Christians in Mideast

Re “Christians Feel Under Siege in the Mideast,” Aug. 14: I am a Lebanese Christian (I immigrated to the U.S. six years ago), and I was quite dismayed by the unfairness of your article. While I agree that the rise of Islamic fundamentalism has made it difficult for some Mideast Christians, the Christian minorities in Egypt, Lebanon and other Mideast countries continue to be a powerful, well-educated and affluent presence.

You quoted someone saying that Muslims view non-Muslims as kafir (which means nonbeliever). How is that different from the Christian belief that non-Christians are not saved or the Jewish belief that non-Jews are Gentiles? Muslims view Christians and Jews as “Ahl-Alkitab” (people of the book) in recognition of the kinship between the faiths.

I also found the claim that Saudi Arabia and Iran sponsor extremists both baseless and paranoid. Those groups are not some dark conspiracy financed by sadistic governments. They are a minority of desperate and misguided individuals who have strayed from the peaceful teachings of their faith.

I am not saying that injustices do not occur. However, if you consider the way the Mideast Christians have been treated in the past 14 centuries by the Muslim majority, you would realize that we have fared very well indeed.

RAMI FODDA

San Bernardino

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I sincerely hope that the teachings of Mohammed are being misinterpreted by those who blackmail, threaten and otherwise harass and harm Christians throughout the Mideast. The Jews are taught to remember that “we were strangers in a strange land” and to, therefore, welcome others who come in peace. Christians are urged to “turn the other cheek” to even those who strike them. Yet, these two faiths that claim millennia of connection with Israel and the Middle East are evidently the “infidels” who are to be thrown out.

Those who commit the episodes of persecution need to be exposed for what they are--terrorists! They know no theology, save what they choose to use to justify their anarchy.

SHERRI LIPMAN

Fullerton

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It is very difficult to feel any sympathy for the persecution of Christians abroad, inasmuch as virtually every assault on individual rights in the U.S. itself has been precipitated by people calling themselves Christians--censorship, Prohibition, bans on birth control, mandatory school prayer, discrimination against homosexuals.

Regrettably, Christianity has had a long history of intolerance and persecution of others. And people in Islamic countries have long and unpleasant memories of Christianity. The massacres accompanying the Crusades, the Inquisition, colonialism--all were motivated at least in part by Christianity.

If Christians really want to deal with the abominable human rights situation abroad, then let us see them work for human rights for everyone. They might start by fighting against censorship and injustice in the U.S. itself.

JOSEPH MIRANDA

Northridge