Untitled
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Al-Liqa Center
About Which Future Are Christians Looking For?
Dr. Geries Sa’ad Khoury
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Permit me if
I said in utter frankness that I am not a member in the choir of those who are
worried about the future of Arab Christians. This is so because I believe that
the mere positing of such questions may cause in one form or another deepening
the divisions in the one society and among the citizens of the one people. I
ask: Is my future different from the future of the Muslim? Does my obtaining a
job, a house and all the requirements and luxuries which I need provide me with
comfort and security if my Muslim neighbor or Muslim citizens suffer from
injustice, unemployment, poverty and instability? What is the mission of this
Christian? And what is his Christianity? Such thinking is remote from and
contradicts our message and our faith. The one who seeks to find future
solutions for the Christians will certainly fail and will cause more trouble for
them. This does not mean that we remain silent if we are deprived of freedom to
worship or if we are treated as second-class citizens or if our rights are
diminished. In such case, we have to demand our rights from the relevant
authorities without fear or dread and we have to work with our Muslim brothers
to demand the legislation of laws which guarantee the right, freedom and rights
of all citizens and their complete equality. Then we can with great confidence
lay the foundations for one living for one people and in one state which guards
the dignity of its citizens, and works with them to develop the common human
areas on the basis of human dignity. Therefore I believe that there will be no
future for neither the Muslims nor the Christians unless they work together with
truth for the sake of one future for them and for the sake of living in freedom
and with dignity.
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Many
consider that the Christian existence is necessary for the Arab homeland.
Everyone justifies his saying or his position according to his vision and his
considerations. There are those who consider the Arab Christians as a bridge
between the Muslims and the West. This saying is insufficient and is not
successful. I am sure of the good intentions of those who say it. However, I see
that its negative aspects are much more than its positive aspects. We do not
want to be bridges only, but rather pillars in the one homeland. Together we
build communication bridges with the West or with any state or people with whom
we see the deepening of our relations as good for us and for our countries. Of
course, each citizen has his role, and any role which pours in the interest of
the homeland and the citizens is the required and due participation on the part
of each one of us. If the role which is required of the Christian Arabs is
contribution in building trust among countries and peoples, then it is a
national role par excellence.
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Here God
willed for us to live. Here the fathers and grandfathers lived, tens and
hundreds of the church fathers, the saints who lived here and around the
Nativity of Christ. They were the ones who enriched the church with their
thinking, strengthened it with their prayers and defined its faith identity.
With them there are many men of letters who contributed in preserving it after
the emergence of the new religion, that is, Islam. They accepted it, lived with
it and opened the doors of their schools to Muslims seeking education. They
translated for them the wisdom and practical sciences of the Greeks from Greek,
Syriac and Coptic languages into Arabic. They also wrote many books in several
domains, in medicine and philosophy with its diverse sciences and in theology
and holy books. They explained the ancient philosophical books and added to
them. They did not miss the crack in the church and the disagreements which
existed in it. They were interested in focusing on the importance of its unity.
I believe that much of their ecumenical theology is still a base for ecumenical
dialogue without its being known or acquainted to those who are engaging in
dialogue these days. No less important is dialogue and theology thinking which
is rich, deep and free with Muslim learned men and Caliphs and with a number of
Jews. They engaged in dialogue with openness. They listened quietly. They
answered tens of queries with wisdom, with deliberation, with seeds of a strong
faith, and with great knowledge which made their self-confidence great, and with
it they faced difficulties and challenges when they surfaced, with calmness.
They sometimes did not fear to express their apprehensions and to discuss them
with the learned men and the Caliphs. There are many examples of this. The
saying of the prophet Isaiah applies on them, that is: “In quietness and in
trust shall be your strength.” (Isaiah 30: 15). They contributed, participated
and together built a history, a civilization, a thought and a state. This active
contribution is still in our days and in all the domains.
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Today I say
with great grief and a heart-wrenching pain that the glory which we built
together in our East, today gangs and groups of villains and mobs are destroying
what we built together throughout many centuries. They are burning a time –
honored heritage, removing and effacing its historical landmarks, uprooting the
Arab identity and destroying the homeland and killing the others with
bestiality, savagery and in hideous ways from which the smell of hatred and the
poisons of Puritanism (the non-religious), rather a barbarian, savage and
bestial puritanism are emitted. Religion commands neither killing nor hating the
other nor treating him except with what is better. Those mobs are traders in
religion. They do not know God and they do not hear His voice. Rather they are
the slaves of those who send them, finance them, supply them with weapons and
encourage them to do such practices and aggressions against the dignity and
freedom of man, and to abuse the sanctity of places of worship that is God’s
homes, and to desecrate them, explode them and commit aggression against
Christian clergymen and even against Muslim clergymen and to trespass the
sanctity of monasteries and kidnapping clergymen, monks and nuns who are not
guilty except that they serve the needy, the poor and the simple people. What
happened and is happening in Ma’loula for example and not exclusively is the
biggest evidence of this savagery and barbarism.
