Muslims Attack Two Christian Families in Egypt, 11 Killed
GMT 2-3-2011 2:58:5
(AINA) -- News of a massacre of two Christian Coptic families by Islamists just emerged from Upper Egypt with the return of the Internet connections after a week of Internet blackout by the Egyptian regime. The massacre took place on Sunday, January 30 at 3 PM in the village of Sharona near Maghagha, Minya province. Two Islamists groups, aided by the Muslim neighbors, descended on the roof of houses owned by Copts, killing eleven Copts, including children, and seriously injuring four others.
Anba Agathon, Bishop of Maghagha, told Coptic activist Dr. Mona Roman in a televised interview on Al-Karma TV that the killers are their neighbors, who seized the opportunity of the mayhem prevailing in Egypt and the absence of police protection to slaughter the Copts. He said that he visited today the four injured Copts, who escaped death despite being shot, at Maghagha General Hospital and they told him that they recognized the main attackers as they come from the same village of Sharona. They gave the Bishop details of what happened.
"The two families were staying in their homes with their doors locked when suddenly the Islamists descended on them," said Bishop Agathon, "killing eleven and leaving for dead four others family members. In addition, they looted everything that was in the two Coptic houses, including money, furniture and electrical equipment. They also looted livestock and grain."
According to the Bishop the first group was led by Islamist Ibrahim Hamdy Ibrahim, who was joined by a gang of masked assailants. They accessed the roof of the house of Copt Joseph Waheeb Massoud through the roof of his Muslim neighbor Mahgoub el Khawaled. The armed men killed Joseph, his wife Samah, his 15-year old daughter Christine and 8-year-old son Fady Youssef
Another Islamsist group led by Yasser Essam Khaled and several masked men simultaneously accessed the house of Copt Saleeb Ayad Mayez through the roof of his Muslim neighbor Mohamad Hussein el Khawaed. The Islamist shot dead Saleeb, his wife Zakia, his 4-year-old son Joseph, 3-year-old daughter Justina, his 23-year-old sister Amgad, mother Zakia and Ms. Saniora Fahim.
The police in Minya were called and they transferred the bodies in ambulances to Maghagha Hospital.
The Bishop denied any vendetta between the Copts and the Muslims. He called on the police to arrest the Islamist perpetrators immediately, as everyone knows they are the neighbors of the victims. He said "The massacre has nothing to do with the mayhem in Egypt, but the murderers took advantage of the lack of police protection and thought they could commit their crime and no one would notice."
Coptic activist Dr. Hanna Hanna views the Mubarak era with its policy of impunity to be the cause of why Copts are targeted. "Why have those Islamists chosen those two Coptic families and not Muslim ones to slaughter and rob? I believe it is because they know that with Copts they can literally get away with murder."
By Mary Abdelmassih
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
الإنجيل اليومي بحسب الطقس الماروني
يا ربّ، إِلى مَن نَذهَب وكَلامُ الحَياةِ الأَبَدِيَّةِ عِندَك ؟
(يوحنا 6: 68)
الاثنين 31 كانون الثاني/يناير 2011
الاثنين الرابع بعد الدنح
في الكنيسة المارونيّة اليوم :مار يوحنّا بوسكو المعترف
إنجيل القدّيس يوحنّا .38-31:4
فِي أَثْنَاءِ ذلِكَ، كَانَ التَّلامِيذُ يَطْلُبُونَ مِنْهُ قَائِلين: «رابِّي، كُلْ». فَقَالَ لَهُم: «أَنَا لِي طَعَامٌ آكُلُهُ وأَنْتُم لا تَعْرِفُونَهُ». فقَالَ التَّلامِيذُ بَعضُهُم لِبَعض: «هَلْ جَاءَهُ أَحَدٌ بِمَا يَأْكُلُهُ؟». قَالَ لَهُم يَسُوع: «طَعَامِي أَنْ أَعْمَلَ مَشِيئَةِ مَنْ أَرْسَلَنِي، وأَنْ أُتِمَّ عَمَلَهُ. أَمَا تَقُولُونَ أَنْتُم: هِيَ أَرْبَعَةُ أَشْهُرٍ وَيَحِينُ الحِصَاد؟ وهَا أَنَا أَقُولُ لَكُم: إِرْفَعُوا عُيُونَكُم وٱنْظُرُوا الحُقُولَ إِنَّهَا قَدِ ٱبيَضَّتْ لِلحِصَاد. أَلحَاصِدُ يَأْخُذُ أُجْرَة، ويَجْمَعُ ثَمَرًا لِحَيَاةٍ أَبَدِيَّة، لِكَي يَفْرَحَ الزَّارِعُ والحَاصِدُ مَعًا. فيَصْدُقُ القَوْل: وَاحِدٌ يَزْرَعُ وآخَرُ يَحْصُد. أَنَا أَرْسَلْتُكُم لِتَحْصُدُوا مَا لَمْ تَتْعَبُوا أَنْتُم فِيه. آخَرُون تَعِبُوا، وأَنْتُم في تَعَبِهِم دَخَلْتُم».
النصوص مأخوذة من الترجمة الليتُرجيّة المارونيّة - إعداد اللجنة الكتابيّة التابعة للجنة الشؤون الليتورجيّة البطريركيّة المارونيّة (طبعة ثانية – 2007)
تعليق على الإنجيل:
ثيوفيلاكتُس (نحو 1050 - 1109)، أسقف
تعليق على العهد الجديد
"طَعَامِي أَنْ أَعْمَلَ مَشِيئَةِ مَنْ أَرْسَلَنِي، وأَنْ أُتِمَّ عَمَلَهُ"
طلب التلاميذ بإلحاح من الربّ أن يأكل، أي أنّهم توسّلوه، ليس بطريقة وقحة، إنمّا بدافع حبّهم لسيّدهم لأنّهم رأوا أنّه تعب من المسير والحرارة المضنية. ولكن إذ عرف أنّ المرأة السامريّة كانت على وشك أن تحضر إليه كافّة سكان المنطقة تقريبًا، وأنّ السامريّين سيؤمنون به، أجاب الربّ: "أَنَا لِي طَعَامٌ آكُلُهُ وأَنْتُم لا تَعْرِفُونَهُ" وهو خلاص البشر. كما أنّني أرغب في هذا الطعام أكثر ممّا ترغبون جميعًا في الطعام المادي. ولكن أنتم يا تلاميذي، لا تعرفون الطعام الذي يجب أن آكله. لأنّكم لا تفهمون بوضوح كلماتي الغامضة ولا يسعكم سبر أغوارها، ولا تعرفون أنّني أدعو خلاص البشر طعامي. بتعبير آخر، "لا تعرفون هذا الطعام" يعني أنّكم لا تعرفون أنّ السامريّين سيؤمنون ويخلصون. ماذا فعل التلاميذ حينئذ؟ بقوا مرتبكين، "فقَالَ بَعضُهُم لِبَعض: هَلْ جَاءَهُ أَحَدٌ بِمَا يَأْكُلُهُ؟" إذ كانوا يخشونه دائمًا، لم يتجرّؤوا على طرح المزيد من الأسئلة عليه. ولكن على الرغم من أنّهم لم يسألوه، كشف الله عن معنى كلماته الغامضة قائلاً: "طَعَامِي أَنْ أَعْمَلَ مَشِيئَةِ مَنْ أَرْسَلَنِي، وأَنْ أُتِمَّ عَمَلَهُ (مشيئة الله هي خلاص البشر)". إنّ الأنبياء والشريعة لم يتمّموا عمل الله لأنّهم كانوا أنفسهم ناقصين وغير كاملين، وكانوا قادرين على أن يكشفوا فقط عن أنواع الأمور الجيّدة الآتية وينذروا بها. ولكنّ الربّ أتمّ عمل الله، الذي هو خلاصنا وتجديدنا. يتبيّن لي أنّ عمل الله يعني أيضًا الإنسان نفسه، وقد أتمّه ابن الله وحده. وقد قام بذلك عبر الكشف عن أنّ طبيعتنا باتت غير خاطئة به، ما إن أظهر كمالها وتمامها في كلّ عمل جيّد بواسطة حياته الإلهيّة في الجسد البشري، متخطّيًا رغبات العالم (في كلّ مرحلة) حتّى النهاية. إنّ الشريعة هي أيضًا عمل الله، بما أنّها كُتبت "بِإِصبَعِ الله" (خر31: 18؛ تث9: 10)، وقد أكمل الله الشريعة "فغايَةُ الشَّريعةِ هي المسيح، لِتَبْرير ِكُلِّ مُؤمِن" (رو10: 4). وعندما تمّت كافّة متطلّبات الشريعة جعلها تتوقّف، محوّلاً العبادة الجسديّة إلى روحيّة.
