Amid Islamic Fundamentalism Mideast Christians Flee
JOHN THAVIS, CNS
Published: September 23, 2004
CAMALDOLI, Italy (CNS)—On Aug. 1, bombs ripped through five Catholic churches in Baghdad and northern Iraq. In the six weeks that followed, some 10,000 Iraqi Catholics fled the country, said Jesuit Father Samir Khalil Samir.
The events in Iraq offer a compressed illustration of a trend throughout the Arab world, where Christian populations have dwindled in the face of conflict and growing Islamic fundamentalism, Father Samir said.
Father Samir, an Egyptian-born expert on Islam who runs the Center for Arab-Christian Documentation and Research in Beirut, Lebanon, spoke Sept. 11 at an interreligious conference at the monastery in Camaldoli.
Father Samir said the latest exodus of Iraqi Catholics was not simply a response to the church attacks but also a reflection that work was disappearing for Christians in the country.
Almost all those who left in August were Chaldean Catholics, and many are seeking to emigrate to the United States or Australia, where they have relatives, the priest said.
Overall, he said, Iraqi Christians were safer under the regime of former President Saddam Hussein than they are today—not because they approved the regime, but because the dictatorship provided security.
Father Samir said the steady rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East has roots in the early 20th century. Although the vast majority of the region’s Muslims reject terrorism, fundamentalism today has spread into every area of social life—including mealtimes, TV programming and the calling out of public prayers.
“Christians are suffocating in this atmosphere. They don’t have the same chance to survive. The essential cause is fundamentalism,” he said.
Father Samir was not optimistic about the future.
“This situation means that, within a matter of decades or centuries, Christianity will disappear—as it disappeared from Turkey, from Persia and from North Africa,” he said. “Unless there is a miracle—and miracles are not God’s usual way in politics—it will happen.”
“But in the meantime, we Christians have a mission, an essential role to play,” he said. Part of that mission is to help bring peace to the Holy Land and preserve it as a place for all religions, he said.
Father Samir surveyed the Christian populations that remain in the Middle East:
– Lebanon has the most concentrated percentage of Christians. While official figures are hard to come by, Father Samir estimated the Christian population at 40 percent today, and that number is decreasing. The important thing is that constitutionally, Christians remain equal to Muslims—a big reason why Lebanon is the only country in the region that allows a normal life for Christians, he said.
– In Egypt, estimates of the Christian population range from 4 million to 15 million. Father Samir estimated 7 million—nearly 10 percent of the population. But the rise of Islamic fundamentalism has made life difficult for Egyptian Christians, he said.
– In the Palestinian territories and Israel, the Christian population has dwindled to about 150,000, or 1.5 percent of the population.
– In Syria, where Christians have played a somewhat significant political role under the secular government, the Christian population has dropped from about 8 percent of the population 30 years ago to about 4 percent or 5 percent today, he said.
– The Arabian peninsula, where Christianity is illegal in many countries, is home to 1.3 million Christians, most of them foreign laborers from places like the Philippines.
Father Samir said there was a tendency among Arab Christians to no longer identify themselves as Arabs.
“I think this is a mistake. We Christians are part of the Arab world,” he said.
The conference in Camaldoli was sponsored by Il Regno, an Italian Catholic magazine published by the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
|
|
|