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Let it be
clear that the one who finances and provides weapons claims that he is a Muslim
or a Christian. They really have no relationship with religion and with human
dignity. Rather they are in their thrones, their kingdoms and the petrol of our
Arab homeland with the price of which we are crucified every day and we are
slaughtered like sheep. As a Palestinian Arab Christian, I do not begin by
blaming those mobs who kill and destroy in Syria or in Egypt or in any other
country. My first and biggest blame is on Western countries which claim to be
Christian and they finance, provide weapons and support with all means these
killers, villains and savage gangs who know neither values or ethics. They are
closer to fierce animals which are afflicted with the disease of rabies than
being close to man and human societies.
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What is the
most hideous of all of this is the daily flattery of each of us for the other.
What is the most difficult is adulation for the majority of the Western and Arab
regimes which finance and provide weapons. This is when they interfere for
example to free the kidnapped from captivity be they Muslims or Christians. We
all know that for example and not exclusively that Qatar and Saudi Arabia are
two of the biggest Arab countries which finance and support the hired villains
and highway men such as “the Front for Supporting Islam”, “Al-Qa’ida,” “Da’ish”,
“Nusrat al-Islam”, the group of “The Islamic State of Iraq,” and otherkilling
and terrorism groups. All appeal for the help of them and gasp after them to
interfere and to liberate the kidnapped. If something is done after kissing
their hands which are tarnished by blood day and night, thanks begin for them
and for their employers in the West. The question is: What is the difference
between those who finance, encourage and plan and the villains who execute such
acts? There is no difference between them, and if this is the case, then why do
we deal in this way with these countries and these policies which encourage
terrorism and violence? And how do these matters agree with those who call for
fighting terrorism and violence? And until when will our silence continue
concerning the double standards and accepting these sedatives and these poisons?
I believe that the alternative for all honest persons is boycotting these Arab
and Western countries which finance the destruction and terrorism groups or
openly holding them to account, rebuking them and demanding that they desist
from continuously using the money of the petroleum of the Arabs to burn the
natives of the Arab nation. The alternative should also be in using this money
for education and raising the awareness for values, ethics, rights, equality
among citizens and for the sake of a religious discourse which gathers and does
not disperse and which consolidates relations of amicability and respect among
the citizens instead of firmly establishing hatred, blind fanaticism and hateful
Puritanism. Why we do not frankly tell Western political officials to stop
slighting our minds and that their cheap policies have become uncovered for the
young and the old among us. Of course, such policies increase disagreements and
rancor and will not benefit anyone. They should be replaced by policies to
restore building confidence among us and policies which remove injustice from
the wronged ones, give all their rights and freedom and provide them with living
in dignity.
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Yes, the
policy of the West and the Arab has slaughtered us and killed us and it is still
doing so in Iraq, Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. It forces us to emigrate
from our land and it causes in emptying our mother churches from their
believers. From here we say to them: Stop the injustice, O those of you who
conspire against us and against our Christianity. Is it not sufficient that your
leaders once had conspired with the enemies of Christ, denied Him and delivered
Him to be crucified? Does the conspiration of your leaders today against us and
with the daily incitement of your friends aim to crucify us? If this is the
case, then rest in comfort because we daily remember what Christ told us: “Do
not be afraid O small flock…” and “Fear not those who kill the body but cannot
kill the soul…” We are crucified with joy because the cross has become the
symbol of resurrection and life and not of death… We are crucified daily, but we
will stay here in our churches and in our homelands… We will remain working with
brothers of us from the true believers of the Muslims who do not trade in
religion and they do not worship money. They are not slaves for those who have
neither conscience nor ethics. With these we have lived, cooperated and
participated in making our history and our civilization. With them we will
remain confronting any non-religious rancorous phenomenon from any source
whatever it is.
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Therefore,
together, Muslims and Christians, our voice must be raised to say enough for
killing in the name of God and religion. Enough for occupation in the name of
God and religion. Enough for favoritism by Arab and Western leaders. Let them
feel ashamed and stop from upbringing the criminal terrorists and providing them
with weapons and money and supporting them in killing man and destroying the
homeland. Let them all be reassured that the more their violence and bestiality
becomes, the more becomes our adherence to our land, our homelands and our
national unity, and the more it becomes required of us, Muslims and Christians,
to work together for the sake of protecting the homeland, the identity,social
justice and peace, the unity and the one living in freedom and dignity.
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