يا ربّ، إِلى مَن نَذهَب وكَلامُ الحَياةِ الأَبَدِيَّةِ عِندَك ؟
(يوحنا 6: 68)
الاثنين 31 كانون الثاني/يناير 2011
الاثنين الرابع بعد الدنح
في الكنيسة المارونيّة اليوم :مار يوحنّا بوسكو المعترف
إنجيل القدّيس يوحنّا .38-31:4
فِي أَثْنَاءِ ذلِكَ، كَانَ التَّلامِيذُ يَطْلُبُونَ مِنْهُ قَائِلين: «رابِّي، كُلْ». فَقَالَ لَهُم: «أَنَا لِي طَعَامٌ آكُلُهُ وأَنْتُم لا تَعْرِفُونَهُ». فقَالَ التَّلامِيذُ بَعضُهُم لِبَعض: «هَلْ جَاءَهُ أَحَدٌ بِمَا يَأْكُلُهُ؟». قَالَ لَهُم يَسُوع: «طَعَامِي أَنْ أَعْمَلَ مَشِيئَةِ مَنْ أَرْسَلَنِي، وأَنْ أُتِمَّ عَمَلَهُ. أَمَا تَقُولُونَ أَنْتُم: هِيَ أَرْبَعَةُ أَشْهُرٍ وَيَحِينُ الحِصَاد؟ وهَا أَنَا أَقُولُ لَكُم: إِرْفَعُوا عُيُونَكُم وٱنْظُرُوا الحُقُولَ إِنَّهَا قَدِ ٱبيَضَّتْ لِلحِصَاد. أَلحَاصِدُ يَأْخُذُ أُجْرَة، ويَجْمَعُ ثَمَرًا لِحَيَاةٍ أَبَدِيَّة، لِكَي يَفْرَحَ الزَّارِعُ والحَاصِدُ مَعًا. فيَصْدُقُ القَوْل: وَاحِدٌ يَزْرَعُ وآخَرُ يَحْصُد. أَنَا أَرْسَلْتُكُم لِتَحْصُدُوا مَا لَمْ تَتْعَبُوا أَنْتُم فِيه. آخَرُون تَعِبُوا، وأَنْتُم في تَعَبِهِم دَخَلْتُم».
النصوص مأخوذة من الترجمة الليتُرجيّة المارونيّة - إعداد اللجنة الكتابيّة التابعة للجنة الشؤون الليتورجيّة البطريركيّة المارونيّة (طبعة ثانية – 2007)
تعليق على الإنجيل:
ثيوفيلاكتُس (نحو 1050 - 1109)، أسقف
تعليق على العهد الجديد
"طَعَامِي أَنْ أَعْمَلَ مَشِيئَةِ مَنْ أَرْسَلَنِي، وأَنْ أُتِمَّ عَمَلَهُ"
طلب التلاميذ بإلحاح من الربّ أن يأكل، أي أنّهم توسّلوه، ليس بطريقة وقحة، إنمّا بدافع حبّهم لسيّدهم لأنّهم رأوا أنّه تعب من المسير والحرارة المضنية. ولكن إذ عرف أنّ المرأة السامريّة كانت على وشك أن تحضر إليه كافّة سكان المنطقة تقريبًا، وأنّ السامريّين سيؤمنون به، أجاب الربّ: "أَنَا لِي طَعَامٌ آكُلُهُ وأَنْتُم لا تَعْرِفُونَهُ" وهو خلاص البشر. كما أنّني أرغب في هذا الطعام أكثر ممّا ترغبون جميعًا في الطعام المادي. ولكن أنتم يا تلاميذي، لا تعرفون الطعام الذي يجب أن آكله. لأنّكم لا تفهمون بوضوح كلماتي الغامضة ولا يسعكم سبر أغوارها، ولا تعرفون أنّني أدعو خلاص البشر طعامي. بتعبير آخر، "لا تعرفون هذا الطعام" يعني أنّكم لا تعرفون أنّ السامريّين سيؤمنون ويخلصون. ماذا فعل التلاميذ حينئذ؟ بقوا مرتبكين، "فقَالَ بَعضُهُم لِبَعض: هَلْ جَاءَهُ أَحَدٌ بِمَا يَأْكُلُهُ؟" إذ كانوا يخشونه دائمًا، لم يتجرّؤوا على طرح المزيد من الأسئلة عليه. ولكن على الرغم من أنّهم لم يسألوه، كشف الله عن معنى كلماته الغامضة قائلاً: "طَعَامِي أَنْ أَعْمَلَ مَشِيئَةِ مَنْ أَرْسَلَنِي، وأَنْ أُتِمَّ عَمَلَهُ (مشيئة الله هي خلاص البشر)". إنّ الأنبياء والشريعة لم يتمّموا عمل الله لأنّهم كانوا أنفسهم ناقصين وغير كاملين، وكانوا قادرين على أن يكشفوا فقط عن أنواع الأمور الجيّدة الآتية وينذروا بها. ولكنّ الربّ أتمّ عمل الله، الذي هو خلاصنا وتجديدنا. يتبيّن لي أنّ عمل الله يعني أيضًا الإنسان نفسه، وقد أتمّه ابن الله وحده. وقد قام بذلك عبر الكشف عن أنّ طبيعتنا باتت غير خاطئة به، ما إن أظهر كمالها وتمامها في كلّ عمل جيّد بواسطة حياته الإلهيّة في الجسد البشري، متخطّيًا رغبات العالم (في كلّ مرحلة) حتّى النهاية. إنّ الشريعة هي أيضًا عمل الله، بما أنّها كُتبت "بِإِصبَعِ الله" (خر31: 18؛ تث9: 10)، وقد أكمل الله الشريعة "فغايَةُ الشَّريعةِ هي المسيح، لِتَبْرير ِكُلِّ مُؤمِن" (رو10: 4). وعندما تمّت كافّة متطلّبات الشريعة جعلها تتوقّف، محوّلاً العبادة الجسديّة إلى روحيّة.
