Anne Zaki's response to a recent CRC forum on the Iraq war

[Peter Vander Meulen]

A Response from a Middle Eastern Christian

I am a simple Christian. I am a simple Middle Eastern with a simple mind. So I am neither trying to build an argument (though I am open to discussion in order to better my understanding), nor am I trying to represent all Middle Eastern Christians. This is my own response, which might be different from that of other Middle Eastern Christian brothers and sisters. Thus my word choice for the title was intentional: a response from a Middle Eastern Christian and not a Middle Eastern Christian Response.

I’d like to begin by expressing my gratitude to Brookside CRC and Calvin Seminary Continuing Education for hosting this well-balanced and thoughtful panel on an issue as significant and as sensitive as the War in Iraq. I am indebted to the panelists’ careful language in using terms like terrorists and/or Islamic Fascists for the few Muslims, who are causing our world such confusion and terror, and not slipping into referring to or treating all Muslims as terrorists.

I’ve enjoyed listening to the different points of view and also getting some insight into the wide spectrum of opinions Christians have on this issue through the diversity of questions asked. Now, I’d like to offer a corrective, and a lament in response to two direct quotes mentioned by the panel.

A corrective
A Question from audience: “Why do Muslims hate us so much?”
Panelist: “Because of who we are . . . it has nothing to do with Palestine”

At the heart of this question is many Americans’ assumption about how Arabs and Muslims view them, and at the heart of it is a faulty assumption built up by the American and Western media.
I was in Cairo, Egypt when 9/11 happened. Both Christians and Muslims were glued to their TV sets like you were here, and they had mixed feelings of sadness and fear just like yours. Sadness, because unfortunately in our part of the world we are intimately familiar with the pain over lost innocent lives to acts of terror. And Fear, because deep down people thought to themselves: “If they can do this to the all powerful USA, what are they going to do to us here on their territory.” This sadness and fear was further mixed with a deep sense of hopelessness. Many Arabs, Muslims and Christians do not hate America, on the contrary they think of it as the Promised Land, the land where dreams come true. They knew that an act like 9/11 will forever shatter their dreams of the possibility of immigrating to America and the chance at a better life for their children. They were right. More Arabs are now immigrating to Australia, Canada and New Zealand instead, precisely because of their fear of how Americans would treat them.

Maybe the terrorists hate what democracy and modernization stand for, but that is not shared by the majority of Arabs and Muslims. The latter, though greatly bothered by the ill effects of freedom and modernization in societal epidemics like sexual immorality, violence, divorce, alcoholism and other forms of drug addictions (all of which are being promoted in the Arab world through movies, media and the worldwide web), are still willing to put up with these for a chance at fulfilling their dreams and their children’s dreams in America.

Contrary to what the panelist declared so confidently “it has nothing to do with Palestine,” in reading Arabic, English and French media produced in the Middle East (I don’t just get my news from El-Gezera, which is not representative of the average Arab or Muslim, and is incidentally viewed by many of them as edgy and anti-Western), I’d have to say that the injustice in Palestine is key and central to address if we ever want to find an end to Islamic terrorism. And now the war in Iraq has raised this to a new height. Countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia are bigger supporters of El-Qaada, why Iraq? Furthermore, London, Paris and Moscow harbor more El-Qaada members than Iraq did before the war, why Iraq? The connection between Iraq and the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict is not that subtle when considering Saddam’s threats to attach Israel, which given the American politics in the region would understandably make the US uncomfortable. These are questions that are asked by the terrorists and can not be ignored by the Arab World at large?

My recollection of 9/11 was that of a very dark and sobering day throughout all of Egypt, and many other Arab countries. I never saw, whether in person or on TV, any form of street celebrations like the ones projected on your TV screens here. Even the terrorists themselves wouldn’t dare openly celebrate, since they knew their governments would be on the hunt for them.

A Lament
A Question from audience: “How do we tamper this terrorism? How do we engage them?”
Panelist: (Among other diplomatic solutions offered), “Work with and support Moderate Muslims.”

