Archbishops From Middle East Charge Discrimination Against Christians

"Since October 2014, 906 Muslim refugees from Syria were granted U.S. visas, while only 28 of Syria’s estimated 700,000 Christian refugees were provided with visas."

This further supports Raymond Ibrahim's important article, Obama Throws Christian Refugees to Lions.

by Warren Mass, The New American — September 16, 2015

Two archbishops from the Middle East have complained that the United States unfairly discriminates against Christians from their region when they apply for U.S. visas.

Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, Iraq, and Melkite Archbishop Jean-Clément Jeanbart of Aleppo, Syria, aired their grievances at an August 4 press conference at the 2015 Knights of Columbus Convention in Philadelphia.

The archbishops cited federal data indicating that, since October 2014, 906 Muslim refugees from Syria were granted U.S. visas, while only 28 of Syria’s estimated 700,000 Christian refugees were provided with visas. They said that even considering that Christians account for just 10 percent of the population of Syria, the number of visas granted to Christians seems widely disproportional.

Although the U.S. government does not track the religious affiliation of immigrants, Christianity Today nevertheless reported that the bishops gathered their information “from official U.S. government sources.” 

Syrian Archbishop: “We expect Christians in the West to help us. They do not”

"American Christians know so little about their fellow believers in the region, or even that such Christians exist, that Middle East church leaders like Jeanbart face an uphill battle."

by David Gibson, Religion News Service — May 4, 2015
h/t Creeping Sharia

NEW YORK (RNS) Archbishop Jean-Clement Jeanbart of Aleppo is returning to the front line of the real war on Christians, which he calls home — that is, Aleppo in war-torn Syria, where his ancient church faces the threat of extinction.

I wrote here about Jeanbart, who was in the U.S. last week in an effort to raise awareness about the plight of Christians in Syria — they include his Eastern-rite Melkite Catholics as well or Eastern Orthodox and other churches — and to raise money for their survival.

The archbishop is a remarkable figure, facing the personal danger while trying to protect an entire community and tradition and way of life. He had controversial things to say (at least in the U.S. political context) about supporting Syrian president Assad; when faced with ISIS as the alternative, you understand his “devil-you-know” choice.

But Assad may be at risk of falling. Americans are not likely to shed a tear for him, and many have been pushing the administration to aid the Islamist rebels, who could wind up slaughtering what’s left of the Christians in Aleppo and elsewhere.

And American Christians know so little about their fellow believers in the region, or even that such Christians exist, that Middle East church leaders like Jeanbart face an uphill battle:

“We expect Christians in the West to help us. They do not,” as Jeanbart told Cardinal Timothy Dolan during the New York archbishop’s weekly radio show.

I couldn’t include all of the interview in the first version, so wanted to pick it up here with the question:

After Fresh Tragedy, Syrian Christian Leader Warns: 'We Could Disappear'

"We read in the Bible that [the Devil] is the father of lies, the master of money, and the lord of blood and death. We see all three in this war...  I think perhaps ultimately this is a Satanic work, because it’s almost impossible to understand otherwise." —Archbishop Jean-Clément Jeanbart, head of the Melkite Greek Catholic Archparchy of Aleppo

By John L. Allen Jr.

CruxNow.com — April 28, 2015

One of the many dozens of Orthodox churches destroyed in Syria
by ISIS and its affiliates. (Photo: OrthodoxyToday)

While most of the world celebrated Easter 2015 with church services and family get-togethers, Christians in the Syrian city of Aleppo spent the holiday digging through rubble to locate the bodies of 15 people who died after a ferocious round of rocket bombs rained down on a Christian neighborhood.

It was merely the latest assault on Christians in the city, which has seen some of the most intense fighting between jihadists and Syrian forces.

Archbishop Jean-Clément Jeanbart, head of the Melkite Greek Catholic Archparchy of Aleppo, was on the scene immediately afterwards. Among the lost was an entire Melkite Greek family of four, crushed to death when a section of their apartment building collapsed. One of Jeanbart’s grim responsibilities was to find a suitable spot for their burial, since the cemetery used by his Church for centuries is now a battle zone ringed by snipers.

It was hardly the 72-year-old prelate’s first taste of tragedy.

In October 2012, his own priest secretary and protégé, the Rev. Imad Daher, was nearly killed when a bomb exploded near the archbishop’s residence. Daher had to be helicoptered to Beirut for the first of seven surgeries, which, among other things, cost him one of his eyes.

Not long ago, Jeanbart himself was driving to Beirut when an armed band shot out the tires of his car and forced it from the road, perhaps with the aim of either killing or kidnapping him. (Abducting Christian clergy has become a cottage industry.) Jeanbart and his driver escaped when a military convoy happened to pass by, prompting the assailants to flee.

Prior to the war, Christians were 10 percent of Syria’s population, but faced with such carnage, scores have fled. The roots of the faith in the country reach back to the age of the apostles, but today Jeanbart warns ominously, “We could disappear.”

Despite it all, Jeanbart vows he will “never stop fighting” to keep the Church alive. (The Melkite Greek church is an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See.)

Jeanbart sat down for an exclusive interview with Crux on April 25 during a tour of the United States sponsored by Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic group supporting persecuted Christians. Among other topics, he discussed calls for an international military response to ISIS, charges that Christian clergy in Syria are too close to the Assad regime, and the role played by Pope Francis on the Syrian conflict.

