Yesterday I briefly mentioned in class an article I read in the NY Times about the decline in Christians living in the Middle East. Here's the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/13/world/middleeast/13christians.html?_r=1&ref=middleeast
The title of the article basically says it all: Mideast's Christians Losing Numbers and Sway. The middle east used to have about a 20% Christian population and now it's down to about 5%. The article mentions several things that I personally find quite frightening. First, the lower Christian population makes the area less diverse and more prone to orthodox religions coming in and smothering the less-strict religions. Second, radical Muslim groups are taking up the slack of the leaving Christians, and these groups are part of "a region where tolerance is not an outstanding virtue." So basically, the 5% that's left are in an area where they aren't wanted and where they're outnumbered. No wonder so many are fleeing...what a scary place to live!
Another thing the article mentioned was the fear that Christian churches and places of religious significance would soon become museums and tourist attractions due to the declining numbers. Pope Benedict XVI obviously doesn't want that to happen, and encouraged Christians to return, saying, "In the Holy Land there is room for everyone!"
I don't know if that's exactly realistic. Sure there's room, but I'm certainly not volunteering to step into a religious hot-spot where political violence and radical Islam are rampant. Why do you think everyone is leaving? But it's sad, I think, that the Middle East is taking a step backward...part of the reason why the area was doing better than it otherwise would've (not to say that they're perfectly happy, of course), is because there was enough diversity to keep one religious group from trampling out the others. That's not the case anymore, though, and it's scary because the 'replacement' religion is not the tolerant sort.
This is a very interesting article in the New York Times. You are right that it is extremely scary. The idea that people are persecuted everyday because of their religious beliefs is astonishing to me. I guess the phrase, "Can't we all just get along" is overrated nowadays. In addition, it's not like the different religions are pushing each other to convert religions, they just want to live in the same place!
ReplyDeleteThe homogenization of the Middle East is sad to watch. The Jewish communities have left and gone to Israel. The Christian communities are migrating to the West. The Islamic communities are becoming settled in a generic brand of Islam. The Greeks have gone back to Greece instead of being spread throughout the Mediterranean. The last century has been a grand sifting of diversity. The Christians are perhaps the last group to get sorted..
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