US Warns Lebanon on Militants in GovernmenT
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration on Monday warned Lebanon's political leaders that continuing U.S. support for their country will be difficult if the militant Hezbollah movement takes a dominant role in government. The makeup of the Lebanese government is Lebanon's decision, the State Department said. But the larger the role for Hezbollah, the "more problematic" for relations with Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. The United States considers Iranian--backed Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist organization and has imposed sanctions against it and its members. U.S. officials do not meet with Hezbollah members and U.S. money is not supposed to further the group's activities. Crowley's comments came as Hezbollah moved into position to control the next Lebanese government as it secured enough support in parliament to nominate the candidate for prime minister. "Our view of Hezbollah is very well--known," he told reporters. "We see it as a terrorist organization, and we'll have great concerns about a government within which a Hezbollah plays a leading role." Crowley declined to say what the United States would do if Hezbollah's candidate becomes prime minister and is able to form a government, but he said it would be hard to carry on business as usual if that happens. Asked whether the U.S. would be able to continue economic support for a Hezbollah--controlled government in Lebanon, he replied, "That would be difficult for the United States to do." The U.S. has provided Lebanon with hundreds of millions of dollars in economic and military aid over the past five years, following the withdrawal of Syrian forces that had controlled the country for decades. The United States called the fragile Lebanese democracy a counterweight to authoritarian and militant influences in the Middle East. Washington underwrote Lebanon's army as a counterweight to Hezbollah, and argued that without U.S. support Iran or Syria might fill the vacuum. Congressional critics of that policy cite a worry that the weapons and equipment could slip into the hands of Hezbollah for use against Israel. Hezbollah, which forced the collapse of the Lebanese coalition government last week, fought a monthlong war with Israel in August 2006. Since 2006, the U.S. has provided four kinds of security assistance to Lebanon, the bulk of which has been about $500 million in sales of weapons and equipment such as mortars, rifles, grenade launchers, ammunition, body armor, radios and Humvee utility vehicles. The U.S. also has increased its spending on military education and training for Lebanese officers and on programs designed to improve Lebanon's ability to counter terrorism threats. Rep. Howard Berman, a Democrat and the former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was among lawmakers who last year blocked $100 million in U.S. military aid to Lebanon. They relented and allowed the money to go through after the White House gave assurances in classified briefings that the aid bolsters both Lebanese and U.S. national security and would not be hijacked by Hezbollah. Berman's successor as head of the committee, Rep. Ileana Ros--Lehtinen, a Republican, has raised similar concerns.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration on Monday warned Lebanon's political leaders that continuing U.S. support for their country will be difficult if the militant Hezbollah movement takes a dominant role in government. The makeup of the Lebanese government is Lebanon's decision, the State Department said. But the larger the role for Hezbollah, the "more problematic" for relations with Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. The United States considers Iranian--backed Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist organization and has imposed sanctions against it and its members. U.S. officials do not meet with Hezbollah members and U.S. money is not supposed to further the group's activities. Crowley's comments came as Hezbollah moved into position to control the next Lebanese government as it secured enough support in parliament to nominate the candidate for prime minister. "Our view of Hezbollah is very well--known," he told reporters. "We see it as a terrorist organization, and we'll have great concerns about a government within which a Hezbollah plays a leading role." Crowley declined to say what the United States would do if Hezbollah's candidate becomes prime minister and is able to form a government, but he said it would be hard to carry on business as usual if that happens. Asked whether the U.S. would be able to continue economic support for a Hezbollah--controlled government in Lebanon, he replied, "That would be difficult for the United States to do." The U.S. has provided Lebanon with hundreds of millions of dollars in economic and military aid over the past five years, following the withdrawal of Syrian forces that had controlled the country for decades. The United States called the fragile Lebanese democracy a counterweight to authoritarian and militant influences in the Middle East. Washington underwrote Lebanon's army as a counterweight to Hezbollah, and argued that without U.S. support Iran or Syria might fill the vacuum. Congressional critics of that policy cite a worry that the weapons and equipment could slip into the hands of Hezbollah for use against Israel. Hezbollah, which forced the collapse of the Lebanese coalition government last week, fought a monthlong war with Israel in August 2006. Since 2006, the U.S. has provided four kinds of security assistance to Lebanon, the bulk of which has been about $500 million in sales of weapons and equipment such as mortars, rifles, grenade launchers, ammunition, body armor, radios and Humvee utility vehicles. The U.S. also has increased its spending on military education and training for Lebanese officers and on programs designed to improve Lebanon's ability to counter terrorism threats. Rep. Howard Berman, a Democrat and the former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was among lawmakers who last year blocked $100 million in U.S. military aid to Lebanon. They relented and allowed the money to go through after the White House gave assurances in classified briefings that the aid bolsters both Lebanese and U.S. national security and would not be hijacked by Hezbollah. Berman's successor as head of the committee, Rep. Ileana Ros--Lehtinen, a Republican, has raised similar concerns.
Tree Planted in Ealing to Remember Holocaust VictimS
Ealing, Englnad -- Ealing Council Leader Julian Bell and Mayor of Ealing, Councillor Rajinder Mann, have planted a tree in front of the council's Perceval House offices to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. Yesterday (January 27), was the 66th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp in south-west Poland. The tree was planted in remembrance of all the victims of the Nazi Holocaust and all other victims of persecution and torture around the World, including those in Armenia, Assyria, Cambodia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Sri Lanka, Rwanda and Darfur. Councillor Julian Bell, Leader of Ealing Council, said: "Holocaust Memorial Day is an important opportunity for us all to think about what we can do in our own small way as individuals and as a community to protect one another against discrimination. I hope our children and grand children will commemorate this day for many years to come and continue to challenge persecution."
Ealing, Englnad -- Ealing Council Leader Julian Bell and Mayor of Ealing, Councillor Rajinder Mann, have planted a tree in front of the council's Perceval House offices to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. Yesterday (January 27), was the 66th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp in south-west Poland. The tree was planted in remembrance of all the victims of the Nazi Holocaust and all other victims of persecution and torture around the World, including those in Armenia, Assyria, Cambodia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Sri Lanka, Rwanda and Darfur. Councillor Julian Bell, Leader of Ealing Council, said: "Holocaust Memorial Day is an important opportunity for us all to think about what we can do in our own small way as individuals and as a community to protect one another against discrimination. I hope our children and grand children will commemorate this day for many years to come and continue to challenge persecution."
