Genocide against Christians

Middle East Genocide of Christians?
By Doreen Abi Raad
National Catholic Register, January 26, 2011
"Religious cleansing, genocide and outright extermination are terms now used to describe the plight of Christians in the Middle East, particularly following recent horrific attacks on Christians in Iraq and Egypt. While attacks on Christians in the Middle East are nothing new, the situation has escalated. There was the Oct. 31 massacre in Baghdad’s Syriac Catholic Church of Our Lady of Salvation, for example, which killed 58 people, including two priests, and wounded 75. Then, on Jan. 1, an attack on the Orthodox Coptic Church of the Saints in Alexandria, Egypt, killed 21 people and wounded more than 100. 'Christians are scared and are continuing to leave,' said Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk, Iraq. 'They want to educate their children with security,' he said, noting that even when their children are in school, parents are afraid about their safety. 'They are very worried about their future.' While there are Christians who want to stay in Iraq, the bishop said, they are feeling more vulnerable and afraid with each day and want to flee their homeland. It is estimated that about half of Iraq's approximately 1.4 million Christians have fled the country since the American invasion in 2003. The exodus has brought hundreds of thousands to neighboring Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, and most recently Turkey. Archbishop Sako was instrumental in calling for the Synod of Bishops to address the plight of Christians in the Middle East, which they did this past October at the Vatican. 'Human bleeding is threatening the Christian presence in the area. It is a disaster that with their departure will go their history, heritage, liturgies, spirituality and witness,' the archbishop said of the descendants of the world's first Christians. In a Jan. 10 speech to diplomats accredited to the Holy See, Pope Benedict XVI quoted a message from the synod, saying Christians in the Middle East are loyal citizens who are entitled to 'enjoy all the rights of citizenship, freedom of conscience, freedom of worship and freedom in education, teaching and the use of the mass media.' Religious leaders point to the rise of Islamic fundamentalism for the escalation of attacks.
Patriarch of Antioch for Syriac Catholics Ignatius Youssef III Younan, who was one of the two president delegates for the synod, explained, 'With the rise of the so-called Islamic fundamentalism -- we should rather say "violent fanaticism" -- in most of Arabic and countries of Muslim-majority around the world, non-Muslim minorities, especially Christians, have been the easy targets of terrorist attacks.' It wasn’t always that way. Jesuit Father Samir Khalil Samir, who wrote the working document for the synod, characterizes the 1950s in Egypt, where he was born, as a wonderful era for the country’s Christians. 'We were esteemed,' recalled the priest, who is founder of the Center for Documentation and Research on Arab Christianity. Then came the Islamization of the country in the 1970s. Now Egypt’s Coptic Christians, who make up about 10% of the country’s population of 80 million, are regularly attacked. 'Violence against Christians is something that happens every day and has as its aim to rid the Middle East of the Christian presence,' Father Samir wrote recently for the Rome-based Asia News service. [...]"
[n.b. Thanks to Genocide News, Twitter: @Genocideupdates, for bringing this report to my attention.]