Concerned about the marginalisation and violent persecution of Christians since the Arab Spring, Jordan’s royal family invited more than 70 high-ranking representatives of Middle Eastern churches, as well as Muslim clerics and academics, to come together and consider possible solutions to the issue, calling for inter-faith cooperation.
King Abdullah stressed that “Arab Christians have played a key role in building Arab societies” and that the protection of their rights was “a duty rather than a favour”.
Prince Ghazi spoke of Christians’ long history in the Middle East:
Christians were in this region before Muslims. They are not strangers, nor colonists, nor foreigners. They are the natives of these lands and Arabs, just as Muslims are.
The conference, which took place in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on 3-4 September, was very timely as the threat to Christians in Syria and Egypt mounts.
Islamist takeovers
In Syria, al-Qaeda linked rebels have seized control of Maaloula, one of the most famous and historic centres of Christianity in the world, where Aramaic, the ancient language of Jesus, is still spoken.
Christian residents were shot dead, threatened with beheading unless they converted to Islam, and taken captive. The Islamists entered every Christian home and broke Christian symbols. Churches have been attacked and crosses on buildings destroyed.
In Egypt, Islamists have taken over the town of Dalga in Minya province, Upper Egypt, which has a large Christian population (20,000 out of 120,000).
The militants have vandalised, looted and torched churches and other Christian institutions, including a 1,600-year-old underground chapel, and attacked almost 40 homes belonging to Christian families. They are reportedly demanding that Christian residents pay the jizya, a humiliating tax imposed by Muslims on Christians and Jews in “conquered” territory to secure their protection.
These incidents are certainly not isolated; they are just the latest in a long and worsening series of targeted attacks on Christian communities in Syria and Egypt since the “Arab Spring”.
Deafening silence
The efforts of King Abdullah to speak out in defence of and rally support for Arab Christians are therefore extremely heartening. He has been putting his head above the parapet on this delicate issue in what is an extremely hostile climate. Three weeks ago, he appealed to Muslim leaders to curb sectarian tensions and violence, particularly in Syria, which, he warned, threatened to “destroy” the Arab and Muslim world.
While Jordan does not have an exemplary record in its treatment of Christians, especially converts from Islam, the small Christian community there does enjoy a much greater degree of freedom, as well as opportunity in public life, than their counterparts in most other Arab lands.
The Jordanian monarchy styles itself as the protector of the country’s Christian minority, and some leading figures in Jordan have been prominent in the inter-faith dialogue movement.
But they desperately lack support among other Arab and world leaders for this vital cause. King Abdullah’s speech, while welcome, amplifies the deafening silence of the West.
And it is a woeful state of affairs when the ruler of the Sunni Muslim kingdom of Jordan is coming to the defence of Arab Christians when Western nations, which share their faith heritage, are not.
US President Barack Obama made it clear that the use of chemical weapons in Syria was a “red line”, but his administration has seemed indifferent to the deliberate targeting by Islamists of Christians in both Syria and Egypt.
Following unprecedented violence against the Christian community in Egypt by the Muslim Brotherhood last month, White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest was asked by a journalist at a press conference:
With people being killed, Christians in particular being targeted, churches being destroyed, what’s the President’s red line in Egypt?
Mr Earnest responded flippantly, “Well, I didn’t bring my red pen out with me today.”
The crass remark sparked criticism of the Obama administration. The American Center for Law and Justice said that nobody in the room laughed at the attempted quip, adding, “Christian persecution is no joke.”
Mr Earnest’s “red pen” line cannot be simply dismissed as the careless remark of an individual. The response of the State Department’s spokesman to the torching of around 60 churches plus numerous Christian schools, institutions, homes and businesses in Egypt was feeble and evasive:
Clearly, any reports of violence we’re concerned about, and when it involves a religious institutions [sic], are concerned about that as well.
There was no explicit acknowledgement of the deliberate persecution of Christians by Islamists. The US has in fact backed the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and opposition forces in Syria, effectively aligning itself against Middle Eastern Christians.
This week, Barnabas Fund is launching a petition that urges Western governments to recognise the threat to Syria’s Christians and to take action on their behalf. Please add your name to it online today and forward it to others. We must speak together with a loud voice if we are going to get our political leaders to face up to and act to stop the persecution of our brothers and sisters in the Middle East.
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Dr Patrick Sookhdeo is International Director of Barnabas Fund.