The World's Christians -- a New Wave of Persecution
While Americans were cozily gathered for family festivities over the Christmas and New Year's holidays, a rather different scene was being played out in Alexandria, Egypt. As Egypt's Coptic Christians gathered to enter the Two Saints Church in Alexandria for worship, a horrendous bomb went off, killing 21 of them and injuring more than 70. More sinister than the fact that the Christians had been jeered at by Muslim mobs shouting the militant "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) was the fact that extremist Muslim websites had listed 64 Coptic churches as their targets. Two Saints Church was the first on the list; some of the other churches on the extremist website list were in Canada and Australia. Canadian Copts took care to ensure that better-than-usual security was arranged for their church services. Christmas was not so cozy in other countries either. In the Philippines, a Catholic church was bombed on Christmas Day. In Jos, Nigeria, 38 Christians were killed in a Christmas Eve church bomb blast set by militant Muslims. Nor did the Muslim attacks end with the passing of the Christian holiday season of Christmas. On January 11, an Egyptian policeman on a train north of Cairo shot deliberately at five Egyptian Copts, killing one of them. He also was heard to shout "Allahu Akbar" as he fired his weapon. The point here is not to single out militant Muslims, who are known almost always to harbor a deep rage against Christians that sometimes escalates into murder. Some government regimes, notably atheist ones, have fostered an environment of deep animosity toward Christians.
• In the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, U.S. diplomat Christian Marchant was brutally manhandled in early January by government security forces when he tried to visit a Roman Catholic priest, Father Van Ly, who had spent 15 years in prison since he was first picked up by the authorities in 1977. (Read that story)
• In China, one of the country's best-known Christian lawyers, Gao Zhisheng, was being held over Christmas by secret police who had kidnapped him in April 2010 because of his leading role in China's growing human rights movement. Gao had previously disappeared into police custody for 14 months, when he was beaten mercilessly, tied up with plastic bags, and told, "You must forget you are human. You're a beast." During even earlier kidnappings by secret police, Gao's torture had included having his genitals pricked by toothpicks. (Read my earlier commentary on Gao Zhisheng)
cross in cuffs persecutionThe world's Christian community, at about 2.1 billion, is so large that many people find it hard to imagine that Christians anywhere could be under threat. But that would be a tragic misconception. Mark Seddon, a journalist for Britain's Independent newspaper -- hardly a "right-wing" publication -- wrote: "We may be witnessing a new age of Christian persecution" around the world. Fortunately, even the U.S. State Department has taken notice and since 1999 has issued an annual report on the findings of its diplomats about the state of religious freedom around the world. The report is tasked with singling out various "countries of particular concern" for the way they treat Christians and followers of other faiths. Not surprisingly, countries such as China, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Iran, Burma, Iraq and Vietnam regularly show up on the State Department list and the 2010 report was no exception. Christians of all stripes, from Roman Catholics to evangelicals, are understandably concerned when their brothers and sisters in the faith face persecution, suffering, and even death. But even agnostics and atheists ought to pay attention when followers of any religion, anywhere in the world, are singled out for persecution. The state of religious liberty in any country is like the proverbial canary in the coal mine as an indicator of that country's overall political freedom. After all, it was the wave after wave of Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish immigrants washing up on the shores of America for the first three centuries after the Pilgrims arrived in 1620 who brought to America an awareness of the supreme value of freedom of conscience. In many parts of the world, however, persecuted Christians are not in a position to pick up and leave as entire communities, let alone come to the United States. For that reason, it is the responsibility of us who are free to practice our faith to tirelessly call to account those regimes which either actively persecute or passively tolerate persecution of Christians. I don't think this means that we should have refused to host a White House state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao last week. After all, whether we like his regime or not, Americans can hardly ignore it because our mutual economic futures are apparently inseparable. But ordinary Americans should be standing up and doing the equivalent of banging sauce-pans in the streets, making as much public noise as possible, to express our disgust at regime-approved, and even regime-organized, persecution. From Aasia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman under death sentence for "blasphemy," to Iranian Christians rounded up in a regime crackdown on "house churches" and held in brutal conditions in Tehran's Evin Prison, if we make enough noise, even the prisoners might hear and be encouraged.
While Americans were cozily gathered for family festivities over the Christmas and New Year's holidays, a rather different scene was being played out in Alexandria, Egypt. As Egypt's Coptic Christians gathered to enter the Two Saints Church in Alexandria for worship, a horrendous bomb went off, killing 21 of them and injuring more than 70. More sinister than the fact that the Christians had been jeered at by Muslim mobs shouting the militant "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) was the fact that extremist Muslim websites had listed 64 Coptic churches as their targets. Two Saints Church was the first on the list; some of the other churches on the extremist website list were in Canada and Australia. Canadian Copts took care to ensure that better-than-usual security was arranged for their church services. Christmas was not so cozy in other countries either. In the Philippines, a Catholic church was bombed on Christmas Day. In Jos, Nigeria, 38 Christians were killed in a Christmas Eve church bomb blast set by militant Muslims. Nor did the Muslim attacks end with the passing of the Christian holiday season of Christmas. On January 11, an Egyptian policeman on a train north of Cairo shot deliberately at five Egyptian Copts, killing one of them. He also was heard to shout "Allahu Akbar" as he fired his weapon. The point here is not to single out militant Muslims, who are known almost always to harbor a deep rage against Christians that sometimes escalates into murder. Some government regimes, notably atheist ones, have fostered an environment of deep animosity toward Christians.
• In the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, U.S. diplomat Christian Marchant was brutally manhandled in early January by government security forces when he tried to visit a Roman Catholic priest, Father Van Ly, who had spent 15 years in prison since he was first picked up by the authorities in 1977. (Read that story)
• In China, one of the country's best-known Christian lawyers, Gao Zhisheng, was being held over Christmas by secret police who had kidnapped him in April 2010 because of his leading role in China's growing human rights movement. Gao had previously disappeared into police custody for 14 months, when he was beaten mercilessly, tied up with plastic bags, and told, "You must forget you are human. You're a beast." During even earlier kidnappings by secret police, Gao's torture had included having his genitals pricked by toothpicks. (Read my earlier commentary on Gao Zhisheng)
cross in cuffs persecutionThe world's Christian community, at about 2.1 billion, is so large that many people find it hard to imagine that Christians anywhere could be under threat. But that would be a tragic misconception. Mark Seddon, a journalist for Britain's Independent newspaper -- hardly a "right-wing" publication -- wrote: "We may be witnessing a new age of Christian persecution" around the world. Fortunately, even the U.S. State Department has taken notice and since 1999 has issued an annual report on the findings of its diplomats about the state of religious freedom around the world. The report is tasked with singling out various "countries of particular concern" for the way they treat Christians and followers of other faiths. Not surprisingly, countries such as China, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Iran, Burma, Iraq and Vietnam regularly show up on the State Department list and the 2010 report was no exception. Christians of all stripes, from Roman Catholics to evangelicals, are understandably concerned when their brothers and sisters in the faith face persecution, suffering, and even death. But even agnostics and atheists ought to pay attention when followers of any religion, anywhere in the world, are singled out for persecution. The state of religious liberty in any country is like the proverbial canary in the coal mine as an indicator of that country's overall political freedom. After all, it was the wave after wave of Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish immigrants washing up on the shores of America for the first three centuries after the Pilgrims arrived in 1620 who brought to America an awareness of the supreme value of freedom of conscience. In many parts of the world, however, persecuted Christians are not in a position to pick up and leave as entire communities, let alone come to the United States. For that reason, it is the responsibility of us who are free to practice our faith to tirelessly call to account those regimes which either actively persecute or passively tolerate persecution of Christians. I don't think this means that we should have refused to host a White House state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao last week. After all, whether we like his regime or not, Americans can hardly ignore it because our mutual economic futures are apparently inseparable. But ordinary Americans should be standing up and doing the equivalent of banging sauce-pans in the streets, making as much public noise as possible, to express our disgust at regime-approved, and even regime-organized, persecution. From Aasia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman under death sentence for "blasphemy," to Iranian Christians rounded up in a regime crackdown on "house churches" and held in brutal conditions in Tehran's Evin Prison, if we make enough noise, even the prisoners might hear and be encouraged.
The Assyrian Church of the EasR
As you may be aware, several Christian churches in Kirkuk, Mosul, Basra, and Baghdad, as well as throughout the rest of Iraq, cancelled their festivities this past Christmas. Ever since the massacre of worshippers in Baghdad's Church of Our Lady of Salvation last November--followed by attacks on Christian neighborhoods in the city--the Christians of Iraq have been living in a state of unrelieved terror, and they simply do not dare celebrate their faith too openly right now. Moreover, there is no reason to imagine that their situation will become any more tolerable in any conceivable near future. There are beleaguered Christian communities throughout much of the Muslim world, of course, but it is quite possible that the last remnants of ancient Persian Christianity in Iraq and perhaps Iran will disappear in our lifetimes. If so, and if Persian Christianity is largely reduced to a fragmentary diaspora community, it will mark the end of yet another tragic episode in one of the more extraordinary tales in Christian history--though it is a tale regarding which most Christians know absolutely nothing. Most of the Christians of Iraq belong to "Assyrian" tradition: the tradition, that is, of the Church of the East (often, and somewhat opprobriously, called the "Nestorian" Church) and of its sixteenth-century offshoot the Chaldean Catholic Church (occasionally, and somewhat opprobriously, called the "Uniate" Chaldean Church). Today, even many Christians who know something of the Eastern churches tend to think of the Assyrian communions as little more than exotic marginal sects; even among the "Oriental" churches (that is, the ancient Eastern communions that did not adopt the Christological formula of Chalcedon in the fifth century) they are often regarded as the least significant. And yet at one time--from late antiquity right up into the high middle ages--the Church of the East was, in geographic terms, far and away the largest Christian communion in the world, and the most actively evangelical. Had there been such a thing as accurate cartography in the early thirteenth century, any good map of the Christian world might have suggested to a casual observer that European Christianity was little more than a local phenomenon, a sort of provincial annex at the western edge of Assyrian Christendom. Demographically, of course, the balances tipped in the opposite direction. Still, though, the Church of the East was anything but a marginal communion. The Christianity of all of Syria was from a very early period both an exceedingly scholarly and an exceedingly ascetical tradition. But there was also something of a difference in sensibility between the religious culture to the west, whose intellectual center was Antioch, and that to the East, whose intellectual center was Nisibis. What became the distinct Assyrian tradition, with its distinctive Christological vocabulary, emerged out of the latter. After Nisibis was conquered by Persia in 363, the educated Christians of the city removed to Edessa and other parts of Syria still under Byzantine control; but a little more than a century later, when the Emperor Zeno (d. 491) attempted to impose the Chalcedonian settlement throughout the region, the East Syrian Christian scholars were forced to retreat to Nisibis again, and to the shelter of the Persian Empire, which turned out to be quite tolerant of them. In 498, the bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon assumed the title "Patriarch of the East." After 553, when the Second Council of Constantinople formally condemned the teachings of Theodore of Mopsuestia (c. 350-429), the Antiochian theologian and biblical exegete whose writings were foundational for East Syrian theology, the Assyrian Church was more or less a theological world all to itself. As it happened, however, this proved to be anything but a historical catastrophe. Pushed out beyond the farthest boundaries of the Byzantine empire, with no hope of reconciliation, the Assyrian Church found itself on the frontier of all of Asia, where no other Christians could even hope to venture. The Christian scholars of Nisibis and, later, Jundishapur were a disciplined monastic community, devoted to the study of theology and philosophy, as well as to the translation of scripture, Christian literature, and classical Greek texts into Syriac, and renowned for the quality of their medical training. Their zeal for winning converts did not seem to falter before the vast geographical distances or dangerously alien cultures of the Central and East Asia. The Church established itself over time not only in the Mesopotamian region of the Persian Empire, but in eastern Anatolia, Kurdistan, Turkestan, and well beyond. In 635, Patriarch Yashuyab II (d. 643) inaugurated a mission to China that flourished right through the age of the Khans. East Syrian Christian missions naturally followed the trade routes to the Far East. Merchant caravans from the Arabian Peninsula, India, Central Asia, and China passed through Seleucia-Ctesiphon, and the monks of the Assyrian Church--with their very useful technical, scribal, and medical skills with them--followed in their