It is hard to believe but Christians who have been a vital part of the history of the Middle East for over 2,000 years are dwindling down to a tiny minority. This area of the world where Christianity began once saw Christians comprising a sizable portion of its population in centuries past, now is facing the prospect of disappearing. The reasons for this are many and complex. The major reasons are that Christians in the Middle East are moving out to seek better opportunities abroad, they are experiencing a much smaller birth rate and they are experiencing unprecedented discrimination in the region. Pope Benedict XVI recently unveiled a working document during his recent trip to Cyprus for a special Synod of bishops from the Middle East to be held in October at the Vatican to address this alarming phenomenon.
Christians in the Middle East once made up more than 20 percent of the population in the early 20th century. Today they make up less than 10 percent of the overall population. The most dramatic decline has taken place in Iraq since the war unfolding over the past decade. Before the conflict in Iraq the Christian population ranged from 800,000 to 1.4 million, almost 5 percent of the population. Since the war with Christians experiencing targeted killings, kidnappings, threats and forced relocations many are fleeing the country. There are only around 500,000 Christians left in Iraq and the number declines annually.
Part of the reason for overall emigration of Christians in the Middle East is that with the new persecution and the prospect of a better life economically abroad, Christians choose to move out. Christians are better educated than their Muslim counterparts and have more access to jobs and opportunities to settle with families abroad. Christians in the Middle East also have a much lower birth rate than Muslims as well. All this coupled with religious discrimination and inter-Muslim sectarian tensions and violence has resulted in Christians seeking better lives elsewhere. Certainly the rise of political and radical Islam is a major factor.
“It is well known that some of you suffer great trails due to the current situation in the region,” Pope Benedict told Christians during a Mass in Cyprus last week. He said that he hopes the upcoming Synod of bishops will be able to offer “just and lasting solutions…to the conflicts that cause so much hardship” for Christians in the Middle East. The Synod document seeks to address many of the problems that Christians face in their minority status in the Middle East. The document states that in the Middle East, Christians are sometimes in “the precarious position of being considered non-citizens, despite the fact that they were citizens of their countries long before the rise of Islam.” The document calls for a just solution to the problems that Christians in the Middle East face and calls for the recognition of fundamental human rights, most especially religious freedom.
The document is critical of the State of Israel as well. It criticizes Israel’s restrictions on access to religious shrines and frowns upon the continued occupation of the Palestinian territories. The Synod document complains that “certain Christian fundamentalist theologies use sacred scripture to justify Israel’s occupation of Palestine, making the position of Christian Arabs an even more sensitive issue.” Some Christian fundamentalists interpret the Book of Revelation as saying that Jesus will not return to earth unless Jews are governing the Holy Land. The pope remarked during his Cyprus visit, “I reiterate my personal appeal for an urgent and concerted international effort to resolve the ongoing tensions in the Middle East, especially in the Holy Land, before such conflicts lead to greater bloodshed.”
The Synod document was prepared by a committee of patriarchs and bishops from the Middle East and representatives of Vatican offices dealing with ecumenism, interreligious dialogue, Eastern Catholic churches and evangelization. The document condemns militarism on all sides. It explains that the military might of the powerful and the angry violence of the weak have not brought peace to the Middle East, so the only realistic solution to the region’s problems is to make a commitment to dialogue and reconciliation.
at the bottom and then tap “Add to Home Screen”