Some Muslims would go so far as 'to kill Christians' at any opportunity.
Especially in Israel, where "The Wall" makes it increasingly difficult for Israeli Christians to get to their houses of worship.Los Angeles Times
As much of the world prepares to celebrate the birth of Christ, it is a melancholy fact that many of the most ancient churches established in his name are being pushed to the brink of oblivion across the region where their faith was born.
Ture. Saddam did an excellent job of protecting minorities. His second in command was a Christian.
The culprits are Salafist Islam's increasingly virulent intolerance, the West's convenient indifference and, in the case of Iraq, America's failure to make responsible provisions to protect minorities from the violent disorder that has persisted since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
When America intervened to overthrow Saddam Hussein, Iraq's Christians -- mostly Chaldeans and Assyrians -- numbered about 1.4 million, about 3 percent of the population.Much of the Iraqi population has fled to country.
Over the last seven years, more than half have fled the country and, as the New York Times reported this week, a wave of targeted killings -- including the Oct. 31 slaying of 51 worshipers and two priests during Mass at one of Baghdad's largest churches -- has sent many more Christians fleeing.
Despite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's promises to increase security, many believe the Christians are being targeted not only by Al-Qaida in Iraq, which has instructed its fighters "to kill Christians wherever they can reach them," but also by complicit elements within the government's security services.EXcept that "to kill Christians wherever they can reach them," is a direct violation of all the mandates of the Koran.
The United States, meanwhile, does nothing -- as it did nothing four years ago, when Father Boulos Iskander was kidnapped, beheaded and dismembered; or three years ago, when Father Ragheed Ganni was shot dead at the altar of this church; or two years ago, when Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was kidnapped and murdered; as it has done nothing about all the church bombings and assassinations of lay Christians that have become commonplace over the last seven years.The U.S. has a virtually perfect track record of doing nothing when Christians are killed in foreign lands where we have installed right-wing dictators.
The human tragedy is compounded by the historic one. The churches of the Middle East preserve the traditions of the Apostolic era in ways no other Christian rites or denominations do.Yes. They do. And they get no help in this endeavour when Americans invade and occupy the soil of sovereign nations.
Today, the Christian population is declining in every majority Muslim country in the region.And Europe too!
The West has long turned a blind eye to the intolerance of the Middle East's Muslim states -- an intolerance that has intensified with the spread of Salafism, Islam's brand of militant fundamentalism.Just how rapidly has Salafism grown?
Our ally Saudi Arabia is the great financial and ideological backer of this hatred. When it comes to religion, the kingdom and North Korea are the most criminally intolerant countries in the world.If you know that going in, you ought to stay out!
Oil and geopolitics prevent the United States and Western European countries from speaking out against what amounts to genocide, though something more sinister than self-interest also is at work.More sinister? Or more cowardly?
The soft bigotry of minimal expectation is in play, an unspoken presumption that Muslim societies simply can't be held to the same standards of humane, rational and decent conduct that govern the affairs of other nations.
Tim Rutten has been a journalist at the Los Angeles Times fore more than 30 years.
Tim Rutten, you ought to lose your license to write editorials. Forevah, and Evah. Insha' Allah. Amen.
