Ottawa Sun, Canada
Oct 26 2014
Targeting Christianity
By Michael Coren
In this excerpt from his new book Hatred: Islam’s War on Christianity,
Michael Coren examines the persecution suffered by Christians in Syria
and Iraq, and where terrorist attacks has resulted in countless deaths
and forced thousands to flee for their lives…
In March 2014, I interviewed Sister Hatune Dogan, a Turkish-born nun
who is a member of the Universal Syrian Orthodox Church under the Holy
See of Antioch. She and her family were forced to leave Turkey when
she was a young girl because of Islamic persecution, and they found
safety and refuge in Germany.
She studied theology and psychotherapy in her adopted country and is
now an accomplished, multilingual woman who has toured the world
extensively and seen humanity at its finest as well as worst. She has
travelled throughout the Islamic world, partly to expose the
persecution of Christians and to try to ease their plights. She has
spent particular time in recent years in Iraq and, most recently, in
Syria. As much as she has seen many examples of atrocity and suffering
over the years and is hardened and experienced, the fate of Syrian
Christians has shocked her.
“I met with a man who had gone out one morning to tend his fields. He
did so in all innocence, as part of his daily routine. He suddenly
looked up and saw a body, then another, then another. All of them with
their heads cut off. He looked to the next field and then to the next
and realized there were hun – dreds of murdered and decapitated people,
all of them Christians. He still shakes even now when he describes the
experience because of the trauma,” she told me.
***
What has occurred in Syria to Christians in particular in the past two
years has been appalling and is all the more hor – rifying because Syria
has been for many years one of the few places in the Arab world where
Christians enjoyed something approaching equality. Ruled by an Arab
nationalist rather than an Islamic ideology, and by the Ba’ath party
under Hafez al-Assad and then his British-educated son Bashar Hafez
al-Assad, Syria with its more than 2.5 million Christians, was a
relatively modern, secular if heavily controlled and policed state.
The Assads ruled despotically, were often oppressive and not at all
democratic or liberal in any genuine sense, but sharia law did not
dominate the body politic, and Assad, himself part of a Muslim
minority sect, gave individual Christians positions of authority and
responsibility, protected Christian communities, and tried to – at
least within an Arab, Islamic context – achieve a relative separation
of mosque and state. This is not in any way to paint Assad’s Syria as
some pluralistic paradise, but for Christians it was, relatively
speaking, a place of freedom in which to live, to work, and to
worship. The largest Christian communities are in Aleppo, Damascus,
and Homs but Christians live – or lived – throughout the country.
Syria claims not to have a state religion but the president has to be
a Muslim and the various Christian churches – Eastern Orthodox,
Eastern Rite Catholic, and various minority groups – are well aware of
the limits to their rights and freedoms.
***
In July 2013, the bodies of seven beheaded Christians were found in
Homs. In November, a Christian section of Damascus was shelled and two
people were killed. Also in November, nine Christian children were
killed by debris when Islamists targeted a Christian school for mortar
attack. In Sadad, six Christians, all members of a single family, were
killed by Islamists. In December 2013, twelve people were killed in a
church when Islamist militia attacked it because it was being used as
a food distribution centre. In August 2014, in Marmarita a Christian
was beheaded when he was discov – ered wearing a crucifix around his
neck; in September 2014, a Christian was executed for refusing to
convert to Islam, and the following month two Christians were
kidnapped and beheaded in Deir Hassan.
The terror is working. Christians have left and are leav – ing. The
situation may improve for them but will never be the same for those
whom they have left behind. The road to Damascus is now stained and
soaked in blood and pain, and some of the oldest churches in the world
have been destroyed or left as relics and lifeless museums of
historical interest. Diasporas of Syrian Christians have now been
created in North America and Europe but their homeland increasingly
becomes Christian-free. It is precisely what many in the Muslim world
have wanted for some time.
