Christianity's Middle East Death Knell

There isn't much that has escaped Britain's heir to the thrown, Prince Charles's attention. He has an inquisitive mind and a critical eye, and he speaks of his distaste of poor architecture, his commitment to organic farming, his appreciation of art -- as no mean artist himself -- and now he has spoken out publicly about the plight of Christians in Muslim-majority countries of the world. And in particular, in the very part of the world where Christianity became a religious force.

"I have, for some time now, been deeply troubled by the growing difficulties faced by Christian communities in various parts of the Middle East. It seems to me that we cannot ignore the fact that Christians in the Middle East are increasingly being deliberately targeted by fundamentalist Islamist militants."
"Christianity was literally born in the Middle East and we must not forget our Middle Eastern brothers and sisters in Christ."
"Yet today the Middle East and North Africa has the lowest concentration of Christians in the world, just four percent of the population, and it is clear that the Christian population has dropped dramatically all over the last century and is falling still further. We all lose something immensely and irreplaceably precious when such a rich tradition dating back two thousand years begins to disappear."
"For 20 years, I have tried to build bridges between Islam and Christianity, and to dispel ignorance and misunderstanding ... we have now reached a crisis where the bridges are rapidly being deliberately destroyed by those with a vested interest in doing so. This is achieved through intimidation, false accusation and organized persecution, including upon Christian communities in the Middle East at the present time."
Prince Charles (London Daily Telegraph)

Telegraph.Co. UK

There is not too much new about this. Islam has traditionally scorned the heritage of other religions, transforming ancient churches and cathedrals into mosques. But that detestation of religious symbols relating to Christianity and the faithful of Christ also extends further, to another religion in particular, one which pre-dated both Christianity and Islam. Sacred Jewish sites have been claimed by Islam as their own, and Jews have been forbidden entry.

Wikimedia Commons -- St.Nikolaos Mustafa-P{ascha-Moesche

Those sites which have no Islamic heritage value to Islam but which do to other religions like Judaism and Christianity and Buddhism, are summarily destroyed as offensive to Islamic ideals. The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem sits directly atop the most sacred place in Judaic traditional heritage, the Second Temple of Solomon. Muslims bristle at the very idea of Jews approaching the Temple Mount as sacrilegious, throwing stones at pious Jews who dare pray there.

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Non-Muslims use a wood ramp to enter the complex, home to the gilded Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine, and the Western Wall, holy to Jews. (Polaris)

This long-time advocate of the usefulness and necessity of promoting dialogue between religions to produce tolerance and understanding, who has dedicated much of his time to attempting to do just that, appears to have reached a plateau in his efforts. He has, in fact, only to look about him in his native Britain to assess the effect on his own culture and heritage that has been so deleteriously impacted by a flood of Muslim immigrants, many of whom view Christianity with repugnance.

Among the British Muslims that populate large swathes of England now, there is a dishearteningly large proportion who believe that Islam should dominate and will prevail, in England, transforming it into an Islamic country in time. If the power of the cradle has anything to say about it, this is a distinct possibility, allied with British tolerance and public fear of drawing attention to politically incorrect views. The Prince can certainly now expect a backlash from within his own country.

That will emanate from the large numbers of British Muslims who agree that violence to achieve an end such as an Islamic majority, universal Sharia and a global caliphate is desirable. These are people who will never accommodate themselves to living in peace and goodwill with their neighbours who are not Muslim, because their very presence is distasteful to them, and the growing tide of political Islamism holds that even contact with non-Muslims is forbidden.

Prince Charles had been moved to make his statements of denunciation of the growing presence of intolerant Islamists reacting to the presence of Christians and acting to destroy their presence, after he had listened to first-hand testimony from Christians who had sought refuge in Britain, as he visited the London cathedral of the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church centre in Stevenage.

The Hagia Sophia at night.

While unrest in Turkey continues to capture attention, more subtle and more telling events concerning the Islamification of Turkey — and not just at the hands of Prime Minister Erdogan but majorities of Turks — are quietly transpiring. These include the fact that Turkey’s Hagia Sophia museum is on its way to becoming a mosque.
Why does the fate of an old building matter?
Because Hagia Sophia — Greek for “Holy Wisdom” — was for some thousand years Christianity’s greatest cathedral. Built in 537 A.D. in Constantinople, the heart of the Christian empire, it was also a stalwart symbol of defiance against an ever encroaching Islam from the east.
Raymond Ibrahim