The following are excerpts from that conversation.

* * *

Crux: How many Christians are left in Aleppo?

Archbishop Jean-Clément Jeanbart of Aleppo, Syria

Jeanbart: Before the war we were around 170,000. We don’t have reliable statistics today, but we may be around 100,000, maybe less. Most [who have left] aren’t very far away, in the southern part of the country or in Lebanon. On the other hand, some have gone to Europe, Canada, the United States, Australia, Sweden, and so on. We worry about these people, because we’re not sure they’ll ever come back.

After what happened on Easter, people don’t know what to do. They’re afraid we’ll have the same scenario as Mosul. (Mosul is an Iraqi city under ISIS domination where virtually all Christians have been driven out, and where militants destroyed Christian gravesites over Easter in an effort to eradicate remaining symbols of the faith.)

Growing Persecution of Christians by Radical Islamists in Northern Syria

Pravoslavie — March 20, 2014

Damascus — Christians in the regions of north Syria, controlled by insurgents, are faced with growing persecution by radical islamists, reported Melkite (Greek Catholic) Archbishop Jean-Abdo Arbach of Homs.

"The Muslim rule must be applied, while all the Christian symbols displayed publicly must be destroyed," said the archbishop in his interview with the "Aid to Church in Need" aid organization, commenting on the islamists' agenda.

"In addition to this, the Christians who wish to stay will be forced to pay a tax in the future".

But in other places of Syria the situation with Christians is gradually improving. Thus, many Christians have returned to Homs, the third largest city of the country.

"The government troops have established nearly full control of this region and the insurgents are ruling over only four districts," the CWN agency cites the archbishop's words.

Sedmitza.ru

The Christians In The Crosshairs

For context when reading this article, which repeatedly claims that the danger to Christians in Syria is not from Muslims, we must keep in mind that the Muslims in Syria with whom the Christians used to coexist peacefully are largely of the Alawite sect, which is considered a heretical branch of Islam (and therefore 'infidels') by the Sunni Muslim jihadists who have been pouring into Syria from not only Muslim countries, but from Europe, America, and around the globe. 

by Witold Dudzinski, Niedziela via Pravmir — Jan. 23, 2014

Every 5 minutes somewhere in the world, every year over 100 thousand Christians are killed – the papal organization Help to the Church in Need alarms. The guest of the Warsaw presentation of a report on persecutions of the Christians was the patriarch Grzegorz III Laham.

The presence of the unusual guest – the Catholic patriarch of the Melkite Church Grzegorz (Gregorios) III Laham at the presentation of a report of the organization Help to the Church in Need was not accidental. The document draws a particular attention to the exodus of the Christians from the countries of the Middle East, including Syria. Its authors point out to the fact that Syria overwhelmed by the civil war, where the Muslims are 93 percent of the society, is at present the most dangerous country for the Christians who are a small minority – about 5 percent of inhabitants. The everyday life of Syria consists of kidnappings and sales to captivity and encouragements for rapes on the Christians. 300 thousand Christians have already escaped from the country.

- In Syria about 2 thousand groups are fighting, not necessarily the Syrians, these are groups of criminals and bandits, which are out of any control. Therefore, the biggest danger for the Christians is nor from the Muslims, but the chaos – the patriarch emphasized.

[This is not true, as it is Muslim jihadists pouring into Syria who are motivated by Islam to wage jihad, establish an Islamic state, and purge the territory of all Christians. See my comments below under 'They bring chaos and destruction'.]

Every 5 minutes

Every 5 minutes one Christian is killed in the world, every year – 105 thousand. There are 200 million brutally persecuted followers of Christ, in over 70 countries of the world the right for religious freedom is breached, and 350 million of the Christians are subjected to various forms of discrimination – the report is alarming. The editor of the Polish version of the report in a form of a book, whose presentation was held in the headquarter of the Secretariat of the Polish Episcopal Conference, is the Polish section of the organization Help to the Church in Need. The presentation began with a prayer for Syria, conducted in Arabian by the patriarch Grzegorz III. Before saying it, the patriarch had announced that the text refers to the conversion of St. Paul on his way to Damascus, and he added that he had been saying the prayer every day recently.

‘A report about persecutions of the Christians in the years 2011- 2012. Persecuted and forgotten’ describes a situation in a dozen countries. It draws a particular attention to the difficult situation of the Christians in Syrian and the countries of the so-called Arabian spring, but it also devotes much attention to China, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam.

Melkite Patriarch: ‘We are resolved to be martyrs’

Pravmir — 12/4/2013

Expressing gratitude to Pope Francis for his support for Syrian Christians, the head of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church told the Pope that “despite the woes and the quite tragic situation that we have been experiencing for nearly three years now, we want to stay and help our faithful to stay.”

“You called upon us not to allow the flame of hope to be extinguished in our hearts,” said Patriarch Grégoire III (Loutfi) Laham in a recent address to Pope Francis in Rome. “We are resolved to be martyrs in this land, blood martyrs, like some of our faithful, including three men from Ma’alula: Michael Taalab, Antonios Taalab and Sarkis Zakhem,” who were slain in September.

“Most Holy Father, they are real martyrs, who were ordered to recant and proudly refused,” the Patriarch added. “Three others, however, gave in and were obliged to profess Islam, but later returned to their ancestral faith.”