The Closing of the Christian Womb in the Middle East

Today’s Spengler essay at “Asia Times Online” addresses the decline of Arab Christianity and the causes of the extreme rancor that Arab Christians often express towards the Jewish State. (Note: The blurb makes it seem as if I am attacking Israel — quite the opposite. It is being changed). One of the big lies in the Middle East is that Israel somehow is responsible for the problems of Arab Christians. A highly prejudicial document circulated by the most prominent Arab Christian in the pope’s circle, Fr. Samir Khalid Samir, S.J., demanded a response. I have had high praise for Fr. Samir’s work in the past, and was very disappointed by the distortions in the present paper.

Arab Christianity is dying in the Middle East for demographic reasons: after the French carved out Lebanon as a majority-Christian country with a Maronite plurality in 1926, Christian numbers have faded gradually to the point that fewer than 30% of Lebanese today are Christians. Given that the 1942 Constitution guarantees a Christian advantage in Lebanese politics, Muslims have been revolting against this arrangement since the Civil War of 1975. Christians neither had babies nor stood their ground; infertility and emigration have reduced their numbers to the point that they cannot defend themselves. Lebanon’s Christians are hostage to Iran.

The irony is that Arab Christians rose to prominence in Middle Eastern politics (think of Tariq Aziz and Boutros Boutros Ghali) through Arab nationalism, which was to some extent a Christian project (the Ba’ath party was founded by a Syrian Christian). For that they can thank Israel, which discredited the old British-installed monarchies and brought the nationalists to power. Having bet on Arab nationalism, the Christians were left in the cold when it was replaced by Islamism.

Arabic-speaking Christianity is fading, but Hebrew-speaking Christianity is growing. There are 300,000 Christians in Israel by some estimastes of whom only 120,000 are Arabs; most are recent Eastern European immigrants along with some Filipinos.