Who Will Help Middle Eastern Christians

By Hamida Ghafour
www.thenational.ae

Nov. 24-2008

Dubai -- It will come as a small piece of good news to Christians that the Government is to preserve and turn into tourist attractions an ancient church and monastery on Sir Bani Yas island. The archeological finds there, which probably date back to the seventh century AD, are considered part of the Gulf's history, although Christianity gave way to Islam here after the ninth century.

There is not much other good news for Arab Christians• these days.

"Oriental Christians", as they were once known, are divided into a complicated array of sects and denominations, but generally fall under the umbrella of the Eastern church. Many are feeling besieged.

In Egypt, which is home to approximately 10 million Christians, there has been a spate of attacks on Coptic shops and churches by extremists. In Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, those who can afford to obtain a western passport are doing so as an insurance policy in case life becomes unbearable.

But the worst situation is in Iraq. Last month thousands fled Mosul, in the north, where a sizeable Chaldean and Assyrian population has lived since the second century, because their homes and churches were being targeted by Sunni extremists in a wave of car bombings and killings. Some have returned, but the chur- ches remain under heavy police protection. Since 2003, eight Iraqi priests have been murdered, including the Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul, who was kidnapped this year.

Iraq's government has just allocated six out of 440 provincial council seats for Christians, but many are saying it is not enough.

It is sad because Arab Christians are part of the rich and complex culture of the region. The church and monastery on Sir Bani Yas island belonged to the Nestorian era. The Nestorians contributed to the development of Islamic medicine and flourished in Baghdad under the Abbasid rulers from the eight century.

Today, Iraq's Christian population is thought to be less than 800,000. Many have gone to Jordan, where I met a refugee family recently. In Jordan, as in the UAE, Christians probably feel more safe than anywhere else in the Middle East, thanks to strong public support from the royal family and laws that allow them to worship and build churches freely. Still, Nadia Samaan, 49, a chemical engineer, told me she was desperate to move to Canada with her husband, an accountant, and their four children.

The family were Chaldean Catholics who recognise the Pope's authority but celebrate the Eastern rites in the ancient Syriac language. The Chaldeans of Iraq are the descendants of those who did not convert to Islam in the seventh century.

Last year two of Samaan's brothers-in-law were killed in Diyala province, which had fallen under the control of al Qa'eda In Iraq. The brothers, both teachers, were driving to Baghdad from Diyala when their car was stopped by insurgents who asked for identification. Their bodies were found the next day.

The family were living on their savings and could not find much work in Amman. Nadia said the Canadian authorities were taking a long time to run security checks on her husband because he served in Saddam Hussein's army during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, which made him a suspected Baathist. Her husband's arm was still bent in an awkward position from a war injury. "At that time everyone had to fight Iran, no one had a choice. If you didn't, you were punished," she said. "Today the insurgents say to us, 'This is not your country'. But it is our country. We've lost many people too."

She reflected on the cruel twist that the Christians suffered like anyone else under Saddam's regime, but now they were considered part of the American occupation.

•C of I webmaster's comments:

The term Arab Christians for the Christians of the Middle East is misnomer and misleading. Christianity spread in Mesopotamia, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt and lands in between during the first and 2nd century AD, long before the 7th century AD Arab invasion of the region. Before and after this event these Christians identified themselves as descendants of the ancient civilizations of their homeland. For example Christians of Iraq consider themselves related to the ancient Assyrians and not Arabs. See Assyrians from the fall of Nineveh to Present, Assyrians including members of the Chaldean and Syrian orthodox churches still speak the Syriac language which they have spoken since before Christianity. It is true that a great number of Christians speak Arabic as their primary language, out of necessity or to escape persecution, but that does not mean they are Arabs, just as the native Americans speak the english language but are not Anglo-Saxons.

Inhabitants of Egypt before the Arab conquest

were mostly descendants

11th century Syriac manuscript from Egypt

of the ancient Egyptians, Even today they are known as copts since they were known as Egoptic by the Greeks. In fact way after the seventh century AD Arab invasion their liturgy was partly in Coptic and syriac languages and not in Arabic.

It is true that some Arab tribes who migrated to Syria, Jordan and Mesopotamia during the early centuries of Christianity become Christians but with few exceptions after the conquest of the region by the Muslim Arabs they either voluntarily or were forced by their Arab compatriots to embrace Islam, this is a well documented reality. In fact the oppressive taxation burden imposed on non Muslims by their arab rulers, and their subsequent persecutions forced most non Arabs to convert to Islam and identify themselves as Arabs especially since they were entitled to receive yearly stipend for doing so, and not pay the oppresive taxes. Because since its inception Islam was primarily an Arab religion the non Muslims who converted to Islam were reidentified as Arabs. This has been an ongoing process but conversion from Islam to any other religion has been treated as a capital crime, therefore it is unreasonable to believe that the so called Christian Arabs are Arabs who converted to Christianity rather than accepting the fact that they are predominantly non Arab Christians who have Adopted Arabic as their daily speech.. In fact one can conclude that most Muslem Arabs outside the Saudi Arabia can trace their ancestry to non Arab origin.

Since the fall of Saddam in Iraq because of the persecutions of non Muslims in that country Assyrians including members of the Chaldean and Syrian Orthodox Churches have been often identified as Christians which opens the door for them to be misrepresented as Christian Kurds and Arabs. Depriving them of their correct historic ancestry and misrepresenting their ethnic identity which does further injustice to them, on top of the atrocities they have been subjected to.