I find it disappointing and distressing that in answering such question, Moderate Muslims come up as a potential partner, while no mention was made of the Christian Church in the Middle East. Admittedly, Middle Eastern Christians were mentioned twice during the event, once in reference to their emptying from Iraq, and the other in reference to the increasing suffering they now face due to the War in Iraq. Both facts are true. However, what was not mentioned is that the large majority of Christians in the Middle East are poor, and so can not afford their escape to the West. Thus when mass Christian exodus happens from Iraq or Palestine, most Christians end up seeking refuge in other Arab countries like Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. This internal displacement of Christians means that the total population of Christians in the Middle East remains around 15 million Christians. How long will this forgotten community go unnoticed, and how long before our Western brothers and sisters in Christ recognize a partner in us in addressing Islam and fighting terrorism? Your ready partnership with Moderate Muslims before you partner with us is yet another instance of how forgotten the Arabic Church really is.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not against the idea of partnering with Moderate Muslims. I am part of a church body that has been engaging Islam since its birth in Christian apologetics, evangelism and martyrdom. More recently, we’ve partnered with and engaged Moderate Muslims and scholars of Al-Azhar University since 1982 in inter-faith dialogues. I simply lament these two facts: First, we, Arab Christians can not get you to recognize our presence and ministry in a Muslim World over the past 1500 years, while we think that we might have something to offer the Western world now that Islam is knocking on your doors. Second, I lament that we can neither make Muslims stop viewing America as a Christian nation, nor get America to act like one. Thus our ministry is made doubly difficult!

Between these two facts, we find ourselves in a bind. We want to experience solidarity with the Western Church, and we want to see our ministry produce fruits, but both internal pressures by our religious and cultural context, and external overlooking by the Western Church keep us isolated. We are a small minority and it is taking us a while. It might take us much less time if the Western Church were more intentional and more explicit about their solidarity with us.

When asked to defend the War in Iraq to Middle Eastern Christians based on Jesus words and life, and not on the Augustinian Just war theory (which many Arab Christians have never heard of, yet know much of the Bible and Jesus’ teachings from memory), one of the panelists suggested posing to them these two questions: “What kind of a society do you need to flourish as humans and as Christians? And what would it take?” I find such questions logical in theory, but deeply troubling in practice when human lives are on the line. I doubt the effectiveness of this method if I were to take these questions to a problem plagued place like Detroit, and ask the Christians there: “What would it take for you to have a safe city where you can flourish as humans and as Christians?” Show me a Christian saint in Detroit that would say “Sure, send in the National Guard, take my kids, kill my parents and siblings and baby niece, and while you’re at it empty the whole city of any church or Christian presence because I am committed to the freedom and flourishing of humanity and Christians in Detroit at some unseen point in the future.” Show me such a saint in Detroit or anywhere else in the world. I’ve never met one. But I’ve known saints, in many places including Detroit, who in the footsteps of their Master have risked their safety and laid down their own lives as a last resort for their faith and the well-being of the city.

One of the panelist commented after the mention of peace reached in a Nigerian village because of Christians peaceful presence, “If Christians suffer evil and not retaliate, we might have a chance at peace.” We, Middle Eastern Christians are working on our flourishing and that of all humans in our society following the Jesus way: peacefully, patiently and self-sacrificially. We are followers of Christ who would not let harm come upon his enemy’s ear, let alone his life, in order to achieve an ideal state. When it was time for someone to give up his life, Jesus willingly laid down his own. We are ready to give our lives for the kingdom, not volunteer that of others, not even our enemies’.

There are many Christians in the Middle East today who have no intention to leave. I plead with you, partner with them. Western governments have been more faithful and forthright in partnering with their counterpart in Arab governments, than the Western Church has been with the Arabic Church. We love our nations and see God at work in and among us. God has even blessed some of us with the privilege of worshipping with Muslim converts, who like the Apostle Paul, were former terrorists. Our renewed strength and hope are in the Spirit’s power alone. And our constant prayer and commitment are those of Abraham Kuiper’s, “There is not a (Middle Eastern) square inch . . over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'"
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