Why Can't A Christian Be More Like A Muslim?

An Answer to "Why Can't A Christian Be More Like A Muslim?"

The American Daily Arizona
By Raman Mikhael July/22/2006
Guest Opinion/Commentary*

In her article "Why Can’t A Christian Be More Like A Muslim?", Sara Ghorab boasts of the virtues of Muslims over Christians. She states "On the other hand, many religious minorities in the Middle East are more concerned with identifying themselves as “Chaldean” or “Coptic,” than “Catholic” or “Orthodox.” Or “Christian,” for that matter."

She needs to look at the reasons why this is often the case. Frankly, having survived in the Muslim world as a non-Muslim (Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian, Coptic, or Armenian Christian, Yazidi, Jewish, etc.) means having survived, over the centuries, forced conversion to Islam, massacres, political persecution, oppression and social discrimination.

The Muslim majority of one type or another (Arab, Turk, Kurd, etc.) effectively divided and conquered their non-Muslim neighbors, hence the dwindling indigenous Middle Eastern Christian population, going from majority to minority in their own homeland. Kurdish Chieftains, for example, would swear on the Koran not to harm one tribe of Assyrians if it did not interfere in the slaughter of another tribe (Assyrians learned that a Kurd swearing on the Koran was meaningless).

Assyrians and Chaldeans, despite being the same people, ethnically, culturally, linguistically, and religiously, were effectively divided by their Arabic and Kurdish neighbors.

The result of such divide and conquer tactics over the centuries was that one type of Middle Eastern Christian group would distance itself from another, in the hopes that by doing so would increase its chances of survival. Little did they know that it would be nothing more than short-term survival.

The Muslim world is not exactly comparable to the West where citizens are free to proudly announce their religion. In the Muslim world, Christians keep their religion to themselves fearing it would provoke yet another attack, as we see in Iraq today, where the overwhelming majority of those fleeing Iraq are Christians. So if Ms. Ghorab wonders why Chaldeans, Assyrians, Copts, etc. are "more concerned" with keeping to themselves, perhaps she should examine their history with their Muslim neighbors.

Perhaps she can fool Western Christians with her piece of not-so-subtle pro-Muslim/anti-Christian propaganda, but she cannot fool Middle Eastern Christians, who know exactly how the Middle East steadily went from majority Christian to majority Muslim over the several centuries since the first invasion of Arab Muslims into Mesopotamia and beyond.

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