STORY SUMMARY
December 28, 2013 12:16 AM
By Michael Gerson
The Daily Star
In some parts of the world, Herod’s massacre of the innocents is a living tradition.
Majority rule will bring the harsh imposition of the majority faith.
Democracy promotion – as embraced by the National Democratic Institute or the International Republican Institute or Freedom House – is about human liberty protected by democratic institutions. Securing institutional respect for minority rights is particularly difficult in transitioning societies, as we’ve recently seen.
So it matters greatly whether America and other democracies can help pluralism survive and shape the emerging political order.
As William Inboden of the University of Texas notes, there is a robust correlation between religious persecution and national security threats.
It took many centuries for Christendom to achieve this thick form of pluralism.
Others point to past centuries when Muslim majorities and rulers coexisted with large Arab-Christian populations – a thin form of pluralism in which Christians were second-class citizens but not subject to violent intolerance.
A recovery of that emphasis might begin with a simple commitment: not to resign ourselves to a Middle East without Christians.
Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Commentary/2013/Dec-28/242495-america-mustnt-allow-a-mideast-without-christians.ashx#ixzz2okxDAKHl
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
Categories: Arab World, Asia, Iraq, Syria
The article is interesting and mostly correct. I have only an objection to “America must not allow …”. It is not America’s duty to police the world. Rather it should say ‘Western Christians should not allow a Mid-East without Eastern Christians…”