Foreign Affairs: by Reza Aslan: As I write, the city of Maaloula in Syria has become a ghost town after being briefly occupied by members of the al Qaeda–linked jihadist group al-Nusra Front. Conflicting reports claim that al-Nusra fighters have desecrated churches and statues in what may be one of the oldest Christian cities in the world, a place where residents still speak Aramaic, the language presumably spoken by Jesus.
Sadly, the experience of Maaloula’s residents is becoming all too common in the Middle East, where examples of brutality against Christians have been mounting in recent weeks. In Egypt, the coup against President Mohamed Morsi was followed by a wave of Islamist pogroms against Christians in which 42 churches were attacked, 37 were burned or looted, and an untold number of Christians were assaulted or killed.
As tempting as it may be to attribute these events to the atmosphere of post-insurrectionary anarchy in Egypt and Syria, that is not the best vantage point from which to view the problem. Take a step back, and it becomes clear that the recent assaults are part of a bigger offensive against Middle Eastern Christians, one that can be traced back to decades-long developments in regional politics and Islamic society. The Arab Spring may be the proximate cause of some of the worst violence, but its roots run much deeper — and the stakes are much higher than one might think. What we are witnessing is nothing less than a regional religious cleansing that will soon prove to be a historic disaster for Christians and Muslims alike.
At the start of World War I, the Christian population of the Middle East may have been as high as 20 percent. Today, it is roughly four percent. Although it is difficult to be exact, there are perhaps 13 million Christians left in the region, and that number has likely fallen further, given the continued destabilization of Syria and Egypt, two nations with historically large Christian populations. At the present rate of decline, there may very well be no significant Christian presence in the Middle East in another generation or two.
This would be a profoundly important loss. Christianity was born in the Middle East and had a deep, penetrating presence in the region for hundreds of years before the rise of Islam. In the fourth and fifth centuries, when tens of thousands of heterodox Christians were forced to flee a Roman Empire that considered them heretics, the lands of the Middle East and North Africa became a haven for them. In the years thereafter, the region became the epicenter of Christian theology. In the Arabian peninsula, a large, thriving Christian population played a pivotal role in influencing the early theological and political development of Islam. During the Inquisition (the twelfth to fourteenth centuries), Christian sectarians found refuge under Islamic rule, which classed all Christians, regardless of their doctrinal differences, as “people of the Book” and accorded them protected, albeit inferior, societal status.
Categories: Anti Islam act by Muslims, Arab World, Asia, Behaviour, Church, Civil Rights, Civil Unrest, Hypocrisy
On the contrary in Jordan the Christians are treated very well. New Churches are being constructed without any problems. Christians have reserved seats in parliament – higher in number than the actual percentage of Christians in the country. Still, as they find it easier to emigrate than others quite a number do, for better economic prospects rather than for actual discrimination.
What do you expect? QuranL 2:120, 3:56, 3:85, 3:118, 3:178, 5:14
5:51: “O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians as friends, they are but friends to one another. And if any amongst you takes them as friends, then surely he is one of them. Verily, Allâh guides not those people who are the wrongdoers.”
5:73: “Surely, disbelievers are those who said: “Allâh is the third of the three (in a Trinity).” But there is no god but Allâh. And if they cease not from what they say, verily, a painful torment will befall the disbelievers among them.”
8:39: “And fight them until there is no more disbelief in Islam and the religion will all be for Allâh Alone…”
Quran: 9:23, 9:29, 9:34, 9:123, 9:29
What do you expect when the Quran is very clear that it was written to attack this Christianity and its doctrines.
You misunderstand some of the verses above, many of them are about defensive warfare initiated by non-Muslims.
The main teaching about peace time is:
Quran describes the Christians as the best friends for the Muslims:
The Holy Quran wants the Muslims to socialize and dine with the Christians and the Jews and even allows them to marry Christian and Jewish women of good and chaste character:
Read some of the more relevant verses in regards to what the Quran thinks about the people of the book and the Christians in particular:
And:
The above verse is repeated twice in the Holy Quran with slight variation.
The Holy Quran wants the Muslims to be just and fair with their enemies and even collaborate with them in good causes:
For a better understanding read all the verses pertaining to people of the book in unison.
The Holy Quran and the Jews:
Often some of the verses of the Holy Quran about the Jews become a public debate.
The fact of the matter is that the Holy Quran wants to make a case of Islam and of prophethood of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, may peace be on him, as continuation of the Jewish prophets and Jesus, may peace be on him, who is also regarded by the Quran, as a Jewish prophet.
Incidentally, one of the chapters of the Holy Quran out of the 114 is named after Israelites.
The first time the Holy Quran addresses the Jews is in the beginning of the second chapter of the Holy Quran. It addresses them in the following indulging words:
Do these appear anti-semitic to you? I would say quite to the contrary.
The ‘negative references,’ about the Jews in the Holy Quran, are only pertaining to the negative actions of certain Jews of the time of the Prophet Muhammad, may peace be on him.
The Holy Quran does not stereotype them in any negative sense.
Let me collect a few positive references about Jews and everyone in general: