties, advised us throughout. Revisions followed
reviews by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the NAE, representing
45,000 local churches, and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission
of the Southern Baptist Convention, America's largest Protestant
denomination. The draft was re-edited to reflect the concerns of
the Catholic Bishops of the Holy Land and the Pledge hopefully will
bring greater moral, diplomatic and humanitarian help to the Middle
East's persecuted Christians. It has already refuted the charge that
Christians in the West are indifferent to their suffering.
Nina Shea is director of Hudson Institute's Center for Religious
Freedom and co-author of Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians
(Thomas Nelson Publishers, March 2013).
http://www.christianpost.com/news/action-being-taken-to-help-christians-in-the-middle-east-120040/