MidnightWatcher's Blogspot

Matthew 24:22,27, “And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened… For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”

By Noah Beck, The Commentator – “Last Saturday, Raymond Ibrahim reported on two more Muslim attacks on Egyptian churches, as ‘Egypt’s Christian Copts continue to be targeted and scapegoated for the ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood.’

As defenceless and abandoned as Mideast Christians seem today, it is worth remembering their historical roots, and recognising just how much the plight of Middle East Christians has deteriorated. Over 2,000 years ago, Christianity was born as a religion and spread from Jerusalem to other parts of the Levant, including territories in modern Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt.

The Christian faith flourished as one of the major religions in the Middle East until the Muslim conquests of the 7th century. Despite Muslim domination of the region, Christians comprised an estimated 20 percent of the Middle East population until the early 20th century.

Today, however, Christians make up a mere 2-5 percent of the Middle East and their numbers are fast dwindling. Writing in the Winter 2001 issue of Middle East Quarterly, scholar Daniel Pipes estimated that Middle East Christians would ‘likely drop to’ half of their numbers ‘by the year 2020’ because of declining birth rates, and a pattern of ‘exclusion and persecution’ leading to emigration.

The ‘Arab Spring’ has only worsened conditions for the indigenous Christians of the Middle East. Like the Kurds, Middle East Christians are a stateless minority, struggling to survive in the world’s toughest neighborhood.

But the Kurds at least have enjoyed partial autonomy in Iraqi Kurdistan since 1991 and most of them are Sunni Muslim, making it easier for them to survive in the Muslim-dominated Middle East. Christians, on the other hand, are a religious minority that controls no territory and is entirely subject to the whims of their hosts. These host countries – with the exception of Israel – offer a grim future to Middle East Christians.

Home to one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, Egypt also has the largest Christian population in the Middle East, totaling 8-12 million people. But because Christian Copts make up only about 10-15 percent of Egypt’s estimated 80 million people, they have for decades lived in fear as second-class citizens, subjected to attacks on churches, villages, homes, and shops; mob killings; and the abduction and forced Islamic conversion of Christian women compelled to marry Muslim men.

Such abuse took place under the staunchly secular regime of Hosni Mubarak, but grew much worse under the rule of Mohammed Morsi, the jailed Muslim Brotherhood activist who succeeded Mubarak, and they are now being blamed for Morsi’s ouster.

In Lebanon, Christians represent a bigger portion of the population, so their fate is for now less precarious than that of their Egyptian coreligionists, but their long-term prospects are worrisome. The Christian population is estimated to have dropped from over 50 percent (according to a 1932 census) to Read more…

Proverbs 17:12, “Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool bent on folly.”

By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News – “Last week’s disappearance of an Italian Jesuit priest in Syria suggested foul play following the kidnappings of two other clergy in April, according to Morning Star News.

The Rev. Paolo Dall’Oglio was reportedly negotiating with the Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq for the release of hostages and peace between its militants and the Kurds. After Dall’Oglio went missing on July 29, Reuters reported that the Al Qaeda affiliate had kidnapped him.

Dall’Oglio’s disappearance comes three months after the kidnappings of the Greek Orthodox and Syriac Orthodox archbishops of Aleppo; Paul Yazigi and Yohanna Ibrahim were both kidnapped after gunmen intercepted their vehicle and killed its driver near Kafr Dael as the clergymen returned from a humanitarian relief mission on April 22. They are both believed to be held by Chechen jihadists.

Kidnappings of Christians in Syria are often for ransom, but as Al Qaeda-linked groups take over more territory with Christian populations, jihadists are now targeting them to either convert to Islam, or face torture and other violence, according to Ahmad Majidyar, a Middle Eastern Analyst for the American Enterprise Institute.

‘In the case of the Italian priest, the Al Qaeda-affiliated groups may also have been upset at his message of inter-faith and inter-ethnic harmony in Syria,’ Majidyar told Morning Star News.

Hundreds of Christians have been kidnapped and thousands more have fled Syria since the civil war began in 2011; many more have crossed into Lebanon and Turkey to obtain asylum Europe.

However, should Al Qaeda-affiliated groups end up in control of Syria, Christians who remain will not be able to live there and practice their religion freely, said Majidyar.

‘They would be given three choices: convert to Islam, leave the country, or suffer heavy punishments, including death and jizya, or the Islamic tax,’ he said.

Unlike other religious and ethnic groups in Syria, Christians do not have armed militias to protect them.” Source – Worthy News.