Eastern Christians Betrayed by the West

I'm migrating material from an old blog to this one. Bear with me. This is the first article, dated 22nd July 2012. 

Several days ago in an act of public provocation a member of the Israeli parliament (Knesset), Michael Ben Ari, denounced the Christian scriptures, tore up a copy of the New Testament and threw it in the garbage. Since then he has been denounced by several leading Jewish groups in the USA including the influential Anti-Defamation League. The American Jewish Committee issued a statement saying that Ben Ari’s actions were “unacceptable” while the only Christian member of the Knesset, Hanna Sweid, described it as an act of “hooliganism.” What, though, was the response of Christian leaders in the West? Nothing. Not a peep. Not only did Ben Ari’s actions not rate a mention in the Western media, but Christian leaders in the West remained silent. An extensive search across the internet did not reveal a single word of outrage or condemnation from Christian leaders including nothing from the usually vocal and quick-to-offend Religious Right in the USA. This is in contrast to Muslim responses to wanton attacks upon the Koran. When Christians burn or deface the Koran Muslims worldwide riot. In contrast, when the Christian scriptures are attacked, nothing.

Meanwhile, in Syria, the so-called “Syrian rebels” – who in any other context would be called Islamist terrorists – have issued warnings to Syrian Christians to get out of the country as soon as possible because Syria is soon to be “liberated” and turned over to Salafi-style Sunni Islam and Christians won’t be welcome in the new Syria. In some places in Syria Christians are being attacked by the “rebels” and whole areas are being “cleansed” of Christian communities and their Churches. These attacks are reported in the Russian media, and elsewhere, but in the West… nothing. What do we hear from Christian leaders in the West? Nothing. Silence. What do we hear from the American Religious Right? Nothing.

And meanwhile, in Egypt ancient Christian communities are being attacked and run out of the country by the newly empowered “Muslim Brotherhood”. The response of Christians in the West? Nothing. And in Iraq, hundreds of thousands of Christians have been run out of the country since it was “liberated” from Saddam Hussein by the US, UK and the “Coalition of the Willing”. An outcry among Western Christians? No. Nothing. Churches destroyed. Christians killed. Whole communities forced to leave. What is the response of Western Christians in defense of their eastern brothers? Not a whimper. Right across the Middle East the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ has been a nightmare for Christians. Secular regimes are falling one after another and are being replaced by Islamist regimes. In many cases, these are Christian communities from the very earliest periods of Christian history. The Copts in Egypt, the Iraqi church, the orthodox communities in Syria have all lived in those lands for nearly 2000 years. Now they are being pushed out by modern political Islamic ideologies bent on religious and ethnic cleansing. In most cases, this turn of events has been supported and orchestrated by the ‘Western powers’. Remarkably, the Western media – and the Christian religious establishment in the West – continue to ignore these events; the de-Christianizing of the Middle East passes without comment or condemnation.

Why is this? It raises an interesting historical parallel. In the Middle Ages – the year 1071 to be exact – Byzantine emperor Alexis I sent an urgent letter to the Pope in Rome calling upon his Christian brothers to help prevent the Byzantine Empire from being overrun by the Seljuk Muslims. The Muslims were threatening to cleanse ancient lands of their Christian populations and to close Christian pilgrim routes in the Holy Land. In response, the Pope called for a “Crusade” – a holy penitential war – and thousands of Europeans set off to march eastwards. Rather than helping their eastern brothers, however, the Western Christians (Crusaders) took the opportunity to pillage and loot Byzantium and installed themselves in “Crusaders states” in the Middle East. The West used these Crusader States as trading out-posts doing business with the Muslims at the expense of the eastern Christians. The eastern Christians were betrayed in the West’s larger geo-political designs.

This is more or less what is happening today. The state of Israel is now the “Western out-post” in the Middle East (parallel to the old Crusader states) and Western geo-political and economic (i.e. oil) interests far out-weigh religious affiliations. The West has shown again and again that their “Christian brothers” in the east are expendable. Even among the Religious Right in the USA the safety and priorities of the state of Israel are far more important than the welfare of eastern Christians. Saddam Hussein had to go – he was a threat to Israel. Never mind that the new regime in Iraq does nothing to protect its Christian minorities. Syria is the same story. The Assad government has protected the ancient Christian communities in Syria. That counts for nothing. More important is the fact that Assad is anti-Israeli. In Reuters news this morning the Assad government was described as “the most oppressive regime in the Middle East.” Really? Then try being a Christian in Saudi Arabia! Right across the Middle East in this ‘Arab Spring’ the West is supporting “regime-change” that will install murderous anti-Christian Islamists to power. This is not a new turn in Western realpolitik. The West has shown that it is prepared to jettison its Christian façade when power and influence are at stake. It seems that not much has changed since the Crusades. No one really cares about the Christians in the east - least of all Christians in the West.

- Harper McAlpine Black