Missed POSTS:-

THREAT TO CHRISTIANS
A STARK REALITY


The State Department’s sudden concern about Christians in Egypt, Iraq and Nigeria is a little late in coming given how the persecution of Christian communities has been gaining momentum since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In the Middle East alone, as many as 500,000 Christians have fled Iraq in the last seven years and there is an ongoing attempt to force Christians to leave neighboring countries such as Syria and Egypt. Under Saddam Hussein’s regime, the Christian population numbered 800,000, representing 3% of the population. Then, it was a secular society and Christians did not feel under threat. The U.S. invasion and subsequent overthrow of Saddam changed all of that and plunged the country into a sectarian cauldron. Ever since, Christians and their churches have been under threat from Muslim extremists, especially, but not exclusively, Al Qaeda. The Catholic archbishop of Baghdad is on record claiming we are witnessing the decline and death of Christianity in the Middle East. His warning is credible considering the fact one hundred years ago Christians represented 20% of the Middle East population whereas the figure today is closer to 5% and dramatically falling.
Most experts looking at the recent explosion of anti-Christian feelings and the persecution of Christians believe they are a direct result of U.S. policies in the region, including Washington’s unquestioning support for Israel and its inhumane treatment of Palestinians. Some say the problem is wider in that Muslims associate Arab Christians with a West, which has supported dictatorships throughout the Middle East, including Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
The State Department only made its feelings public after the New Year’s Day attack on a Coptic Christian Church in Alexandria, Egypt, in which twenty-one worshippers died. That happened months after the slaughter of Christians in a Baghdad cathedral, leaving many to wonder why Washington had not spoken out earlier about the threats facing Christians across the Middle East and also in countries like Pakistan.
Another irony of the State Department’s posturing is that it should have intervened before now to let Egypt’s leader, Hosni Mubarak, know he cannot continue to receive massive American finding if he persists in treating his country’s Christians as second class citizens. By doing so he is in effect depicting them to Muslims as lesser beings. Egypt has 8 to 10 million Coptic Christians but they are denied the rights of Muslims in education, the judiciary and property ownership yet the Copts existed in Egypt prior to the emergence of Islam. According to the Middle East Quarterly, in an attempt to avoid discrimination, 50,000 Coptic university graduates became Muslims in a two-year period.
The focus, however, should not be restricted to the Middle East because the ant-Christian violence from that region has spread into Islamic communities worldwide and the State Department has made no attempt to acknowledge it. Two of the most dangerous countries for Christians today are Pakistan and Nigeria. In the case of Pakistan, it survives on billions of dollars of U.S. aid and Western oil companies have a big stake in Nigeria.
Pakistan has experienced a rising tide of attacks on Christians since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and hundreds of CIA drone attacks against Taliban elements within Pakistan’s tribal belt. Pakistan also has a blasphemy law, which is directed at Christians and other religious groupings. It is a piece of legislation, which should have no place in a society that claims to be democratic and is our ally. The more the Obama expands his military campaign into parts of Pakistan the more violence likely Christians there will suffer.
From the Horn of Africa to Nigeria, the persecution of Christians has gained momentum with the spread of militant Islam. The greatest danger is the religious war between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria spreading across the continent. On March 7, 2010, more than 500 Christian men, women, children and babies were hacked or burned to death in villages south of Jos in the middle of the country. The bigger picture is that more than 60,000 people on both sides of the religious divide may have been killed in the past decade. It is believed the largest numbers of dead were Christians and, to the dismay of most observers on the ground, the authorities have failed to bring the perpetrators to justice. In fact, Nigeria’s military is a brutal, ill-disciplined force detested by Christians and Muslims alike. Many extreme Islamic groups, including Al Qaeda, regard Nigeria as the ideal breeding ground for their plans to spread an anti-Christian message across Africa. That spells a real danger the West must address sooner rather than later.
Christians face an uneasy and troubled existence in most Islamic nations across the globe yet the Middle East nation that embraces Christians, and to which many Iraqi and Egyptian Christians have fled, is Lebanon. Its constitution mandates its president, who is also the commander of the armed forces, must be a Maronite Christian. Not surprisingly, Washington’s support for Israel has made life difficult for Lebanese Christians, who suffered as much as Muslims when the Israelis carpet bombed town and cities in 2006 and contaminated large swathes of the countryside farmed by Christians with cluster bomb droplets supplied by Washington.