Christian Skaug Reza Aslan skriver i Foreign Affairs om utviklingen i den overveiende kristne byen Maaloula i Syria:
As I write, the city of Maaloula in Syria has become a ghost town after being briefly occupied by members of the al Qaeda–linked jihadist group al-Nusra Front. Conflicting reports claim that al-Nusra fighters have desecrated churches and statues in what may be one of the oldest Christian cities in the world, a place where residents still speak Aramaic, the language presumably spoken by Jesus.
Dessverre er det som skjer i Maaloula typisk for det som en stund har pågått andre steder i Midtøsten, som Irak og Egypt: Kristne mister sine hjem, sine gudshus og sine liv, og kristenheten fordrives fra steder hvor den har vært tilstede siden begynnelsen. Mens andelen kristne i regionen var 20 prosent for hundre år siden, er den omlag fire prosent og synkende i dag.
Mens islamister av det militante slaget kan feire denne utviklingen som en triumf, peker Reza Aslan på det som av og til også fremheves av muslimer av god vilje: Fordrivelsen av de kristne rammer dem selv også. For hvordan kan folk ha noe håp om en utvikling i retning et demokratisk samfunn med respekt for mangfold, dersom pluralismen rent faktisk forsvinner?
But it is important to note that the removal of the region’s Christians is a disaster for Muslims as well. They are the ones who will be left with the task of building decent societies in the aftermath of these atrocities. And that task will be made immeasurably harder by the removal of Christians from their midst. It is not just that the memory of these brutal actions will taint these societies — perpetrators and victims alike — for the indefinite future; it is also that Muslims are removing the sort of pluralism that is the foundation for any truly democratic public life. One of the refrains of the Arab Spring has been that Muslims want to put an end to tyranny. But the only lasting guarantor of political rights is the sort of social and religious diversity that Muslims in the region are in the process of extinguishing. If nothing is done to reverse the situation, the hope for peace and prosperity in the Middle East may vanish along with the region’s Christian population.
