Our news media has been replete of late with outrage at the horrific display of Islamic fanaticism in Syria and Iraq—the wholesale slaughter co-religionists considered heretics, and the rape, abduction and enslavement of tens of thousands of women.
It is hard to believe that any American—with the exception, perhaps, of our homegrown Moslem fanatics—fails to share in an overwhelming sense of revulsion for the barbarities being committed in the name of Islam.
Oddly, however, people who rely for information on the nation’s major newspapers and television networks might be led to imagine the Islamic State’s victims are largely confined to Moslems who do not share their brand of Islamic fundamentalism and members of small pagan sects, such as the Yazidis.
A deafening silence, however, surrounds the fate of the large Christian minorities in Iraq and Syria. The ancient Christian communities in the region, the very cradle of our faith, have proportionately suffered more than any Moslem sect or ethnic or religious minority—and for a far longer time.
A decade ago the Christian population of Iraq was a million strong. Today it is estimated that only 300,000 remain, almost half of whom are refugees in Iraqi Kurdistan.
This tragedy has largely passed unmentioned in the American media. Even President Obama was generally ignored when he attempted to draw attention to the plight of Iraqi Christians during his September 10th speech on the threat posed by the Islamic State.
“We cannot allow these communities to be driven from their ancient homeland,” the president said. Unfortunately, events had rendered the president’s words obsolete before they were uttered.
Interviews with Christian refugees and their leaders indicate that few if any wish to remain in a beloved homeland in which they constantly fear for their lives.
For Christians in Iraq, the past three months have been the climax of 11 years of hell. The persecution that started within a year of the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 cannot be attributed to a single group of Islamic extremists.
Sunni insurgents, the Shiite militias and al-Qaeda in Iraq (renamed the Islamic State) all took time off from fighting each other to persecute their Christian neighbors.
In August, 2004, 11 people were killed when five churches in Baghdad and Mosul were bombed. Two more churches were targeted in November, and Christians began to flee to Kurdistan, Jordan and Syria. Since then, at least 60 other churches have been bombed.
Clergy have been particular target. In June, 2007, gunmen in Mosul murdered a Chaldean Catholic priest and three deacons, because the priest refused to convert to Islam. In 2008, Mosul’s Chaldean archbishop, Paul Rahho was kidnapped and murdered along with his driver and two bodyguards.
Lay Christians have been continuously attacked. Women who work have been threatened with death. Extortionists have routinely threatened to kill entire families unless they pay them $10,000. Children have been kidnapped and held for ransom.
Things have gotten even worse since the Islamic State’s recent offensive. Christians have been driven from their homes and their businesses have been expropriated, often as a consequence of betrayal by long time Moslem neighbors.
In Mosul and the countryside, Islamic State guerrillas were welcomed and many locals joined up to fight along side them. Others pointed out the homes of Christians, especially those of people believed to be wealthy.
Many Christians have spent days and even weeks in detention while being badgered to convert to Islam. Babies have taken from their Christian mothers’ arms to be held for ransom. Busloads of young Christians have been driven off to slavery or worse. Believers have been slaughtered in droves and Islamic fanatics have even brutally crucified Christian children.
Christians, however, have not been the only ones to suffer from the bizarre myopia that afflicts the American media.
Earlier this year, for example, the terrorist organization Hamas for months rained high explosive missiles on Israeli villages and cities. Yet when, after exercising extraordinary restraint, Israel felt compelled to defend itself, the American media, with a few notable exceptions, excoriated the Israelis for causing civilian casualties.
The suffering of the Israeli civilians killed, injured, or just plain terrorized by Hamas’ rockets was largely ignored. Nor was much outrage expressed over Hamas’ practice of using human shields to protect its missile launchers—siting them in densely populated civilian neighborhoods, health facilities, United Nations compounds, even schools.
The obloquy meted out by the media to the Christian faith and Israel in no way reflects the views of the American public. Despite all the effort to marginalize our faith, this is still most definitely a Christian country, and Israel, the Middle East’s only genuine democracy, is our loyal ally.
However it goes a long way towards explaining why the print media is shedding readers at an alarming rate, and the major TV networks are steadily losing viewers.
These declines cannot be blamed on a general decline in reading or a growing indifference on the part of the viewing public to national and international affairs. It is simply evidence that Americans are losing patience with cultural elitists who bite the hands that feed them. GPH✠
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