Asia News.it (http://www.asianews.it)
(1) Mosul, anti-Christian violence: two murders and a kidnapping in 24 hours, 16 February 2010
The Christian community is once again under attack from armed gangs, while the government does nothing to stop the attacks. In two raids two traders killed, a third man injured. “A large sum of money” demanded for the kidnapped Christians. Christian leader in Erbil: political ties between the expulsion of Christians from Iraq and the recent carnage in Baghdad.
Mosul (AsiaNews) - In just over 24 hours two Christian businessmen have been killed, one wounded and a fourth kidnapped, for whose release the kidnappers have asked for a "large sum of money." The streak of blood and violence against the Christian community in Mosul in northern Iraq shows no sign of abating as it comes under attack from armed gangs and abandoned by local authorities once again, as a local source told AsiaNews, "they do nothing to defend us."
Yesterday a Christian fruit vendor was killed in the district 17 Tammouz. The man, Najim Abdullah Fatoukhi of 42 years, was shot to death in front of his shop. The attackers fired from a car, and got away undisturbed.
The previous day, Sunday, February 14, Rayan Bashir Salem was killed. An armed commando entered the man's house in the neighbourhood of Al Mishraq, and shot him at point blank range. In the ambush his brother, Thair was wounded. The victim, also a merchant, owned a frozen goods store.
Finally, on 13 February, a gang kidnapped Sabah al Dahhan. Local sources said the kidnappers have demanded "a high amount of money" for his release.
Sources for AsiaNews in Mosul, asking for anonymity for security reasons, said the "persecution continues in complete indifference" and added that "Christians are living in a state of panic and are trying to leave the city.
Christians are convinced that "these are not normal criminals" behind the attacks and that there are "specific political plans": the creation of a Christian enclave in the plain of Nineveh and the government "does nothing to counter it."
A high-profile Christian political figure in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, explains that "even the attacks in Baghdad" in the recent past - which caused hundreds of dead or injured - are related to "project for an area to pen up the Christian community" .
(2) Bishop of Tyre: Christians in Lebanon have become a minority in their country , 16 February 2010
by Samar Messayeh - Carla Ferraro
Mgr Georges Bacouni, Greek-catholic archbishop of Tyre recounts the difficulties of the Christian community marked by a demographic reduction and political nausea. The pending Synod for the Middle East next October.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Mgr Georges Bacouni, Metropolitan Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Tyre is on visit to Rome. He has led his diocese since 22 June 2005. Its territory includes the city of Tyre, and is divided into 9 parishes. While the Church prepares for the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East, the bishop answers some questions on current issues related to his diocese.
What is the general situation of Christians in Lebanon?
Christians are facing major challenges and various problems due to the many changes that affect not only Lebanon, but the entire Middle East. Particularly from the point of view of Catholics, we are faced with a decline in the number of believers, a time of crisis that creates negative consequences on the process of integration for Christians in a land they feel increasingly distant and in which their presence is diminishing over time. What is even more surprising, compared to the last century, is the reduction of the Christian presence within the political institutions in social sectors, in education, as well as within the ranks of the military.
What issues are preventing or slowing the process of integration?
Christians – who in my diocese are 10% - are finding it increasingly difficult to integrate, unlike the Muslims who already from the demographic point of view are the majority population in southern Lebanon. The problem of integration is that we find ourselves situated in a hotbed of unrest, something that produces a climate of widespread fear among the local population. We are also seeing a general weakening of religion, so that the faithful are increasingly reluctant to decide on marriage, and as a result on having children, thus reducing the growth rates. Unlike their Muslim counterparts who opt for polygamy, so as to increase their numbers.
What is your opinion regarding this climate of distrust?
This strong distrust has also expanded towards the ecclesiastical world, taking away from the original message of love, faith and Christian hope. The biggest challenge for Catholics faced with these issues rests within the efficacy of action that comes from the ability to rely on personal credibility, through the concreteness and consistency of commitment that harmonizes well with the choices and the gospel message of Christ.
On the issue of the emigration of Christians, what are the remedies?
I do not want to be pessimistic, it is a social problem which we are trying to remedy through proper funding. In particular, the Catholic Church in Tyre strives to help the faithful through the creation and donation of homes, but despite this, distrust is so strong that after a few years Christians leave their homes in search of a better life and prefer to move to the capital Beirut, where they can enjoy better organized structures, such as for those for education. Many students flock to the city for this very reason. This increases the prosperity gap between the south of Lebanon (mainly inhabited by Shi'ite Muslims) and the most developed areas like Beirut which is mainly composed of Druze, Sunni and Shiite Muslims and a Christian minority .. The religious geography of the capital.
What kind of relationship is there with the majority Muslim population?
