The spiritual ascent of Europe begins with the region in which radical Islam is destroying the last Christians, the newspaper Figaro. Is it not our concern?
“The Western world has become accustomed to the persecution of Christians in the middle East, as if their tragedy is inevitable and must simply be assumed as a given. As if Christianity was destined to die, or he does not remain anything other, except a residual existence there, where once his cradle” — so in the French daily newspaper Le Figaro writes canadian philosopher Mathieu Bock-coté (Mathieu Bock-Côté).
Christians exist in this region for two thousand years. However, the Islamists see them as invaders or foreign agents, Mara land that should be devoted exclusively to Islam. But in our society people are expressing concern for the fate of these Christians are suspected of adherence to the extreme right, which failed as it seems, to seize this question, to make of him a kind of ideological basis. The same critics accuse everyone who shows sympathy to the problems of Christians in the middle East, that they hide behind it shameful Islamophobia or vision of Christianity from the point of view of the question of identity. But as we are reminded of a brutal attack on two Coptic churches in Egypt on palm Sunday, a devastating war that goes on against Christians in the middle East, indeed, very real. We known the result: at least 43 killed, mass murder. IG (declared a terrorist organization and banned in Russia — approx. ed.) has claimed responsibility for the attack, she makes no secret that its goal is to destroy Christianity in the region, killing his followers, or mass expelling them.
The IG seeks to show Christians that this earth is no longer their home. We have long said that Christians in the middle East are in need of counsel. Now it’s true more than ever. But who is willing to fulfill this role today? France has for many years carried out this function. In recent years Putin’s Russia has maintained this role as if it called for its implementation after the refusal of Europe from its Christian roots. Now Christians in the Middle East feel abandoned by, especially, refusing to leave that region of the world where they will have to leave your roots. We have to imagine the full picture.
Because the question concerns not only Christians. Let us remember blown up in March 2001, the statues of Buddha in the Bamiyan valley, the violent destruction of the Museum in Mosul in 2015 or explosions in Palmyra. By their actions, the Islamists would erase all that is alien to Islam, as if the realm of their religion can not stand even a simple reminder, that in these places in past times, people worshipped other gods held a different faith. How could we not see that we are talking about terrible form of nihilism, about obtaining of pleasure from destruction on the destructive euphoria? The most radical Islamism not only wants to destroy people, he wants to destroy even the memory of them. When it comes to Christians, Islamists seek to get rid of people like them enough that they conquered. We know that in less than 100 years, the demographic role of Christians in the middle East has decreased significantly. Soon they will be a residual phenomenon, will be forced to hide in the shadows. Despite the official indifference of the West, the fate of Christians in the middle East concerns the most serious parts of what we might call the conscience of our society. Christians in the middle East are witnessing the origins of religion, memories of which are stored in a very diverse and magnificent Liturgy. In other words, they are the keepers of the living roots of religion, which transformed Europe. And it is not necessary to be a believer to admit it. Should we not say, in Europe and in the West, and the attacks directed against us? At least, European civilization is to promote the formation of a special relationship with Christians in the middle East. She needs to feel some measure of existential intimacy with them, knowing that some part is rooted exactly in this direction. The spiritual uplift imparted to Europe and gave our continent its special flavor, rooted in the world that is buried, and living in the middle East Christians are the last guardians. This implies that Europe must finally admit their Christian – or, more specifically, to stop trying to deal with this heritage as if it is her existential shame.
Double attack on 9 April, probably, will not awaken the consciousness, we too ossified. But this should not prevent us from calling a spade a spade: what we see now — not that other, as attempt of extermination of the people, and, in a sense, civilization. However, since we long ago decided that Christianity is a religion, dominant in the West, we can’t imagine him in the role of victim. We refuse to feel the suffering of the community that we sentence to death, to the most humiliating discipline, to be exiled. No one says he knows the perfect political solution to protect Christians in the middle East. When it comes to politics, there are no magic wands. But European civilization should know that in its relations with Christians in the middle East is at stake is the fate of her own soul.
