by Natasha Tynes | Feb 16, 2006 | Religion
I read two articles this morning that examined the challenges facing Arab-Christians. Both pieces highlighted the fact that the affairs of Christians in the Middle East are finally gaining some international recognition. The first was The Economist article "Hail to the King," which detailed a meeting His Majesty King Abdullah had with Christian evangelicals in Washington, D.C.:
The king did his best to accentuate the positive in relations between Abraham’s quarrelsome children. After deploring the destruction of Christian churches in Iraq — "breaking with a 1,400-year-old tradition of Christian-Muslim friendship," as he put it, a tad optimistically — he briefed luminaries of the religious right on his efforts to develop Christian pilgrimage sites and look after Jordanian Christians.
It went down well. "We are saying to King Abdullah, we support you, we pray for you, we can learn a lot from you," says Richard Cizik, a vice-president of the National Association of Evangelicals
The second was an editorial in today’s Washington Post by Robert Novak. The commentary examines the plight of Palestinian Christians living in the West Bank village of Aboud:
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C., is taking an increased interest in the desperate plight of Christians in the Holy Land — to the point of politely and privately asking for help from George W. Bush. Immediately at stake is the West Bank village of Aboud, whose Christian roots go back two millennia, and which now is threatened by Israel’s security barrier.
"I am afraid that what is happening in the Holy Land is that we’re losing the presence of the Christian community," Cardinal McCarrick told me. As leader of his faith in the nation’s capital, he seeks friends on both sides of any political divide. Accordingly, the Cardinal told me the West Bank’s Christians are endangered by Palestinians (particularly since Hamas’ election victory). But there is no question for the Holy Land Christian Society, seeking to save their co-religionists, that water-hungry Jewish settlers benefit from the security wall.
While we are currently facing — at least according to some analysts — a cultural war between Islam and the West, I’m glad to see that despite being in the midst of this mayhem, the challenges currently facing Eastern Christians are not being neglected. Jordanian blogger Rami has an interesting commentary on the subject. Make sure to read his post.
by Natasha Tynes | Feb 5, 2006 | Jordan, my nation, Religion
The most upsetting thing to me about this whole cartoon fiasco is how some fundamentalists in the Arab world have decided to react to the offensive cartoons – caricatures which were drawn by Europeans on a different continent — by venting their anger against their fellow Christian-Arabs!
While the controversy continues to snowball, some extremists have and continue to harass Christian Arabs in places like Iraq, the Palestinian territories, where gunmen distributed a pamphlet at the European Union Headquarters threatening to harm churches, and most recently Lebanon, where demonstrators there threw stones at houses and churches in the Christian neighborhood of Al-Ashrafyeh! My good reporter friend who was there to cover the protest informed me that sectarian tensions in the country are very high, with Christians terrified and ready to take up arms.
This is terribly alarming! Besides Lebanon, I cannot remember hearing about significant sectarian incidents while growing up in the Middle East. As a Christian-Arab, I never thought I would live to see the day when Christian-Arabs are looked at with suspicion by their fellow Arabs for acts perpetrated by Westerners in another part of the globe! But then again, while I was growing up, the world was a different place and extremism was never so prevalent, so omnipotent.
by Natasha Tynes | Feb 4, 2006 | Religion
A New Zealand newspaper has published controversial cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Mohammed. The Dominion Post, a Fairfax-owned Wellington newspaper, published the cartoons today, saying its decision was in the interests of press freedom. "It’s important for our readers to see what the fuss is about and to make up their own minds. Ours is a secular society based on western ideals of tolerance and open debate, even if that may occasionally offend," said Tim Pankhurst, Dominion Post editor and Commonwealth Press Union chairman.
"We do not wish to be deliberately provocative but neither should we allow ourselves to be intimidated. If we allow Christianity and more particularly the Catholic Church and the Pope to be satirized, and we do, should Islam be treated differently?" he asked.
Source: [The age]
Ahh! Will this issue ever end? Enough! Both sides are taking it to extremes and simply taunting one another for what are surely ignoble ends! Stop the mayhem! Geez! Can’t we just all get along?
Meanwhile, the husband and I have aggregated a number of news items related to the cartoon controversy. They can be seen in one fell swoop here. One story of interest is the Newsweek interview with Jihad Al-Momani, the Jordanian editor who republished the infamous cartoons in Sheehan. Obviously, he gave the interview right before his arrest on Saturday. Apparently, last month’s campaign to end journalist imprisonment in Jordan has not been that fruitful.
by Natasha Tynes | Feb 4, 2006 | Religion
Egyptian blogger Big Pharaoh is asking a question that has been haunting me for the past couple of days. He wonders:
"A question to my fellow Muslims and Arabs: isn’t this picture more of an insult to Islam than the silly J-Posten cartoons? And don’t you think it can easily be an inspiration for similar future cartoons? Just 2 innocent questions here."
