Christians betrayed
Sir: Michael Karam’s article (Ya Allah!, 16 September) is timely. Many Westerners seem to be unaware that there is such a person as a Christian Arab (a Christian who speaks Arabic as their first language), yet there are millions. At the time of the Crusades, Christians were a majority in the Near East. In 1914 about 25 per cent of the Near and Middle East was still Christian. The percentage is now much lower because events have forced massive Christian emigration, especially to North America.
The serious consequences of this ignorance were not only felt by the Christian Iraqi removed from a flight after another passenger heard him speaking Arabic. The West’s ill-thought-out interventions in the Arab and wider Muslim world have had dire repercussions for the Christians of the region, who have become targets of Muslim revenge.
It was clear to me at the time of George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq that President Bush and Blair had no idea that there was a Christian community in Iraq, nor that it would be put in extreme peril once the invasion started. Today it has almost disappeared. The final betrayal has been the inadequate response of the West to the plight of Christian refugees from Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. In justice they should be given priority as genuine asylum seekers; instead, politically correct immigration authorities seem to be prioritising Muslims and the Christians are in danger of being forgotten.
Alistair Kerr
Louth, Lincolnshire
The Mass in Maltese
Sir: Michael Karam is quite right to point out that the Arabic word for God is shared by all major faiths represented in the Middle East. But one doesn’t have to travel outside Europe to hear that designation used hundreds of times daily, and by non-Arabs.
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