van, looking for places where their training would make them and the gospel they had to preach welcome. Simply in providing trained physicians and scholars, the East Syrian Church often proved itself an immense benefit to the areas where it settled. Wherever the Church established a new bishopric in its eastward migrations, it built a school, a library, and a hospital. By the late fifth century, the Assyrian mission to Turkestan was under way and would in time reach out to the Mongols. In 781 a Turkish king petitioned Nisibis for a bishop, and soon Episcopal sees were established in Tashkent, Bukhara, and Samarkand. Soon missions were also sent to the Keraits, Uighurs, and other Central Asian tribes. And then there was China. We know much of the early story of the "Radiant Religion"--that is, Christianity--in China principally from a stone stele dating from 781 and discovered by Jesuit missionaries in Sian-fu in the Shaanxi province in 1625. The T'ang Emperor T'ai-tsung (d. 649) granted an audience to a Persian monk around 638 and was impressed enough (or indifferent enough) to give him permission to preach and found a monastery. For two centuries, the Assyrian mission thrived. Churches and monasteries were established in at least ten provinces. We know also that the mission suffered a temporary reversal of fortunes in the ninth century, when the Emperor Wu-tsung (d. 846) laicized all the native priests and monks in the kingdom. But there were still monasteries in China in the eleventh century, and around 1095 the Patriarch of the East, Sebaryeshu III, appointed a bishop to the see of Cathay (or Northern China). Even as late as the thirteenth century, when the Radiant Religion enjoyed the favor of the Mongol court of Kublai Khan (1215-1295), Chinese monasteries were still being built. And in 1280, Mark, the Chinese (Uighur) bishop of Cathay became the Syrian Patriarch of the East, under the name Yahbalaha III (d. 1317). How far the East Syrian missions reached we are never likely to know for certain. The "Thomas Christians" of India were East Syrian in theology, loyalty, and population from an early period, and in the eight and ninth centuries the new immigrants who swelled the numbers of the Malankara Christians of India were definitely East Syrian. As early as the sixth century, Cosmas Indicopleustes encountered East Syrian Christians on the remote island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean, and there are passing references in texts from later centuries to one or another bishop of Socotra. And East Syrian missions definitely penetrated into Tibet before the late eighth century. Some historians even believe there is sufficient textual and physical evidence to suggest that East Syrian Christians reached Sri Lanka, Java, Sumatra, Japan, Korea, Burma, Malaya, Vietnam, and Thailand. By the end of the middle ages, however, the Assyrian communion had been reduced to a shadow of its former magnificence. There had been some pressure upon the native sees from the time of the Islamic conquest of the Persian Empire, but East Syrian scholars and physicians had for centuries occupied a vital place in the Caliphate. But the greater Assyrian Christian world of Central and East Asia had remained intact and largely unperturbed into the fourteenth century. Of course, the Christians of Central Asia suffered terribly along with everyone else when the horde of Genghis Khan (c. 1150-1227) was destroying every village and city in its path. But the grandsons of Genghis--Möngke (1208-1259), Kublai (1215-1294), and Hulegu (1217-1265)--were for the most part well disposed towards the Assyrian communities. Hulegu even took a Christian wife. In the late thirteenth century, however, the great reversal began. In Baghdad, Ghazan Khan (r. 1295-1304) adopted Islam, and at once the East Syrian Christian community became the object of ferocious persecutions, including numerous massacres. Then, in 1369, the Ming Dynasty came to power in China and instituted a systematic extermination of foreign creeds. The Assyrian Church had soon disappeared. And in Central Asia the rampages of the Turkic Muslim warlord Timur (1336-1405) left no living traces of East Syrian Christianity in their wake. And yet, down the centuries the Church of the East has persisted: a small community, perennially persecuted in the place of its birth, and until very recently seemingly indomitable. Far away from there--in India, where it has had a home for centuries, and in North America, where it has had to find a new home in a dark time, and elsewhere--its scattered branches continue to bear fruit, not copiously, perhaps, but indefatigably. But in its homeland it is being pushed towards the edge of extinction. So it goes, I suppose. History is not at our command, and the future does not lie in our power; we must do what we can, but we can do only so much. And, in the end, all cultures rise and fall; none is eternal. Nevertheless, for anyone who knows the strange, glorious, and too often forgotten history of the Church of the East, it is difficult to view the current situation without a very special and very intense bitterness.
As you may be aware, several Christian churches in Kirkuk, Mosul, Basra, and Baghdad, as well as throughout the rest of Iraq, cancelled their festivities this past Christmas. Ever since the massacre of worshippers in Baghdad's Church of Our Lady of Salvation last November--followed by attacks on Christian neighborhoods in the city--the Christians of Iraq have been living in a state of unrelieved terror, and they simply do not dare celebrate their faith too openly right now. Moreover, there is no reason to imagine that their situation will become any more tolerable in any conceivable near future. There are beleaguered Christian communities throughout much of the Muslim world, of course, but it is quite possible that the last remnants of ancient Persian Christianity in Iraq and perhaps Iran will disappear in our lifetimes. If so, and if Persian Christianity is largely reduced to a fragmentary diaspora community, it will mark the end of yet another tragic episode in one of the more extraordinary tales in Christian history--though it is a tale regarding which most Christians know absolutely nothing. Most of the Christians of Iraq belong to "Assyrian" tradition: the tradition, that is, of the Church of the East (often, and somewhat opprobriously, called the "Nestorian" Church) and of its sixteenth-century offshoot the Chaldean Catholic Church (occasionally, and somewhat opprobriously, called the "Uniate" Chaldean Church). Today, even many Christians who know something of the Eastern churches tend to think of the Assyrian communions as little more than exotic marginal sects; even among the "Oriental" churches (that is, the ancient Eastern communions that did not adopt the Christological formula of Chalcedon in the fifth century) they are often regarded as the least significant. And yet at one time--from late antiquity right up into the high middle ages--the Church of the East was, in geographic terms, far and away the largest Christian communion in the world, and the most actively evangelical. Had there been such a thing as accurate cartography in the early thirteenth century, any good map of the Christian world might have suggested to a casual observer that European Christianity was little more than a local phenomenon, a sort of provincial annex at the western edge of Assyrian Christendom. Demographically, of course, the balances tipped in the opposite direction. Still, though, the Church of the East was anything but a marginal communion. The Christianity of all of Syria was from a very early period both an exceedingly scholarly and an exceedingly ascetical tradition. But there was also something of a difference in sensibility between the religious culture to the west, whose intellectual center was Antioch, and that to the East, whose intellectual center was Nisibis. What became the distinct Assyrian tradition, with its distinctive Christological vocabulary, emerged out of the latter. After Nisibis was conquered by Persia in 363, the educated Christians of the city removed to Edessa and other parts of Syria still under Byzantine control; but a little more than a century later, when the Emperor Zeno (d. 491) attempted to impose the Chalcedonian settlement throughout the region, the East Syrian Christian scholars were forced to retreat to Nisibis again, and to the shelter of the Persian Empire, which turned out to be quite tolerant of them. In 498, the bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon assumed the title "Patriarch of the East." After 553, when the Second Council of Constantinople formally condemned the teachings of Theodore of Mopsuestia (c. 350-429), the Antiochian theologian and biblical exegete whose writings were foundational for East Syrian theology, the Assyrian Church was more or less a theological world all to itself. As it happened, however, this proved to be anything but a historical