With all due respect, I have to agree with Big Pharaoh here. While I still regard the cartoons as offensive — exhibiting a terrible stereotype of millions of Muslims out there — some of the reactions to the cartoons, including, let’s see — the storming and torching of embassies, throwing grenades onto the grounds of a French embassy and harassing European nationals, and more — have caused more harm to the image of Muslims and Arabs than the actual publication of the caricatures did. Anyway, like fellow Jordanian blogger Naseem, I’m ‘sick of the word cartoon.’ Let’s hope this is the last post I write about this particular topic.
by Natasha Tynes | Feb 2, 2006 | Jordan, my nation, Media watch, Religion
The Jordanian weekly Sheehan has published three of the controversial caricatures (in Arabic) that depict the Prophet Mohammad. Accompanying the cartoons is an editorial from the paper’s editor-in-chief, Jihad al Moumani. You can read the whole story here (in Arabic) but here are some translated portions:
You Muslims of the world, act rational. Who insults Islam more: a foreigner who draws the prophet or a Muslim with an explosive belt killing himself at a wedding in Amman or a anywhere else? … Which act prompts the world to insult Islam and Muslims: cartoons or a real scene of the butchering of a hostage with a sword in front of a camera while accompanied by the chanting of Allah Akbar.
What’s going to happen now? Will people start boycotting Mansaf? Will Jihad Al-Moumani start receiving death threats? Will the government shut this paper down? This is a very bold move that may have grave consequences.
Meanwhile, intense discussions are currently raging over this issue on Mental Mayhem’s newswire. Frankly, I can’t keep track of all the comments at this point. As the discussion has grown it is becoming more heated between those for and against the cartoons. Some are really getting out of line. I’ll need to hire someone full-time just to monitor the debate and comments from both sides of the conflict! There are links to other related stories within these posts, but these are the hot topics receiving the most discussion right now:
UPDATE: As I’d expected, a few hours after the publication of the cartoons in the Jordanian weekly Sheehan, the owners said they had fired their editor and taken the issue off the stands. And, no surprise either, the government is threatening legal action.
UPDATE 2: The publisher of the newspaper Sheehan has made a statement: "The company was shocked that Sheehan republished the insulting caricatures and it strongly condemns such an irresponsible behavior." It vowed "severe measures against people whose implication is proven." The government also came out strongly against newspaper’s decision. "The government believes that the paper committed a grave mistake and demands an apology, while at the same time is considering legal action," said Government Spokesperson Nasser Judeh according to Jordan’s News Agency, Petra. In the mean time, Jihad Moumani apologized, expressing "deep regret" and saying he meant to show people how the cartoons were insulting. More details are available at The Jordan Times.
by Natasha Tynes | Jan 30, 2006 | Religion, The Disturbing
I came across this Elaph article (in Arabic) via Jameed indicating that some Iraqi sources are linking the latest attacks on churches in Iraq -– in which at least three people were killed and nine were wounded — to the current controversy involving the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten.
According to these sources, some Iraqi-Christian students at the University of Mosul were recently attacked by people upset by the publication of these caricatures in Denmark and Norway. These attacks came following the issuance of several fatwas that called for the expulsion of "the infidels and crusaders" for insulting the prophet. The Iraqi sources said it was likely that the coordinated church attacks that took place yesterday (Jan. 29) are linked with the recent anti-Christian campaign.
I’m not sure how credible this news is, as I’ve not seen mention of it anywhere else. But if it is accurate, then the world has absolutely gone crazy. What kind of a logic is this? People get upset at Danish cartoonists, so they decide to whack their fellow citizens! And who are these low-life individuals issuing fatwas that call for attacks on innocent civilians, ones who happen to belong to a religious minority. But then again, I guess I shouldn’t expect logic to pour forth from Iraq anytime soon.
It is no secret that the number of Christians in the Middle East is rapidly dwindling. According to this IRIN article, "about 150,000 Christians are believed to have left the country [Iraq] since the US occupation began in 2003." The number of Palestinian-Christians inside the Palestinian territories is also on the decrease, and I believe the same thing is happening in Egypt (please correct me if I’m wrong).
This is extremely bad news, as it would mean that, in the long run, the Mideast would lose the diversity that it has always enjoyed. I would ask clerics to issue a counter-fatwa urging believers to safeguard their Christian brethren who are amongst among the indigenous inhabitants of the Middle East who have suffered and fought hard to protect their nation.
