Vatican Synod of Bishops for the Middle East: Real threat of the disappearance of Christians from the Middle East
There is currently an unprecedented Vatican Synod of Bishops – a “Special Assembly for the Middle East” – being held from October 10 to 24.
“The urgent reasons for this meeting are that Christians are fleeing from the Middle East, and extremist Islamism is invading the area. We need to find a dialogue with Muslims, and unity among Christians,” Monsignor Shlemon Warduni, the auxiliary bishop of the Patriarchate of Babylon, Iraq, of the Chaldean Catholic Church, told The Jerusalem Post.
The news coming out of the Synod currently makes for bleak reading in terms of the plight of Christians in the Middle East. John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter reports:
The disappearance of Christians from the Middle East also poses the real and present danger, speakers said, of exacerbating a “clash of civilizations” between Christian and Islam.
[.....]
Greek-Melkite Patriarch Gregorios III Laham of Syria offered perhaps the most forceful diagnosis, warning that the steady migration of Christians out of the region poses a whole series of worrying consequences.
“It will make Arab society a mono-color society, exclusively Muslim, facing a society in Europe that’s said to be Christian,” Laham said. “If that happens, and the East is emptied of its Christians, it could mean a new clash of cultures, civilizations and religions, a destructive conflict between an Arab Muslim East and the Christian West.”
[.....]
“There are also fundamentalist parties, Islamic integralism, to which are attributed acts of terrorism, killings, burnings of churches, extortion, all in the name of religion, which rely on the strength of being a majority to humiliate their neighbors.”
All of that, Laham said, makes peace-making the great challenge of the region – what he called its Great Jihad.”
Quite coincidentally I happened upon this piece today via the Methodist Preacher, which charts the ‘Christian exodus’ from the Middle East. What is notable is that this article cites Arafat in the present tense, which makes the report at least six years old.
The exodus and persecution continues……
Tags: Christian Persecution, Church Life
October 13th, 2010 at 11:21 pm
“It will make Arab society a mono-color society, exclusively Muslim, facing a society in Europe that’s said to be Christian,” Laham said. “If that happens, and the East is emptied of its Christians, it could mean a new clash of cultures, civilizations and religions, a destructive conflict between an Arab Muslim East and the Christian West.”
The gathering storm I have been warning of for years, the retorts to those warnings the gag of “racist” and “islamophobic”.
October 14th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
“If one member suffers,all suffer together . . . .”
We need to remember that Christians are only one group among those suffering. Strangely there are no comments from those who are so outspoken on gay rights and womens rights as well as freedom of religion. Is it because the R.C. Church has flagged up the problem?
October 15th, 2010 at 1:26 am
@TerryB,
“Strangely there are no comments from those who are so outspoken on gay rights and womens rights as well as freedom of religion. Is it because the R.C. Church has flagged up the problem?”
No it is because the christian left, marxists and neoliberals are in a unspoken alliance with islam the aim to destroy Western Civilization and bring about a socialists utopia, islam is the vanguard thats why they allow sharia law to trump gay rights, womens rights and freedom of religion (islam is a geopolitical project).
October 15th, 2010 at 1:50 am
Not even close, guys – but don’t stop, you’re on a roll.
Sure, this is bad – I don’t recall ever claiming that Muslim extremism was a good thing.
Although I’m not sure what Gregorios III is thinking by talking about a new clash of cultures – what does he think’s been happening for almost the last decade? It’s not the Christians in that area teamed up with the extremist Muslims for 9/11.
October 15th, 2010 at 7:19 am
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October 19th, 2010 at 10:59 am
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