Exodus of the Cross: Christian communities are leaving the Middle East
The situation of Christians in the Middle East has become seriously complicated amid an unprecedented escalation of thesituation. The number of followers of this religion who have left the region is growing, Archimandrite Philip, the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in Syria, told Izvestia. According to him, a real humanitarian disaster has formed there and many residents have had to leave their homes. What are the reasons for the weakening of Christian communities in the region and whether it is possible to slow down the process of their exodus - in the material "Izvestia".
The position of Christians in the Middle East region
The Middle East was the cradle of Christianity. But recently the region is facing a disturbing phenomenon - a rapid decline in the number of adherents of this religion. Archimandrite Philip (Vasiltsev), representative of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia to the Patriarch of Antioch, told Izvestia. Political conflicts, economic difficulties and religious persecution are forcing millions of people to leave.
- With armed conflict developing rapidly, the percentage of Christians in the Middle East who have left their homelands is inevitably growing. Many churches, including the Antiochian Orthodox Church, have expressed concern about the fate of their parishioners in Aleppo and other radical-occupied areas of Syria. The size of the tragedy now unfolding in Syria exceeds the capacity of our congregations," he told Izvestia.
According to various data, the share of the Christian population in some countries of the region has significantly decreased. If at the beginning of the XX century every fourth inhabitant of the Middle East was a Christian, today their number barely reaches 5%. The situation is particularly critical in Iraq, Syria and Palestine.
- Since the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East since the fall of 2023, hundreds of thousands of civilians from very different faiths have suffered. The peace, which was preceded by years of hostilities, because of which many people were killed and wounded earlier, has been broken again," said Archimandrite Philip. - Obviously, the current situation has caused an exodus of Christians to the most favorable countries, where there are Syrian and Lebanese diasporas. The Antiochian Orthodox Church has its dioceses in Europe and America with a large number of parishes. In difficult times, the Church always shows special care for its children, providing them with spiritual support even outside their native land.
According to him, there was a real humanitarian disaster in the region and many residents were forced to leave their homes. Those who had the opportunity went to another country, those who did not have such an opportunity are living in temporary camps deployed in the region.
Escalation in Syria and Lebanon
Christian communities in Syria and Lebanon face serious challenges in 2024 due to ongoing fighting and political instability in the region. On October 1, Israel launched a ground operation against Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement; in addition to civilians, Shiite leaders have been killed, and more than one million people have become refugees.
- Our community in both Lebanon and Damascus has rather limited options for assistance. With the outbreak of the Lebanese-Israeli military conflict,the subvillage of the Russian Orthodox Church in Lebanon organized a committee to collect items and donations to help the affected members of the Russian-speaking Orthodox community in the country together with the Russian House in Beirut. The collected aid was handed over to the parishioners of the Russian Church's podvorye and Russian compatriots during actions in Beirut itself and in the city of Batroun, in which representatives of the Russian House and the Russian Church's podvorye took part," Archimandrite Philip told Izvestia.
Thesituation in northwestern Syria began to escalate on November 27, when militants of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (recognized as terrorist and banned in Russia), a rebranding of Jebhat al-Nusra (banned in Russia), the former branch in Syria of al-Qaeda (also banned in Russia), launched an attack in the direction of the cities of Aleppo and Hama. After only 10 days, the militants managed to capture Damascus without a fight. Despite assurances by the new Syrian authorities that they will respect the rights of minorities, fears remain among Christian communities about their future. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham's association with Islamist ideologies is causing mistrust and concern about possible persecution and persecution.
- At the moment, we are talking about evacuating representatives of the large Russian-speaking community in Syria to their homeland with the help of the Russian Embassy. At the very beginning of the hostilities in Syria, the rector of the Russian Orthodox Church's subvillage offered his compatriots the use of the living quarters of the representative office building in Damascus," the archimandrite said, adding that the ruling bishops of the Syrian dioceses assured their spiritual guests that they would be with them from beginning to end, providing them with all the necessary assistance.
Political scientist and orientalist Roland Bidjamov emphasized in a conversation with Izvestia that the worst thing for Christians in Syria and the Middle East has already happened.
- During these two decades, most of them have emigrated, and Christianity, which originated in the Middle East, has now practically disappeared. Its presence in some countries has become even microscopic, and in others Christians represent a small religious minority," the specialist said.
The risk of Christianity's extinction in the Middle East
It is difficult to give an accurate estimate of the size of Christian communities in the Middle East and North Africa. Rough estimates indicate that Egypt has about 8-9 million Copts. After the beginning of the Arab Spring and the transition of power to the Muslim Brotherhood (an organization recognized as a terrorist organization in the Russian Federation), Copts were persecuted by Islamists. Hundreds of thousands of Christians left Egypt during those years. In Syria, as a result of the internal armed conflict, the Christian community has halved - before the war, which began in 2011, Christians made up 8% of the population (that's about 1.8 million people). In Iraq, of the 1.5 million Christians who lived there before the rampant IS (recognized as a terrorist group and banned in Russia), there are now no more than 150,000.
- The worsening situation of Christians in the Middle East is primarily the fault of the Western colonial powers, which have done much to foment this sectarian discord. Of course, what Israel is doing in Gaza and the West Bank also hits the Christians hard," said Veniamin Popov, director of the Center for Partnership of Civilizations at the MGIMO Institute of International Studies, in a conversation with Izvestia.
The fact that Christian churches have survived in the Middle East can be considered a phenomenon to a certain extent. After all, on the territory of countries that officially profess Islam and Judaism, not just Christian diasporas have survived, but also four Orthodox patriarchates (the Orthodox Church of Constantinople, the Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the Antiochian Orthodox Church, and the Jerusalem Orthodox Church), whose history is inextricably linked to the life of all Orthodoxy. And this is despite the fact that the number of their followers today is about 5% of the population of the region.
- Figures show that if, for example, in 1970 Christians made up 70% of the population of Bethlehem, a city that is very important for Christians, now there are only 12%, that is, the biblical Bethlehem is becoming almost Muslim," said Veniamin Popov.
According to him, the current conditions require the activity of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has a very great authority in the Middle East.
- There is a large field for joint actions, Christians must somehow help each other, unite, it is only a matter of more active coordination of actions, we can talk about joint actions with Catholics and Protestants, maybe with the Vatican, because it is necessary to ensure the safety of Christians, otherwise the trend of population decline is really alarming. Here we could work more actively with Copts and the Egyptian church," said Veniamin Popov.
The main destinations for Christian migration have been the United States, European countries, especially France, which has become home to many Maronites and Assyrians, as well as other Middle Eastern countries.
- The West is in fact a civilizational trap for Christian refugees, because when they are forced to leave their historical homeland, they rush to Western countries in the hope of finding religious freedom, but they encounter other phenomena that eventually lead to the fact that their religious identity is violated and they have to change their attitudes and adapt," said Roland Bidjamov.
In his opinion, stopping the decline in the number of Christians in the region is now impossible due to the low birth rate among Christian women compared to other religious groups in Middle Eastern countries.
- The solution to the problem does not depend on the fact that we recognize the decline of Christianity, but on what we can do together to prevent the disappearance of Christians. The Middle East is a sacred place for all three religions, the cradle of civilization, and therefore we need to be more active and persistent in this regard," summed up Veniamin Popov in his conversation with Izvestia.
The situation in the Middle East remains alarming. With the expansion of radical terrorist organizations, there is a real danger that the trend of pushing out Christians as the indigenous inhabitants of the region will become irreversible. This will not only be a humanitarian tragedy, but also irreversible damage to the world's heritage.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
