Zach LarkinsTHE SPREAD OF ISLAM
The Fatah-Hamas summit was held in early February in Mecca, hosted by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah. It seems a rather odd choice to hold a summit as not all Palestinians are welcomed in Mecca. Those who are not, are Christians and they now have new cause to worry about their religious liberty. Non-Muslims are not permitted to enter the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medinah. There are checkpoints on the highways into the holy cities, at which non-Muslim motorists who may have missed the "Muslims Only" signs are advised not to go any further. Palestinian Christians, a small minority, but historically active in Palestinian leadership, are barred by law.
Perhaps it is now simply accepted that the Palestinian question is to be understood as an exclusively Islamic question. The cause supporting the Islamification of Palestine has been transformed from a nationalist project to a religious one. The Mecca summit would seem to confirm that this is now quasiofficial policy.
"What is happening on the ground [in Gaza] serves only the enemies of the Arab-Islamic nation and, if it continues, it will deprive the Palestinian people of the fruits of their long heroic struggle to recover their national rights," King Abdullah said in talks with Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas. But just what is the "Arab-Islamic" nation which the King speaks of? Does it include only those who are Arab and Muslim, a "nation" that would exclude Egyptian Coptic Christians, Iraqi Chaldean Christians, as well as Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic Palestinians? This meeting in Mecca would suggest that in the "Arab-Islamic" nation, the Islamic bit is the more important, in which case you have to wonder what relationship Iranians, Pakistanis and Indonesians might have with this new nation. The principal question is for those Palestinian people who wish "to recover their national rights" as King Abdullah puts it.
Are those national rights to be understood in Islamic terms? Is the Palestinian state to be an Islamic republic? And if Palestinian leaders feel comfortable meeting in cities where Christians are banned, what confidence can Christians worldwide have that the holy sites of Bethlehem and the Old City of Jerusalem would be safeguarded should they ever come under the jurisdiction of a Palestinian state? The centuries-old presence of Christians in the "Arab-Islamic" world is shrinking. Where once there were hundreds of thousands, there are now communities of only a few dozen families. Most dramatic of all, Bethlehem, once a majority- Christian city, is now three quarters Muslim. The meetings in Mecca will only confirm the fears of Palestinian Christians that there is little future for them in the "Arab-Islamic" nation. To impose a suffocating secularism on the citizens of the Arab lands is neither feasible nor desirable. Arab countries have long experience with religious minorities living in relative harmony within Islamic majorities. Religious liberty for Christians and others in Islamic-majority Arab countries is not something new. It has been respected in times past, and Christian communities have been able to flourish.
There has to be room in the future of the Arab nations for their countrymen who worship differently. Yet there is no room in Mecca. Let Mecca remain a meeting place exclusively for Muslims. It should never be a place for national summits.
Sources: Raymond J. De Souza National Post
Perhaps it is now simply accepted that the Palestinian question is to be understood as an exclusively Islamic question. The cause supporting the Islamification of Palestine has been transformed from a nationalist project to a religious one. The Mecca summit would seem to confirm that this is now quasiofficial policy.
"What is happening on the ground [in Gaza] serves only the enemies of the Arab-Islamic nation and, if it continues, it will deprive the Palestinian people of the fruits of their long heroic struggle to recover their national rights," King Abdullah said in talks with Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas. But just what is the "Arab-Islamic" nation which the King speaks of? Does it include only those who are Arab and Muslim, a "nation" that would exclude Egyptian Coptic Christians, Iraqi Chaldean Christians, as well as Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic Palestinians? This meeting in Mecca would suggest that in the "Arab-Islamic" nation, the Islamic bit is the more important, in which case you have to wonder what relationship Iranians, Pakistanis and Indonesians might have with this new nation. The principal question is for those Palestinian people who wish "to recover their national rights" as King Abdullah puts it.
Are those national rights to be understood in Islamic terms? Is the Palestinian state to be an Islamic republic? And if Palestinian leaders feel comfortable meeting in cities where Christians are banned, what confidence can Christians worldwide have that the holy sites of Bethlehem and the Old City of Jerusalem would be safeguarded should they ever come under the jurisdiction of a Palestinian state? The centuries-old presence of Christians in the "Arab-Islamic" world is shrinking. Where once there were hundreds of thousands, there are now communities of only a few dozen families. Most dramatic of all, Bethlehem, once a majority- Christian city, is now three quarters Muslim. The meetings in Mecca will only confirm the fears of Palestinian Christians that there is little future for them in the "Arab-Islamic" nation. To impose a suffocating secularism on the citizens of the Arab lands is neither feasible nor desirable. Arab countries have long experience with religious minorities living in relative harmony within Islamic majorities. Religious liberty for Christians and others in Islamic-majority Arab countries is not something new. It has been respected in times past, and Christian communities have been able to flourish.
There has to be room in the future of the Arab nations for their countrymen who worship differently. Yet there is no room in Mecca. Let Mecca remain a meeting place exclusively for Muslims. It should never be a place for national summits.
Sources: Raymond J. De Souza National Post
