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One of the oldest Christian communities in the lands of Christ has
been destroyed as the Sunni Caliphate spreads
Robert Fisk
Sunday 27 July 2014
It's not difficult to see where the Christians have made political
mistakes in the Middle East
1 / 1
Displaced Christians who fled the violence and threats by Isis in
Mosul, northern Iraq, pray at Mar Aframa church in the town of
Qaraqoush
AP
For three years, the Arab revolutions cast "Palestine" and
Palestinians to the fringe of memory in the Middle East. And now the
new bloodbath in Gaza has pushed to the corner of our consciousness
the continuing tragedy of the Christian exodus.
As the Christians of Mosul fled their cruel, new "Sunni Caliphate",
photographs of the city's Syriac-Catholic church, fire blazing from
its windows, only made inside pages in the Middle East press.
That two of the world's most-hated, born-again Christians - George W
Bush is one and the other, a British citizen, is unmentionable -
should have destroyed one of the oldest Christian communities in the
lands of Christ, remains a most brutally ironic testament to their
folly.
Both, of course, would no more acknowledge this today than the
Christians of the Middle East can ignore it.
And inevitably, the Christians in the great cities lying between the
Tigris and the Mediterranean are asking why no Muslims are condemning
their tragedy.
Isis controls Syrian Aid
A man collecting aid administered by Isis in Syria
"What are the moderate Muslims saying?" the Lebanese Catholic Maronite
Patriarch, Bechara Rai, asked acidly last week. "We do not hear the
voices of those who denounce this."
Indeed not. The Caliphate's threat to the Christians - convert, be
taxed or die - contradict, in the words of the Chaldean Patriarch,
Archbishop Louis Sako, "1,400 years of history and of the life of the
Muslim world and of coexistence between different religions and
different peoples". Archbishop Sako spoke, too, this week of how Iraq
itself had become a "humanitarian, cultural and historical
catastrophe". But he added that Christians in the region must remember
that the Koran demands respect for minorities and that the Christian
people must also remain respectful to Muslims and show "patience and
endurance". Which, I would have thought, might be turning the other
saintly cheek a bit too far.
READ MORE: End 'very near' for Christianity in Iraq, says Bishop
Isis orders Mosul shop keepers to cover mannequins
Editorial: Genocidal intentions of Isis take on horrible clarity
But of course, the new Caliph of Mosul has applied restrictions to all
Shia Muslims as well as the Yezidis, the Sabeans and the Turkomens.
And there have been street demonstrations in Beirut just last week -
jointly, by Muslims and Christians - to both condemn the treatment of
the Christians of Mosul and the Palestinians of Gaza.
Religions may be different, was the message, but both the Christians
and Muslims of the Middle East are Arabs.
Now of course, it's not difficult to see where the Christians have
made political mistakes in the Middle East. Many Copts in Egypt
supported the regime of President Hosni Mubarak when it was clear that
the revolution would overwhelm him. And the Copts were also rather too
quick to line up alongside Abdel Fattah al-Sisi when Egypt's Field
Marshal/President decided to destroy the Muslim Brotherhood.
Far too many of Lebanon's Christian families aligned themselves with
the Crusaders in the 11th century and far too many Christians fought
each other as well as their Muslim, Druze and Palestinian brothers in
the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war. In Syria today, the Christians accept
the Assad regime - as surely they must when they can see the Caliphate
spreading its laws through the Syrian city of Raqaa. Even the dead of
the 1915 Armenian genocide (Christians too, remember) have not been
spared; the church housing their bones in Deir el-Zour has been
damaged. And I recall seeing with my own eyes the burned bibles and
knife-ripped paintings in the church at Yabroud, just north of
Damascus. I took some samples and showed them to lecture audiences in
America and Europe - and in the Arab Gulf. I did not do so to suggest
that Bashar al-Assad was a highly-enlightened man - but to show them
what America's great ally, Saudi Arabia, is doing.
For the Saudis lie behind this vast new force of the Caliphate, whose
Islamist rulers have brought some of their Iraqi military assets -
courtesy of George W again - to Syria and are now giving the Syrian
army a tougher fight. Before the Caliphate spread to Mosul, the Syrian
army was winning, or at least not losing. Now their soldiers are being
executed, just like the Iraqi Shia army units captured near Mosul.
And, of course, we continue to buttress this savagery in Syria while
we loudly condemn the very same groups which are now ruling Mosul and
threatening "democratic" Iraq. Saudi Arabia continues to fund the
Wahabis among the Sunni forces while we continue to protect the
Saudis, to shield them from all criticism, just as we did when 15 of
the 9/11 hijackers turned out to be Saudis, just as we did when they
funded the Taliban.
Even in north-eastern Lebanon now, there are hidden Isis dangers. The
Lebanese army, the only institution in the state which really works,
has stationed men and equipment around the town of Ersal where many of
the rebels against Assad have taken shelter. The Syrian army, when it
stormed into Yabroud this year, effectively cut them off from Syrian
territory. But if the Syrian military lose ground in the mountains
south of Homs, then Isis forces might try to link up with Ersal and
Isis would then be able to boast that its early title - The Islamist
Army of Iraq and the Levant - had come true.
