Op-Ed: Swine flu excuse for Christian persecution

Regular readers of this column know that, at times, we look at the ways Muslim countries, those nations where Islam is the national religion and the foundation for their laws, are not like us (if you’ll excuse the grammar).

Egypt and Turkey are two examples. Both have been in the news recently for their unabashed persecution of their Christian populations. An official policy of the Obama administration is to keep happy our pigs and those who raise them by avoiding the term “swine flu” when describing the influenza virus that jumped from pigs to people. It is not the swine flu, but rather the H1N1 virus, they tell us. The Egyptian government, however, uses swine flu as an excuse to launch another round of persecution against its minority Christian population. Even though the World Health Organization reports no swine flu in any African nation as of this writing, the Egyptian government ordered the destruction of the entire pig population in a nation where only Christians raise pigs because Muslims consider pork unclean. Earlier this week, according to various news organizations, about 1,000 Christian pig farmers armed with stones and bottles faced off against about 200 police officers armed with tear gas and accompanied by armored vehicles. The Christians lost. Now, Egyptian health officials say the pig slaughter is part of a campaign against unsanitary conditions on pig farms, especially in Cairo slums where garbage collectors live. And since all pig-raising garbage collectors are Christians, some observers believe this is another way to harm Christians in a nation where the law strongly discourages conversion to Christianity. Or, someone serving at the wedding of a Muslim who converted to Christianity. Father Mattaos Wahba received a five-year prison sentence last October after his conviction on charges he helped a Muslim woman obtain an ID card that falsely listed her religion as Christian. The woman obtained the ID of a deceased Christian woman of about her age two years before she met her future husband, according to the organization Christian Copts of California. The priest, according to the group, had no knowledge of the woman’s fake ID. He, instead, is a victim of Egypt’s open violation of religious and human rights. At least in the way we understand them. Even the U.S. State Department describes the Egyptian government as applying discriminatory religious laws and practices, and effectively shutting out Christians from senior positions in the government, military, and education. And forget about building or repairing churches. An 1856 law says non-Muslims must obtain a presidential decree to build or repair a place of worship. A church in a Cairo suburb has been waiting for a construction permit for the past 50 years, according to the State Department. Turkey doesn’t need a swine-flu ruse to persecute its Christians. That government is open in its de jure and de facto forms of discrimination, including the systematic removal of Eastern Orthodoxy from within its borders. Turkey does not recognize the ecumenical role of the Patriarch of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of the world’s 200 million Eastern Orthodox Christians, whose patriarchate dates back to the fourth century. At one time, the patriarchate possessed holdings on par with those of the Vatican, but it is now a small, beleaguered enclave with most of its property seized by the government and its priests and patriarch victims of constant physical and political attacks. For instance, the government must approve a new patriarch who must be a native Turk. The government also closed all Christian schools and the Halki Seminary that trained Turkey’s priests and patriarchs. In 2007, the late Congressman Tom Lantos joined 50 members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which he chaired, in sending a letter to Turkey’s prime minister urging an end to all restrictions on the religious freedom of the patriarch. President Obama made a similar statement in his April 6 remarks to Turkey’s parliament. Mr. Obama, however, did not mention a case under deliberation by a Turkish judge. The monks of the fourth-century Syriac Orthodox monastery of Mor Gabriel want the court to stop a group of state land surveyors and Muslim villagers from taking about sixty percent of its property. The monks believe the taking of their land is another way to force non-Muslims to leave. The case of Mor Gabriel may have profound political ramifications for Turkey, as pointed out by the Assyrian International News Agency. Turkey wants to become a member of the European Union, and protection of minority and religious rights are conditions for entry. But, history often shows us that political expediency often trumps religious rights, particularly when the religion is Christianity in a Muslim state.