Islam’s Christians

Religion and co-existence

ICC Note:

The New York Times ran a front page story on the persecution of Iraq’s Christians. The Wall Street Journal reports that the mass killings and exodus of Christians in Iraq “raises questions about contemporary Islam’s ability to coexist with non-Islamic peoples—in Iraq and elsewhere.”

12/14/2010 Iraq (The Wall Street Journal) – The New York Times to its credit made the continued persecution of Iraq’s Christian minorities its lead story in yesterday’s paper. Amid bloodshed on a large scale in so many places, this may seem like a relatively minor, if unhappy, story. In fact, it raises questions about contemporary Islam’s ability to coexist with non-Islamic peoples—in Iraq and elsewhere.

A spate of anti-Christian bombings and assassinations in Iraq culminated recently in the siege of a church, Our Lady of Salvation, which resulted in the death of 51 worshipers and two priests. Afterward, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki spoke with force and eloquence about the deaths: “The Christian is an Iraqi. He is the son of Iraq and from the depths of a civilization that we are proud of.”

This is an important and accurate description of the Iraqi past. Some of these Christian minorities have coexisted with Islam in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East since the time of Jesus. Some still speak Aramaic, the ancient language of Christ.

With the rise of radical Islam, this tradition of peaceful and productive coexistence has been displaced by a practice of religious cleansing. It is estimated that of the 100,000 Christians who once lived in Mosul, Iraq, only some 5,000 are still there. In Egypt, Coptic Christians have been brutalized. Assaults on churches increase around Easter or Christmas, as worshipers attempt to observe holy days.

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