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Dec 29th, 2019
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Joined: Aug 2011
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Gregorios III Laham appeals to Europe for compromise in Syriaby Fady Noun Asia News 2/7/2012 The Melkite patriarch of Antioch and All the East, of Alexandria and of Jerusalem, is concerned that Syria has been caught up in a power game between the United States and Russia. He calls on Europe, which has a Mediterranean vocation, to take the initiative to prevent a civil war. More at http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Greg...urope-for-compromise-in-Syria-23909.html
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Joined: Jul 2008
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Thank you for posting this. Some memorable quotes for me from His Beatitude ...I cannot say there will never be any extremist act, but as Athenagoras said, ‘I have no fear. I’m disarmed.’
...For us, it is not the time to ask for our rights, but to rediscover our mission in an Arab world that is being reborn. Preaching peace, legality and justice is our way to accompany events, both at home and abroad.
...This is a modern war, and the media have become “despotic” and play a “destructive” role.
...Let me go back to what I said. I am not a politician. In politics, nothing is certain. When blood is spilled, it is always my brother’s blood. Besides, whilst people are worked up about Syria, they forget Israel and the Palestinian cause. I wrote to all European leaders on 2 April 2011, calling on them to do something to find a solution to the Palestinian conflict because once this conflict is solved, half of the problems in the Arab world will also be solved. Now, after 63 years of crisis, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict still lacks a solution. Why is it that no country has recognised a Palestinian state in September at the United Nations? It is capitulation. It is unworthy. "When blood is spilled, it is always my brother’s blood." From a heart that remarkably has not grown hard.
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If His Beatitude is not careful, he will find himself in the same predicament as the Copts in Egypt and the Chaldeans in Iraq--too closely identified by a hated and repressive regime which he backed too long for his own good. The wages of Dhimmitude are to be despised by all sides. And, as I said before, the Christian attempt to be accepted as "good Arabs" will fail as spectacularly as the Jewish attempt in he 19th and 20th centuries to be accepted as "good Germans", "good Austrians", "good Frenchmen", "good Dutchmen", etc.
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And, as I said before, the Christian attempt to be accepted as "good Arabs" will fail as spectacularly as the Jewish attempt in he 19th and 20th centuries to be accepted as "good Germans", "good Austrians", "good Frenchmen", "good Dutchmen", etc. And what should we do? Insist in our benefits to the society, but at the same time stressing our ethnic and cultural difference?
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"Hated" and "repressive" are entirely subjective means to describe the Syrian government.
Hated by, and repressive of, whom? Being subject to halacha and noahide laws are just as deadly to Christians, perhaps more so, as dhimmitude.
His Beatitude is right on.
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I think that Middle Eastern Christians should have their eyes wide open and be aware that, as long as there is no fundamental change in the social paradigm of Muslim Arab society, they will always be outsiders, always be Dhimmis, and will always be subject to persecution. Their only real hope is to work for a long-term solution in which a pluralistic, democratic society based on strong civil institutions and the principle of protection of minority rights is firmly established in the rule of law and the attitudes of society.
And, much as it may pain Middle Eastern Christians to admit it, the one place in which these principles are established and generally observed is Eretz Yisrael. So maybe a more open-eyed view of the Palestinian issue would be a first start for them. Hamas, Hezbollah, and Fatah are no more friends of Christians than they are of Jews. The truly bizarre aspect of all this is Middle Eastern Christian view Jews in the same light that most American Jews view conservative American Christians.
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Joined: Feb 2004
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I think that Middle Eastern Christians should have their eyes wide open and be aware that, as long as there is no fundamental change in the social paradigm of Muslim Arab society, they will always be outsiders, always be Dhimmis, and will always be subject to persecution. Their only real hope is to work for a long-term solution in which a pluralistic, democratic society based on strong civil institutions and the principle of protection of minority rights is firmly established in the rule of law and the attitudes of society. While I agree, practically speaking there is little to give one hope that this is possible. If one looks at Turkey, a supposedly "democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic", the Church (and the Ecumenical Patriarchate) hasn't fared very well. The current situation of Chaldean Christians in Iraq is deteriorating as well under the new government. Prayer may not be enough to spare our fellow Christians in the Middle East of further strife.
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Joined: Aug 2010
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And, much as it may pain Middle Eastern Christians to admit it, the one place in which these principles are established and generally observed is Eretz Yisrael. And even that is far from perfect. My good friend's family still owns the deed to the land that their house used to be on. It's gone now, in place of the Knesset. My friend's family is Arab Christian. Some of them stuck around and joined Fatah, and others (the ones I'm friends with) moved to America. Arabs, Christian or otherwise, will always have problems integrating in Israel as long as it insisting on being a Jewish state. That makes being Arab difficult, I'd imagine.
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Joined: Nov 2001
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I think that Middle Eastern Christians should have their eyes wide open and be aware that, as long as there is no fundamental change in the social paradigm of Muslim Arab society, they will always be outsiders, always be Dhimmis, and will always be subject to persecution. Their only real hope is to work for a long-term solution in which a pluralistic, democratic society based on strong civil institutions and the principle of protection of minority rights is firmly established in the rule of law and the attitudes of society.
And, much as it may pain Middle Eastern Christians to admit it, the one place in which these principles are established and generally observed is Eretz Yisrael. So maybe a more open-eyed view of the Palestinian issue would be a first start for them. Hamas, Hezbollah, and Fatah are no more friends of Christians than they are of Jews. The truly bizarre aspect of all this is Middle Eastern Christian view Jews in the same light that most American Jews view conservative American Christians. You have said it correctly. I have nothing to add.
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