In Touch Quarter 1 - 2012

RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION
IN THE MIDDLE EAST
The House of Lords recently saw a debate on persecution of Christians in
the Middle East. Here are some highlights of what was said.
Dr. Rowan Williams: My Lords,
many people these days have a short
and skewed historical memory. It
is all too easy to go along with the
assumption that Christianity is an
import to the Middle East rather
than an export from it. Because the
truth is that for two millennia the
Christian presence in the Middle
East has been an integral part of
successive civilisations. We are not
talking about a foreign body, but
about people who would see their
history and their destiny alike bound up with the countries
where they live, and bound up in local conversations with
a dominant Muslim culture, which they are likely to see
in terms very different from those that might be used by
western observers.
Yet at the present moment, the position of Christians in
the region is more vulnerable than it has been for centuries.
Issues in Egypt are inevitably among the most immediate in
the minds of many of us just now. Whether in Egypt, Israel
and Palestine or Syria, what were once relatively secure
communities are now increasingly seen as vulnerable.
The phenomenon of the Arab spring has brought some
new considerations into play. Even as we speak, the future
of the Arab spring is still deeply unclear.
The continued presence of Christians in the region is
essential to the political and social health of the countries of
the Middle East. Their
presence challenges
the assumption that
the Arab world and
the Muslim world
are just one and the
same thing, which
is arguably good for
Arabs and Muslims
alike.
A Palestinian
Christian friend of
mine was to say when
asked by westerners,
“When did your family
become Christians?”
“About 2,000 years
ago”. We need some
crystal clear guidance
and education on these things if we are to avoid what is both
a ludicrous and an insulting outcome. In conclusion, let me
say how very grateful I am for the opportunity to raise these
issues today in your Lordships’ House at a time when they
could hardly be more pressing.
My contention has been that the security and well-being
of the historic Christian communities in the region are
something of a litmus test in relation to these wider issues of
the political health of the region. I expect some distinguished
contributions to the debate. Perhaps I may take this
opportunity in particular of acknowledging with gratitude
the presence of the noble Lord, Lord Sacks, in the Chamber
and look forward to his contribution to our deliberations. I
am particularly aware that the observance of Shabbat will
oblige him to leave the Chamber early so I am all the more
appreciative of his support. I beg to move.
Lord Patten: It seems clear that all
non-Islamic faith groups in the Middle
East are in it together. It means facing
up openly to the fact that some Islamic
groups, however many good and
moderate adherents there may be,
are self-professed militants against
Christians and Jews alike.
We evidence this in their own words
and actions. One sad manifestation of
this in the Western world today is not
just to brush this issue under the carpet but to feel that it is
not possible or polite even to talk about it in decent society.
Yet the fate of Christians in the Middle East is indivisible
from the fate of Jews there.
There can be no walking on the other side of the faith road
in the Middle East in the face of a self-declared agenda by
some of religious cleansing in some parts of the region. We
must not do that any more than we can, even in the Palace of
Westminster, ignore the manifestly Newspeak anti-Zionism,
which concentrates as a surrogate on the Jew as a nation—I
borrow from the noble Lord, Lord Sacks, on this—rather
than on the Jew as a person, as it was in the old-style and
now wholly non-PC anti-Semitism. At least in the Middle
East, people are honest about it; we should be honest about
it here.
However threatening this may be perceived to be in this
country it is nothing like the threats facing the last Jews in
Baghdad, nor the last few Jews in Iran. But then, it cannot be
very nice for the last remaining 13,000 of my co-religionists
left in Iran either. The pace of religious cleansing is gathering.
4 // IN TOUCH