The attached article on the timely topic of Christians emigrating from the Holy Land was published in SOPHIA, Summer 2015, pages 17 and 19.
Brother John
M. Samaha, S.M.
Christians are becoming an ever smaller minority in the
Holy Land countries of Jesus Christ’s time.
At the beginning of the twentieth century Christians
accounted for a quarter of the population in the countries of the Near East and
Middle East. Muslims have been the
majority. One hundred years later in the
second decade of the third millennium the number of Christians has decreased to
less than five per cent, except in Lebanon.
Why is the Christian population shrinking in these
Muslim-dominated countries?
Researchers in Beirut and in Rome identify three reasons based on their
observations. The causes of shrinking
Christian population are demographic changes, emigration, and sterner
Islamization.
Demography
Muslims multiply faster than Christians. This is due partially because of Muslim
polygamy, a fairly common practice in rural areas.
Another contributing factor is improved hygiene and
health care. Until a half-century ago,
before the use of antibiotics and advanced medical care, infant mortality in
these areas was higher in Muslim communities than among the more educated
Christian families. Now Muslim families
are no longer plagued by that handicap.
In the socio-cultural realm, Christians place strong
emphasis on the education of their children, and this accounts for a somewhat
lower birth rate. World statistics
indicate that groups with a greater educational and cultural achievement, in
this case Christians, have fewer children.
Christian families used to average three or four children, and Muslims
eight to ten. The figures are lower now,
and the gap continues to grow.
Emigration
Worsening social and political factors have caused
increased Christian emigration.
Christians occupy an inferior position in Islamic society. This is stipulated both in the Qur’an and in historical tradition.
According to Islam a Christian is one who pays taxes and
is tolerated, but in a position subordinate to Muslims. The Qur’an
actually calls for the “humiliation” of Christians (sura IX, verse 29),
although the term has been interpreted differently throughout history by
various Muslim rulers. In most, but not
all, Muslim countries Christians have been allowed to worship freely, but were
subject to diverse humiliations. In
times past they had to cede to Muslims passing by, or travel on foot while
Muslims were permitted to ride horses.
In the modern era Christians in Muslim lands have worked
for equal rights. In fact, in nineteenth
century Egypt under Mehmed Ali Pasha, and in Turkey after Ataturk’s revolution
of 1923, Christians were trusted with important roles in the modernization of
Muslim countries.
While some Muslim and Israeli political leaders pay lip
service to equal rights for Christians, the reality is often the opposite.
Islamization
Re-Islamization and intolerance have sprung up again and
been re-fueled with the current crisis in the Arab world caused by the creation
of the state of Israel in 1948. In this
era it must be understood objectively that Israel was not founded in a just and
equitable manner. For the first time in world
history a state was born from nothing at the expense of another people, whose
identity was cancelled as its territory was confiscated. Because of a troubled conscience following
the Shoah, the West facilitated the population of a new state with Jews from
outside the area, mostly from Europe.
Consequently the Muslim world perceived Israel as a Western and Christian
creation. Unfortunately the
identification of “Western” with “Christian” persists in Muslim society.
