Endangered Christians

[CJCRANE]

We are warned that Christianity will disappear from Iraq and Syria – places where Christians have lived since the religion began – within one or two generations. Why is the West largely indifferent to the fate of Christians in the Middle East? The forced toppling of secular regimes in the region has been a catastrophe for the followers of Christ.

CrossTalking with Jeffrey Tayler, Iben Thranholm and Revd. Nadim Nassar.

https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/326617-christianity-iraq-syria-west/

[HassleCat]

1. It happens to all religions

Various governments purge their countries of religions they don't favor, sometimes all religions.

[CJCRANE]

2. Except they were clinging on until we removed all the secular regimes.

[AtheistCrusader]

16. So... we should purge our own evangelical crusaders that caused the problem?

Honestly, it would really bump up the local property values.

[LeftishBrit]

18. True but ISIS/ Daesh are particularly vicious in their persecution of Christians, Yazidis and most

types of Muslims.

[HassleCat]

21. Because their governments help them.

We are lucky in the west because we have governments that place some limits on what religion can do to promote itself, particularly when it comes to killing or driving out the competition. The opposite condition exists in any countries, where the governments work hand in hand with the religious zealots to hassle people with the wrong faith.

[Yorktown]

3. The West in not in charge of managing religions worldwide

It would be good enough if the West managed to push basic human rights everywhere.

Freedom of speech, non discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation, the basics..

[CJCRANE]

4. We removed the secular leader of Iraq,who accepted Christians. His second in command was a Christian

We are in the process of trying to remove the secular leader of Syria, who also supports Christians.

We removed the secular leader of Libya who was against islamic fundamentalism.

We supported Morsi, part of the MB who are against Christians in Egypt and elsewhere.

[Yorktown]

5. The Iraq War was fantastically dumb. Supporting Morsi wasn't very wise.

But it's not advisable to help one religion (and why?) by supporting dictators like Bachar.

[CJCRANE]

6. So let the gulf sponsored islamist rebels slaughter all the christians, shias, yazidis

and non radical muslims?

Not in my name.

Cut the rebel for the rebels.

[Yorktown]

7. Bachar and ISIS are equally horrible

[CJCRANE]

8. The rebels were supported by islamists from the beginning.

We had no issue with Assad before.

Assad is not and was not a threat to us.

We're supporting the rebels on behalf of the gulf monarchies who want to put a pipeline through Syria.

[Yorktown]

9. Absolutely not true

The world expert on Islamism, gilles Kepel, is on record saying Bachar invited the islamists to take over the Syrian rebellion to discredit it.

The Syrian uprising started as a movement of civil society, and grew militaristic under the FSA when Bachar started repressing demonstrations with artillery and torture.

That's when Bachar thought it clever to release the islamist leaders he had in the Syrian jails to create a "me or chaos" situation.

[CJCRANE]

10. That's BS. Look up the leaked DIA memo from 2012 that said our regional allies supported an islamic

insurgency from the beginning. It's mentioned in this article:

Now the truth emerges: how the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq

The sectarian terror group won’t be defeated by the western states that incubated it in the first place

The war on terror, that campaign without end launched 14 years ago by George Bush, is tying itself up in ever more grotesque contortions. On Monday the trial in London of a Swedish man, Bherlin Gildo, accused of terrorism in Syria, collapsed after it became clear British intelligence had been arming the same rebel groups the defendant was charged with supporting.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/03/us-isis-syria-iraq

[LeftishBrit]

19. The Islamists glommed on to the rebellion...

but at first it was a rebellion against Assad's dictatorship. And if other countries had opposed Assad more from the beginning (I don't mean bombed him but denied him protection), ISIS might not have gained the same traction.

The unfortunate Syrians are between the devil and the deep blue sea, with Assad on the one hand and ISIS on the other. No wonder that about one-third of the population so far have seen no option but to flee.

[AtheistCrusader]

17. Many of us warned there would be unintended consequences for our military adventurism.

The butchers bill has now come due.

What do you want to do? Kill more people? That won't have any further unintended consequences.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. The US supported elections in Egypt; they were lukewarm towards Morsi, despite him winning

Cheney regarded Mubarak as an ally: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/06/cheney-calls-mubarak-a-good-friend-u-s-ally/
The Obama govt said Morsi was neither an ally nor an enemy: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-obama-egypt-idUSBRE88C0S820120913
When he was overthrown by a coup, they carefully didn't call it a coup: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/03/egypt-obama-us-mohamed-morsi-crisis
As soon as Sisi won an election, the Obama govt said everything was sweetness and light again, and has treated much more as a friend than they ever did Morsi: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-27961933
The State Dept was accused by the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley of bankrolling Morsi opponents: http://thehill.com/policy/international/310123-public-documents-reveal-us-bankrolled-morsi-opponents

If that's 'support', it's a dangerous, two-edged sort of 'support' to get.

[CJCRANE]

14. The Egyptian military is the power in Egypt.

Not calling it a coup was sensible.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. That just adds to the lack of support the US showed for Morsi, though

They threw him under the bus. They allow the military to call the shots, but let the military frame the propaganda.

[LeftishBrit]

20. Who 'supported' Morsi?

America and allies such as the UK seem to have tried very hard to avoid taking sides in Egypt.

[edhopper]

12. Linking

pro Putin/pro Assad sources doesn't help your argument.

Iraq was the fiasco that the Left said it would be. Never supported around here.

We are also now militarily engaged with the largest anti-Christian group in the ME.

How is the West indifferent?

[CJCRANE]

13. The west is supporting the islamist rebels, 60% of whom share the same or similar ideology as Isis.

Also, is the information in the report incorrect?