Among Christians, Druze, Sunnis, Shiites, at least in southern Lebanon and in the diocese of Tyre, we have good neighbourly relations both between the representatives of religion and among the population. For example, during the liturgical feasts is customary to exchange greetings among the religious leaders of Muslims and Christians. I think the conflicts that are created are of a political-economic nature and relate to the highest levels of power, so the Catholic Church alone can do little in this area. Conversely, even if Christians, Druze, Shiites, Sunnis live neighbours, everyone live looks out for themselves. At the same time there are both Muslim extremists who consider Christians as "crusaders" or cases of Christians who do bear proper witness before the Muslims.
How are the preparations for the upcoming Synod of the Middle East? What are the expectations and hopes?
After 15 years, when the Special Assembly of Bishops for Lebanon was held in 1995, convened by Pope John Paul II in Rome, we are preparing to host the next meeting to be held in the Vatican, October 10-24 's later this year, on "The Catholic Church in the Middle East: communion and witness. 'The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul' (Acts 4, 32).
The Diocese of Tyre is ready to respond to questions posed by the document prepared by the Special Assembly for the Middle East, the text of the Lineamenta, with the intent to illustrate the local situation of the diocese. The hope of the Bishop is that the dialogue at the base of the Synod will be the starting point for joint and concrete action of all forces, religious, economic, political towards the Middle Eastern context that is our common patrimony. Just as the faith in order to a living faith must be accompanied and supported by action”.
(3) Christian fears and hopes in the year of the Synod of Middle Eastern Churches, 12 January 2010
by Fady Noun
The vice president of the United States Catholic Bishops' Conference and a Catholic Relief Services delegation conclude a fact-finding mission to the Middle East. Population and moral decline, emigration and the growth of Islam are among the problems to address. Christians must overcome their divisions and play a larger political role at home and abroad.
Beirut (AsiaNews) – The vice president of the United States Catholic Bishops' Conference led a fact-finding mission to Lebanon and the Middle East. Of Lebanese heritage, Mgr Gerald Kicanas (pictured) was accompanied by representatives of the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the US equivalent of Caritas. He was in Israel last Saturday and from there he visited the West Bank and Jordan. His trip took place in connection with the upcoming Synod of Middle Eastern Churches scheduled for next October in Rome.
The purpose of a fact-finding mission is to uncover certain facts to enable members of the investigating team to form a personal view of what is wrong; in this case, of what is not working in Lebanon today. As they collect data, they can read between the lines and go beyond the surface of things. At the end, they can come up with an analysis of the facts rather than a unilateral statement.
What are the difficulties Christian communities face in Lebanon? Some have been repeated so often that they have become clichés, like war, armed Palestinians, Hizbollah's weaponry, Christian divisions, economic crisis, unemployment and underemployment, the rise of Islam within the bureaucracy and the army, housing shortages, emigration, low birth-rate, etc.
On 7 January, the apostolic nuncio was present at the meeting between the US delegation and the Synod of Maronite Bishops. He said he was struck by the figures about the decline of Christian communities put together by the Maronite Foundation in the World, and published a day earlier in L’Orient-Le Jour, a French-language Lebanese newspaper. A summary given to the US delegation showed that the proportion of Christians in the Lebanese population dropped from 52 per cent to 35 per cent with many working abroad. The Christian birth rate was around 1.8 per cent.
Given these facts and figures will only external factors for Christians' loss of influence be taken into account? There is a real danger that this could happen. It is not that the data are false, but that they reflect only part of the truth; that they sweep under the carpet the responsibility Christians themselves have to bear for what is happening to them, which is to say that Christians' behaviour is often an offence to the Evangelical message, and so in some cases they get the cold shoulder treatment.
In the report given to Mgr Kicanas, Maronite bishops do address some of the internal causes for the crisis but only superficially. They speak of a "morally weakened society", of "internal divisions and disputes" that continue "despite all the best efforts at reconciliation", but fail to identify causes.
This year, the message for Lent will put the spotlight on the moral decline of Christian communities, the report said. The General Assembly of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops of Lebanon held on 9-14 December last year focused on the same topic.
However, the bishops failed to explain clearly how Christians are responsible for their own "moral decline". Obviously, war played a role, but in some instances, "peace" has had as destructive an effect as war itself; just turn on the television to see a society united by glamour, hedonism and mercantilism, trampling its own treasures, seeking the advice of fortune-tellers to know its future.
The bishops did not hesitate to point the finger at the West as an external cause for what is happening to Christians in the Arab world. They noted that the West is more concerned about the security of Israel and oil reserves than of the welfare of Arab Christians.
They announced that the Maronite Center for Documentation and Research would hold a seminar on 22 January to examine ways to help impoverished Christians to sell their property, if they have to, within the community rather than to non-Christians.
"Some bishops speak with vehemence," Mgr Kicanas said at the meeting. Instead, he suggested that Lebanese politics is a subtle game of influence that touches every institution and lobby. For this reason, the Lebanese, especially Christians, must adapt if they want to exert influence on the United States, a country that is very important for their future.
(End)
