CHRISTIANS PERSECUTED IN MIDDLE EAST

Across the Middle East, Christian Churches that helped shape the intellectual life of the region for centuries are facing persecution. As a result, their congregations are dwindling at a staggering rate in some countries.
Iraq is a case in point and mirrors the problems facing Christians in many Muslim nations. During the Saddam era, Christians numbering 800,000 made up 3% of the Iraqi population and represented a significant element of the professional classes. Today, their numbers may be closer to 300,000 because of persecution, which has included the burning of places of worship, abductions, kidnappings, rape and murder. In the past month, six churches were attacked, leading to fears that, as the U.S. completes its pull-out, Christians will be in even greater danger. Since the start of the U.S. invasion in 2003, Christians living in major centers like Mosul in the north, as well as the capital Baghdad and Basra in the south have witnessed some of the worst sectarian terror and insurgent violence. Many within the Christian community relate the persecution of Christians in Iraq to the rise of militant Islam, which they say was inflamed by U.S. policy in the region, especially by the Iraq invasion and by America’s unqualified support for Israel. The Tel Aviv- Washington axis in particular has proved a significant factor because it has led to Christians being branded pro-Israel.
During Saddam Hussein’s reign, Christians in Iraq felt more secure than their counterparts in Egypt, Iran, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon or Eritrea. Saddam’s foreign minister, Tariq Aziz was Christian, as were other insiders in the regime. The largest Christian denominations, the Chaldeans, embraced Iraqi national unity under the Baath Party but when the Party was outlawed by the U.S. authority in Iraq it had the effect of making Christians the targets for Shiite mobs. In the ensuring years since Saddam’s overthrow, the Chaldean community has fallen from 400,000 members to less than 200,000, though some estimates indicate an even steeper decline.
The striking thing about Christianity in Iraq is the prominent place it held for centuries in the Arab world. It can trace its roots to the apostle, Thomas and his cousin, Addai. In the centuries immediately after Christ, Christians brought much Greek and Roman learning to Arab culture and a wide range of Christian communities became assimilated into Arab life. From Arab academic centers, much of the learning Christians promoted found its way back to Europe.
Just over a century ago Christians made up 20% of the population of the Middle East but that figure has dwindled dramatically to 5% and is steadily decreasing. Recent data suggest that as many as 2 million Arab Christians have fled the area in the last ten years. The majority settled in Europe and the remainder joined communities in Australia. Even Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ, which once had a majority Christian population, has plummeted to less than 50%. It is also a fact that 20% of Palestinians were Christian at the end of the 19th century but that figure is now closer to 2%. Several factors can be attributed to the decline of Christians within the Palestinian community, including the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and more recently the rise of Hamas. An added factor has been Israel’s excessive security policies, which have made it difficult for Palestinian Churches and their members to move freely outside the Occupied Territories. The result has been a negative impact on the numbers of Christians in that region.
The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Baghdad, Jean Benjamin Sleiman, is on record predicting that we may be witnessing is the extinction of Christianity in Iraq and across the region as conservative and extreme forms of Islam limit religious freedoms. His point is supported by the continued persecution of Iraq’s ancient Mandaean Church, which is linked to a special reverence for John the Baptist. Before the U.S. invasion in 2003, the 70,000 member church, represented the smallest Christian denomination in the country and led a peaceful existence. Its followers spoke Aramaic, the language once spoken by Jesus, and many of them were professionals. Now only 5,000 remain, the rest having fled to Europe and the United States. In the past six years, they have suffered hundreds of attacks, resulting in 167 of them being killed. Hundreds were also kidnapped for ransom and tortured. On April 19, 2009, three Mandaean jewelers in Baghdad were murdered in their shops and three others seriously wounded.
The most sizeable Christian congregation in the Middle East is the Coptic Church in Egypt which has between 8 and 10 million members, many of whom feel they are facing increased persecution. It is reckoned there could be more than 10 million Copts but that is difficult to ascertain because the Church is not allowed to carry out a census. Copts are kept under close surveillance by a State, which fears Muslims might convert to Christianity. A Muslim who becomes Christian faces serious retribution from the state and from his or her family. Copts are discriminated against in the government jobs’ sector and their churches are regarded as state property. While every school in Egypt has a mosque there are no prayer centers for Christians within any of the country’s educational institutions.
The problems Christians face in the Middle East can also be found elsewhere in nations like Indonesia, Turkey, Nigeria, Pakistan, which have large Islamic populations. In Pakistan a Christian’s testimony in court carries less weight than that of a Muslim, making it easy for Islamic extremists to attack Christians without worrying about being found guilty in the courts. In recent months, Christian have been killed and seriously injured in parts of Pakistan and churches have been burned down after fiery statements by Muslim clerics denouncing Christianity. In Indonesia, Christians have been forced to hold services in their homes because the state has refused applications for the building of churches. In Myanmar, once known as Burma, public ceremonies and gatherings by Christians are illegal.
For Christians across the globe the 21st century has not brought much hope in respect of the right to worship. In Eritrea, thousands of Christians have been held without trial. In Sudan Christian girls have been whipped for wearing pants. In the Maldives, an island chain in the Indian Ocean, which is a popular tourist destination, the Islamic authorities have made it a crime to possess a bible. Christians in the Maldives meet in secret to pray, risking arrest, torture and lengthy prison terms. Even in India, Christians have been subject to attacks and their churches burned by Hindu mobs.
Outside of Islam, communist North Korea remains the most dangerous place for Christians. Estimates of the numbers of Christians who have disappeared with the closed regime since 1949 range from 200,000 to 300,000 with more than 1,500 churches razed to the ground. To this day, anyone caught with a bible faces years if not decades in a gulag. Nevertheless, it is believed close to half a million Christians continue to worship in secret.