Archbishop - Middle East Christians need support

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has pledged his support for the Christian Communities of the Middle East. Writing in The Times today (Saturday 23rd December 2006), Dr Williams says that factors such as reaction to the war in Iraq, mistrust from surrounding commuities and security measures have combined to put intolerable pressure on Christians in countries across the region including Iraq, Iran, the Holy Land, Egypt and Turkey, to the point where many are migrating away from their homelands.

"... the results are now painfully adding to what was already a difficult situation for Christian communities across the region. Iraq's own Christian population is dropping by thousands every couple of months and some of its most effective leaders have been forced to emigrate. In Istanbul, the Orthodox population is a tiny remnant, and their Patriarch is told by some of the Turkish press that it's time he left. In Egypt, where Christian-Muslim relations have been - and still are - intimate and good, extremist attacks on Christians have become notably more frequent."

Western communities did not fully understand the nature of the difficulties faced by the fleeing Christian population:

"...it's not unknown for Arab Christian families fleeing to the UK to find that their children are told in school that 'they must be Muslims really' and so are hived off with Muslim children for special activities. And that simply illustrates that we in the UK, from government downwards, are seriously badly-informed about Middle Eastern Christians."

Commenting that the first Christian belivers were Middle Easterners, he said that Christian communities have important things to say about the region:

"To the Westerner, they say, 'Remember that Christianity didn't start in England or even Rome; it's a Middle Eastern faith.' To the Muslim world, they say, 'Remember that Islam would not have spread as it did without the way being prepared (as the Quran itself says) by the other local religions - by Christians and Jews in the region. Remember that there are ways of being authentically Arab, non-Western, that don't have to be Islamic.' "

Dr Williams said the problem would only get worse unless action is taken:

"It's not a problem we can go on ignoring if we care about the health and stability of the Middle East in general; we need to try and confront it, not by weighing in with Western firepower but by making real relationships with the communities there and working at trustful contacts with those Muslims who understand their own history and want to live in a lively and varied culture."

Dr Williams was writing during a pilgrimage to Bethlehem, undertaken with other Christian leaders from England. He returns to the UK in time for Christmas Eve carol services.