catastrophe. Pushed out beyond the farthest boundaries of the Byzantine empire, with no hope of reconciliation, the Assyrian Church found itself on the frontier of all of Asia, where no other Christians could even hope to venture. The Christian scholars of Nisibis and, later, Jundishapur were a disciplined monastic community, devoted to the study of theology and philosophy, as well as to the translation of scripture, Christian literature, and classical Greek texts into Syriac, and renowned for the quality of their medical training. Their zeal for winning converts did not seem to falter before the vast geographical distances or dangerously alien cultures of the Central and East Asia. The Church established itself over time not only in the Mesopotamian region of the Persian Empire, but in eastern Anatolia, Kurdistan, Turkestan, and well beyond. In 635, Patriarch Yashuyab II (d. 643) inaugurated a mission to China that flourished right through the age of the Khans. East Syrian Christian missions naturally followed the trade routes to the Far East. Merchant caravans from the Arabian Peninsula, India, Central Asia, and China passed through Seleucia-Ctesiphon, and the monks of the Assyrian Church--with their very useful technical, scribal, and medical skills with them--followed in their van, looking for places where their training would make them and the gospel they had to preach welcome. Simply in providing trained physicians and scholars, the East Syrian Church often proved itself an immense benefit to the areas where it settled. Wherever the Church established a new bishopric in its eastward migrations, it built a school, a library, and a hospital. By the late fifth century, the Assyrian mission to Turkestan was under way and would in time reach out to the Mongols. In 781 a Turkish king petitioned Nisibis for a bishop, and soon Episcopal sees were established in Tashkent, Bukhara, and Samarkand. Soon missions were also sent to the Keraits, Uighurs, and other Central Asian tribes. And then there was China. We know much of the early story of the "Radiant Religion"--that is, Christianity--in China principally from a stone stele dating from 781 and discovered by Jesuit missionaries in Sian-fu in the Shaanxi province in 1625. The T'ang Emperor T'ai-tsung (d. 649) granted an audience to a Persian monk around 638 and was impressed enough (or indifferent enough) to give him permission to preach and found a monastery. For two centuries, the Assyrian mission thrived. Churches and monasteries were established in at least ten provinces. We know also that the mission suffered a temporary reversal of fortunes in the ninth century, when the Emperor Wu-tsung (d. 846) laicized all the native priests and monks in the kingdom. But there were still monasteries in China in the eleventh century, and around 1095 the Patriarch of the East, Sebaryeshu III, appointed a bishop to the see of Cathay (or Northern China). Even as late as the thirteenth century, when the Radiant Religion enjoyed the favor of the Mongol court of Kublai Khan (1215-1295), Chinese monasteries were still being built. And in 1280, Mark, the Chinese (Uighur) bishop of Cathay became the Syrian Patriarch of the East, under the name Yahbalaha III (d. 1317). How far the East Syrian missions reached we are never likely to know for certain. The "Thomas Christians" of India were East Syrian in theology, loyalty, and population from an early period, and in the eight and ninth centuries the new immigrants who swelled the numbers of the Malankara Christians of India were definitely East Syrian. As early as the sixth century, Cosmas Indicopleustes encountered East Syrian Christians on the remote island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean, and there are passing references in texts from later centuries to one or another bishop of Socotra. And East Syrian missions definitely penetrated into Tibet before the late eighth century. Some historians even believe there is sufficient textual and physical evidence to suggest that East Syrian Christians reached Sri Lanka, Java, Sumatra, Japan, Korea, Burma, Malaya, Vietnam, and Thailand. By the end of the middle ages, however, the Assyrian communion had been reduced to a shadow of its former magnificence. There had been some pressure upon the native sees from the time of the Islamic conquest of the Persian Empire, but East Syrian scholars and physicians had for centuries occupied a vital place in the Caliphate. But the greater Assyrian Christian world of Central and East Asia had remained intact and largely unperturbed into the fourteenth century. Of course, the Christians of Central Asia suffered terribly along with everyone else when the horde of Genghis Khan (c. 1150-1227) was destroying every village and city in its path. But the grandsons of Genghis--Möngke (1208-1259), Kublai (1215-1294), and Hulegu (1217-1265)--were for the most part well disposed towards the Assyrian communities. Hulegu even took a Christian wife. In the late thirteenth century, however, the great reversal began. In Baghdad, Ghazan Khan (r. 1295-1304) adopted Islam, and at once the East Syrian Christian community became the object of ferocious persecutions, including numerous massacres. Then, in 1369, the Ming Dynasty came to power in China and instituted a systematic extermination of foreign creeds. The Assyrian Church had soon disappeared. And in Central Asia the rampages of the Turkic Muslim warlord Timur (1336-1405) left no living traces of East Syrian Christianity in their wake. And yet, down the centuries the Church of the East has persisted: a small community, perennially persecuted in the place of its birth, and until very recently seemingly indomitable. Far away from there--in India, where it has had a home for centuries, and in North America, where it has had to find a new home in a dark time, and elsewhere--its scattered branches continue to bear fruit, not copiously, perhaps, but indefatigably. But in its homeland it is being pushed towards the edge of extinction. So it goes, I suppose. History is not at our command, and the future does not lie in our power; we must do what we can, but we can do only so much. And, in the end, all cultures rise and fall; none is eternal. Nevertheless, for anyone who knows the strange, glorious, and too often forgotten history of the Church of the East, it is difficult to view the current situation without a very special and very intense bitterness.
Revolution in Egypt? And Could Jordan Be Next?
Is Egypt about to erupt in a full-blown revolution that could lead to the fall of President Hosni Mubarak's regime? Might Jordan's government be next? One thing's for certain: No one predicted the demonstrations in Egypt would grow so big so fast. Momentum for the protests is growing. A Facebook page promoting the democracy protests grew from 20,000 members on Wednesday to 80,000 on Thursday. The government then reportedly shut down Facebook, and disrupted Internet service in parts of the country. Twitter has been blocked. Police are beating protesters. As of Friday, more than 1,000 Egyptians have been arrested for demonstrating. Now an overnight curfew has been imposed and the Egyptian army has been deployed to urban centers. One key factor fueling events: economics. Egyptians have been suffering double-digit inflation -- averaging between 10 percent and 14 percent -- and soaring food prices in recent years. Reports Reuters: "The Food and Agriculture Organization, a body of the United Nations, said on January 5 that food prices hit a 'record high' in December 2010, topping 2008 levels when riots shook Egypt as well as other countries." Most Egyptians are already dirt poor. Skyrocketing food prices are causing them to fear they may not be able to feed their families. This is creating a "perfect storm" of anger against the Mubarak regime -- it's corrupt, authoritarian, anti--human rights, and resistant to all positive economic and political reform. It's been bad for the 30 years Mubarak has been in power, since the assassination of Pres. Anwar Sadat, the bold reformer. But now Egyptians are being pushed over the brink. Calls for Mubarak to step down are growing. "Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog turned Egyptian reform campaigner, said he expected big demonstrations across Egypt on Friday, and that it was time for President Hosni Mubarak to go," reported Reuters. "ElBaradei, 68, left Vienna, where he lives, for Cairo on Thursday to join a growing wave of protests against Mubarak inspired by Tunisia's overthrow of their authoritarian president. He told Reuters he would not lead the street rallies, but that his role was 'to manage the change politically.'" On Friday, however, ElBaradei was placed under house arrest in Egypt. In my 2009 non-fiction book Inside The Revolution, I described Mubarak as a "classic Resister." While nominally a Sunni Muslim, he's not an Islamic radical. He's not a revolutionary of any kind. To the contrary, he doesn't want real change of any kind. He just wants to retain power, keep things stable, keep wealth and power for himself, and pass the keys to the kingdom on to his son Gamal. But such resistance to positive change is inflaming the "rank-and-file," everyday Egyptians who feel increasingly desperate and see others in the region (Tunisians, Iraqis, and the people of southern Sudan) changing their governments and having more of a say in affairs of state. Egyptians are yearning for something better, and now they've taken to the streets in hopes of getting it. Meanwhile, protests have mounted in recent days in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. There, too, economics is playing a critical role. Reports the AP: "The economy saw a record deficit of $2 billion this year, inflation rising … to 6.1 percent just last month and rampant unemployment and poverty -- estimated at 12 and 25 percent respectively. 