Of course, we can comfort ourselves that the new Caliphate-regime is
too crackpot to survive. Probably. But didn't some people say exactly
that when Ayatollah Khomeini flew back to Tehran, and when our
favourite dictators took over the Middle East? Didn't we used to call
Gaddafi a crackpot? And didn't he rule for quite a long time? The
Christians of the Middle East don't, therefore, take much comfort in
this sort of jolly assumption. For if Isis has its rump north of
Baghdad and its body across Syria, what happens when, even from the
Lebanese border, its teeth can be heard snapping just a few miles from
the Mediterranean?
been destroyed as the Sunni Caliphate spreads
Robert Fisk
Sunday 27 July 2014
It's not difficult to see where the Christians have made political
mistakes in the Middle East
1 / 1
Displaced Christians who fled the violence and threats by Isis in
Mosul, northern Iraq, pray at Mar Aframa church in the town of
Qaraqoush
AP
For three years, the Arab revolutions cast "Palestine" and
Palestinians to the fringe of memory in the Middle East. And now the
new bloodbath in Gaza has pushed to the corner of our consciousness
the continuing tragedy of the Christian exodus.
As the Christians of Mosul fled their cruel, new "Sunni Caliphate",
photographs of the city's Syriac-Catholic church, fire blazing from
its windows, only made inside pages in the Middle East press.
That two of the world's most-hated, born-again Christians - George W
Bush is one and the other, a British citizen, is unmentionable -
should have destroyed one of the oldest Christian communities in the
lands of Christ, remains a most brutally ironic testament to their
folly.
Both, of course, would no more acknowledge this today than the
Christians of the Middle East can ignore it.
And inevitably, the Christians in the great cities lying between the
Tigris and the Mediterranean are asking why no Muslims are condemning
their tragedy.
Isis controls Syrian Aid
A man collecting aid administered by Isis in Syria
"What are the moderate Muslims saying?" the Lebanese Catholic Maronite
Patriarch, Bechara Rai, asked acidly last week. "We do not hear the
voices of those who denounce this."
Indeed not. The Caliphate's threat to the Christians - convert, be
taxed or die - contradict, in the words of the Chaldean Patriarch,
Archbishop Louis Sako, "1,400 years of history and of the life of the
Muslim world and of coexistence between different religions and
different peoples". Archbishop Sako spoke, too, this week of how Iraq
itself had become a "humanitarian, cultural and historical
catastrophe". But he added that Christians in the region must remember
that the Koran demands respect for minorities and that the Christian
people must also remain respectful to Muslims and show "patience and
endurance". Which, I would have thought, might be turning the other
saintly cheek a bit too far.
READ MORE: End 'very near' for Christianity in Iraq, says Bishop
Isis orders Mosul shop keepers to cover mannequins
Editorial: Genocidal intentions of Isis take on horrible clarity
But of course, the new Caliph of Mosul has applied restrictions to all
Shia Muslims as well as the Yezidis, the Sabeans and the Turkomens.
And there have been street demonstrations in Beirut just last week -
jointly, by Muslims and Christians - to both condemn the treatment of
the Christians of Mosul and the Palestinians of Gaza.
Religions may be different, was the message, but both the Christians
and Muslims of the Middle East are Arabs.
Now of course, it's not difficult to see where the Christians have
made political mistakes in the Middle East. Many Copts in Egypt
supported the regime of President Hosni Mubarak when it was clear that
the revolution would overwhelm him. And the Copts were also rather too
quick to line up alongside Abdel Fattah al-Sisi when Egypt's Field
Marshal/President decided to destroy the Muslim Brotherhood.
Far too many of Lebanon's Christian families aligned themselves with
the Crusaders in the 11th century and far too many Christians fought
each other as well as their Muslim, Druze and Palestinian brothers in
the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war. In Syria today, the Christians accept
the Assad regime - as surely they must when they can see the Caliphate
spreading its laws through the Syrian city of Raqaa. Even the dead of
the 1915 Armenian genocide (Christians too, remember) have not been
spared; the church housing their bones in Deir el-Zour has been
damaged. And I recall seeing with my own eyes the burned bibles and
knife-ripped paintings in the church at Yabroud, just north of
Damascus. I took some samples and showed them to lecture audiences in
America and Europe - and in the Arab Gulf. I did not do so to suggest
that Bashar al-Assad was a highly-enlightened man - but to show them
what America's great ally, Saudi Arabia, is doing.
For the Saudis lie behind this vast new force of the Caliphate, whose
Islamist rulers have brought some of their Iraqi military assets -
courtesy of George W again - to Syria and are now giving the Syrian
army a tougher fight. Before the Caliphate spread to Mosul, the Syrian
army was winning, or at least not losing. Now their soldiers are being
executed, just like the Iraqi Shia army units captured near Mosul.
And, of course, we continue to buttress this savagery in Syria while
we loudly condemn the very same groups which are now ruling Mosul and
threatening "democratic" Iraq. Saudi Arabia continues to fund the
Wahabis among the Sunni forces while we continue to protect the
Saudis, to shield them from all criticism, just as we did when 15 of
the 9/11 hijackers turned out to be Saudis, just as we did when they
funded the Taliban.
Even in north-eastern Lebanon now, there are hidden Isis dangers. The
Lebanese army, the only institution in the state which really works,
has stationed men and equipment around the town of Ersal where many of
the rebels against Assad have taken shelter. The Syrian army, when it
stormed into Yabroud this year, effectively cut them off from Syrian
territory. But if the Syrian military lose ground in the mountains
south of Homs, then Isis forces might try to link up with Ersal and
Isis would then be able to boast that its early title - The Islamist
Army of Iraq and the Levant - had come true.
Of course, we can comfort ourselves that the new Caliphate-regime is
too crackpot to survive. Probably. But didn't some people say exactly
that when Ayatollah Khomeini flew back to Tehran, and when our
favourite dictators took over the Middle East? Didn't we used to call
Gaddafi a crackpot? And didn't he rule for quite a long time? The
Christians of the Middle East don't, therefore, take much comfort in
this sort of jolly assumption. For if Isis has its rump north of
Baghdad and its body across Syria, what happens when, even from the
Lebanese border, its teeth can be heard snapping just a few miles from
the Mediterranean?