While in Iraq there are numerous differences compared to the Syrian
situation, some of the history is eerily similar. Christians had lived
in Iraq since the earliest period of the Christian story, and the
community in that country is one of the oldest and most established
Christian cultures and societies in history. The Chaldeans became
Christian in the first cen – tury, and Iraqi Christians are still mainly
ethnic Chaldeans who speak a form of Eastern Aramaic, but there are
also many Assyrians, Armenians, and Kurds. Denominations are
num – erous, some of them ancient and some modern; they include Chaldean
Catholic, Assyrian Church of the East, Syrian Orthodox, Syriac
Catholic, Armenian Apostolic, Armenian Catholic, Roman Catholic, and
various Protestant churches – so, an established, integral, and
respected part of Iraq and the Middle East. Numbers can be difficult
to establish because of fear on the part of Christians to
self-identify and also due to state reluctance to give detailed
information, or because some in authority want to deny the genuine
size and significance of minorities. It seems, though, that by the
early 1980s there were almost 1.5 million Christians in Iraq, perhaps
9 per cent of the population. Recent figures speak of less than half a
million, living mainly in Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, and Arbil, and some
believe that the figure is closer to a mere two hundred thousand.
Like Syria, Iraq had long been ruled by a secular form of Arab
nationalism and a local version of Ba’athism. Saddam Hussein was also
a despot but an even more controlling and sadistic leader than
President Assad or his father. Partly as a policy of divide and
conquer but also out of a genuine commit – ment to an Arab state that
rejected Islamic fundamentalism and oppression of Arab Christians,
Saddam tolerated and even protected his Christian minority when it was
advantageous to him and his regime. But Iraqi Christians always lived
a tenuous existence and knew they had to be watchful. Yet Saddam’s
deputy and effectively foreign minister for some time was Tariq Aziz,
a Christian at least in name, tribe, and tradition.
With the wars in Iraq, however, and the eventual fall of the brutal
dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, the various Islamic sects in the
country and their foreign Islamic allies began a vir – tual civil war,
and Christians, refusing to participate in the sectarianism and often
falsely perceived as being pro-Western or even pro-Saddam, were
specifically targeted by Islamic mil – itias. It is tragic and perhaps
indicative that a United States led by an evangelical Christian should
lead a war in Iraq that led to the persecution and slaughter of
Christians and the hemor – rhage of these ancient communities of
followers of Jesus Christ from the heartland and homeland of
Christianity. A war fought ostensibly to keep Christians safe in Ohio
and Alabama has made the lives of Christians living in Baghdad and
Mosul com – pletely unbearable.
***
In April 2014, the Chaldean patriarch of Babylon, Mar Louis Raphael i
Sako, head of the Assyrian Chaldean Catholic Church, delivered a long
address concerning the history of Christians and Christianity in the
Middle East and in particu – lar in Iraq. While he criticized Western
intervention and imperialism and called for a just peace in Israel and
Palestine, he also spoke of the reality of Christian life in modern
Iraq:
“About half of all Iraqi Christians, once numbering a mil – lion and a
half, have left the country for fear of violence and religious
persecution, especially after the massacre that took place in Baghdad
in 2010, in the Church of Our Lady of Salvation, and the attack in
Qaraqosh against Christian students on their way to the university.
Taking property away from Christians, who are deemed without rights
because they are not Muslim, threatening letters sent to Christians,
as well as members of other non-Muslim minorities, are making
Christians feel like second-class citizens. Therefore, the question
is, are the men and women who have a great and illustrious past behind
them destined to disappear from Mesopotamia and the land of their
ancestors?”
The answer is that unless and until something changes at the most
fundamental level of Islam and in the Muslim approach to religious
minorities in general and Christians in particular, yes, they will
disappear. Not only in Mesopotamia, but throughout the Middle East.
The battle for Christian continuity in Iraq is, if we are honest,
largely lost, and in Syria matters look bleak indeed. Even at its
best, Christian life in Syria is now dependent on the triumph and
survival of a dicta – tor who is no genuine friend of Christianity and
who has always been regarded by local Christians as a leader to be
toler – ated rather than embraced. Christians from both countries have
fled to various countries, often to Jordan, but there is no guarantee
that the Jordanian royal family with its relatively lib – eral religious
policies will remain in power. There is, simply, nowhere else left to
go in the Middle East. This is a struggle for survival and it is being
lost.
Excerpted from Hatred by Michael Coren. Copyright (c) 2014 Michael
Coren. Reprinted by permission of McClelland & Stewart, a Penguin
Random House Company. All rights reserved.
http://www.ottawasun.com/2014/10/23/targeting-christianity