'The government buys cars and spends lavishly on its parties and travel, while many Jordanians are jobless or can barely put food on their tables to feed their hungry children,' said civil servant Mahmoud Thiabat, 31, a father of three who earns $395 a month." In Egypt, I don't see the protests being driven initially or primarily by the Muslim Brotherhood (which started in Egypt in the 1920s) or by other radical Muslim groups, though the Islamists are certainly trying to take advantage. This would be a nightmare scenario we must pray never happens. We don't want this to be another Iranian Revolution where an Islamic-radical madman takes over. If Mubarak falls, we want to see a group of pro-democracy, pro-free market, serious reformers come to power. In Jordan, there is a very high risk that Islamic radicals would take over the regime. As I write in Inside The Revolution, "It is precisely because the Jordanians have made such progress [with positive political and economic reforms in the past two decades] that I am worried by the Radicals' determination to launch a jihad there, seize the capital, and create a new anti-Israel, anti-Western base for Iran and al Qaeda. Therefore, I often pray for Jordan's peace, prosperity and continued progress. I pray for King Abdullah's health and safety, and I pray that the Lord would grant him the wisdom to know how best to move forward in such challenging times." On top of all this, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror movement has just toppled the government in Lebanon. Iran's leaders are convinced their so-called messiah known as the Twelfth Imam is coming to earth at any moment, and feverishly trying to build nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles to help usher in a new messianic age and an Islamic caliphate. Unfortunately, the Obama administration doesn't get it. "Our assessment is that the Egyptian government is stable and is looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people," said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Is she kidding? The Mubarak regime is not stable. It is an authoritarian, corrupt, anti--human rights, anti--free speech regime. The Egyptian people deserve better. They deserve freedom and democracy and free markets. Perhaps the greatest democracy in the world should be backing them.
Is Egypt about to erupt in a full-blown revolution that could lead to the fall of President Hosni Mubarak's regime? Might Jordan's government be next? One thing's for certain: No one predicted the demonstrations in Egypt would grow so big so fast. Momentum for the protests is growing. A Facebook page promoting the democracy protests grew from 20,000 members on Wednesday to 80,000 on Thursday. The government then reportedly shut down Facebook, and disrupted Internet service in parts of the country. Twitter has been blocked. Police are beating protesters. As of Friday, more than 1,000 Egyptians have been arrested for demonstrating. Now an overnight curfew has been imposed and the Egyptian army has been deployed to urban centers. One key factor fueling events: economics. Egyptians have been suffering double-digit inflation -- averaging between 10 percent and 14 percent -- and soaring food prices in recent years. Reports Reuters: "The Food and Agriculture Organization, a body of the United Nations, said on January 5 that food prices hit a 'record high' in December 2010, topping 2008 levels when riots shook Egypt as well as other countries." Most Egyptians are already dirt poor. Skyrocketing food prices are causing them to fear they may not be able to feed their families. This is creating a "perfect storm" of anger against the Mubarak regime -- it's corrupt, authoritarian, anti--human rights, and resistant to all positive economic and political reform. It's been bad for the 30 years Mubarak has been in power, since the assassination of Pres. Anwar Sadat, the bold reformer. But now Egyptians are being pushed over the brink. Calls for Mubarak to step down are growing. "Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog turned Egyptian reform campaigner, said he expected big demonstrations across Egypt on Friday, and that it was time for President Hosni Mubarak to go," reported Reuters. "ElBaradei, 68, left Vienna, where he lives, for Cairo on Thursday to join a growing wave of protests against Mubarak inspired by Tunisia's overthrow of their authoritarian president. He told Reuters he would not lead the street rallies, but that his role was 'to manage the change politically.'" On Friday, however, ElBaradei was placed under house arrest in Egypt. In my 2009 non-fiction book Inside The Revolution, I described Mubarak as a "classic Resister." While nominally a Sunni Muslim, he's not an Islamic radical. He's not a revolutionary of any kind. To the contrary, he doesn't want real change of any kind. He just wants to retain power, keep things stable, keep wealth and power for himself, and pass the keys to the kingdom on to his son Gamal. But such resistance to positive change is inflaming the "rank-and-file," everyday Egyptians who feel increasingly desperate and see others in the region (Tunisians, Iraqis, and the people of southern Sudan) changing their governments and having more of a say in affairs of state. Egyptians are yearning for something better, and now they've taken to the streets in hopes of getting it. Meanwhile, protests have mounted in recent days in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. There, too, economics is playing a critical role. Reports the AP: "The economy saw a record deficit of $2 billion this year, inflation rising … to 6.1 percent just last month and rampant unemployment and poverty -- estimated at 12 and 25 percent respectively. 'The government buys cars and spends lavishly on its parties and travel, while many Jordanians are jobless or can barely put food on their tables to feed their hungry children,' said civil servant Mahmoud Thiabat, 31, a father of three who earns $395 a month." In Egypt, I don't see the protests being driven initially or primarily by the Muslim Brotherhood (which started in Egypt in the 1920s) or by other radical Muslim groups, though the Islamists are certainly trying to take advantage. This would be a nightmare scenario we must pray never happens. We don't want this to be another Iranian Revolution where an Islamic-radical madman takes over. If Mubarak falls, we want to see a group of pro-democracy, pro-free market, serious reformers come to power. In Jordan, there is a very high risk that Islamic radicals would take over the regime. As I write in Inside The Revolution, "It is precisely because the Jordanians have made such progress [with positive political and economic reforms in the past two decades] that I am worried by the Radicals' determination to launch a jihad there, seize the capital, and create a new anti-Israel, anti-Western base for Iran and al Qaeda. Therefore, I often pray for Jordan's peace, prosperity and continued progress. I pray for King Abdullah's health and safety, and I pray that the Lord would grant him the wisdom to know how best to move forward in such challenging times." On top of all this, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror movement has just toppled the government in Lebanon. Iran's leaders are convinced their so-called messiah known as the Twelfth Imam is coming to earth at any moment, and feverishly trying to build nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles to help usher in a new messianic age and an Islamic caliphate. Unfortunately, the Obama administration doesn't get it. "Our assessment is that the Egyptian government is stable and is looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people," said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Is she kidding? The Mubarak regime is not stable. It is an authoritarian, corrupt, anti--human rights, anti--free speech regime. The Egyptian people deserve better. They deserve freedom and democracy and free markets. Perhaps the greatest democracy in the world should be backing them.
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