Madam, - Pádraig Ó Suilleabháin (January 3rd) is right to challenge clergymen and politicians who have tried to blame the Israeli security wall and America's involvement in Iraq for the decline of Christianity in its Middle-Eastern cradle. Rather, these have become the latest excuse for a century of ill-treatment and discrimination meted out to Christians in the Middle East.
At the turn of the last century, more than 2 million Christians lived in Turkey; their community dated back to the time of St Paul. For centuries Constantinople was the centre of Christendom. After decades of discrimination and deportation, Turkey's Christians have dwindled to less than 1 per cent of the population, though many more may still practice Christianity secretly.
Even today, this EU candidate country will not allow the Greek Orthodox Holy See in Istanbul to train priests or open closed seminaries. Talking openly about the Armenian and Assyrian genocide during the first World War is a punishable offence. The teaching of Aramaic, the language of Jesus, is illegal.
Christian communities are not legally recognised and are unable to acquire property or open bank accounts. They cannot register their land, which consequently can be claimed by the state at any time.
Over the centuries, many Egyptians converted to Islam because of a law forbidding Christians from inheriting property. Even today, Egypt's 16 millions Christian Copts are systematically discriminated against on constitutional, political, administrative, and cultural grounds. Under the Hamayouni law, Christians cannot even repair the toilet in their church without permission from the president. Coptic church land has been seized by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs and has not been returned despite court rulings. Religious affiliation is recorded on state identity cards.
At the present time there are no Christian governors, mayors, police chiefs or college deans in Egypt. Copts are limited to no more than 5 per cent of places in the army and police despite making up 20 per cent of the population.
Christianity is illegal altogether in Saudi Arabia. In Afghanistan, converting to Christianity is a capital offence unless you are determined to be insane. The indigenous Assyrian and Chaldean Christians in Iraq now suffer even more persecution than they did under Saddam Hussein. Syria's Christian population, which once made up one third of the population, has shrunk to less than 10 per cent. More Lebanese Christians now live outside Lebanon than inside their own country.
There are more Christians from Jerusalem living in Sydney than in Jerusalem. Bethlehem, which was 80 per cent Christian during the British mandate, now has a Muslim majority as a result of massive Christian emigration from the Palestinian territories which the Palestinian Authority has tried to conceal.
The plight of Christians in the Middle-East is one of the unspoken tragedies over our time. And it has been going on for a long time. With the exception of Israel, there are almost no Jews left in the Middle-East. It seems that the same process is happening to Christians, albeit more slowly. - Yours, etc,
LEO VARADKAR, Rosehaven, Dublin 15.