LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
ِApril 21/2011

Biblical Event Of The Day
The Good News According to Luke 22/1-30: "Now the feast of unleavened bread, which is called the Passover, drew near. 22:2 The chief priests and the scribes sought how they might put him to death, for they feared the people. 22:3 Satan entered into Judas, who was surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered with the twelve. 22:4 He went away, and talked with the chief priests and captains about how he might deliver him to them. 22:5 They were glad, and agreed to give him money. 22:6 He consented, and sought an opportunity to deliver him to them in the absence of the multitude. 22:7 The day of unleavened bread came, on which the Passover must be sacrificed. 22:8 He sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat.” 22:9 They said to him, “Where do you want us to prepare?” 22:10 He said to them, “Behold, when you have entered into the city, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him into the house which he enters. 22:11 Tell the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, “Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’ 22:12 He will show you a large, furnished upper room. Make preparations there.” 22:13 They went, found things as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover. 22:14 When the hour had come, he sat down with the twelve apostles. 22:15 He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, 22:16 for I tell you, I will no longer by any means eat of it until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.” 22:17 He received a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, “Take this, and share it among yourselves, 22:18 for I tell you, I will not drink at all again from the fruit of the vine, until the Kingdom of God comes.” 22:19 He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and gave to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of me.” 22:20 Likewise, he took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. 22:21 But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. 22:22 The Son of Man indeed goes, as it has been determined, but woe to that man through whom he is betrayed!” 22:23 They began to question among themselves, which of them it was who would do this thing. 22:24 There arose also a contention among them, which of them was considered to be greatest. 22:25 He said to them, “The kings of the nations lord it over them, and those who have authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’ 22:26 But not so with you. But one who is the greater among you, let him become as the younger, and one who is governing, as one who serves. 22:27 For who is greater, one who sits at the table, or one who serves? Isn’t it he who sits at the table? But I am in the midst of you as one who serves. 22:28 But you are those who have continued with me in my trials. 22:29 I confer on you a kingdom, even as my Father conferred on me, 22:30 that you may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom. You will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” 

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Mideast without Christians/By: Giulio Meotti/April 20/11 
The Silent Extermination of Iraq's 'Christian Dogs'/By: Raymond Ibrahim/April 20/11
Why does the U.S. keep ignoring Syria’s villainy?/By: Joel Brinkley/April 20/11
When will Israel, like Syria, lift its emergency laws?/By Aluf Benn/Haaretz/April 20/11 
Where are the Estonians?/Talking to Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet/By: Matt Nash/April 20/11 

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for April 20/11 
Estonian tourists kidnapped in Lebanon beg for help in video: police/The Canadian Press
Assad Regime 'Arrests Opponent' as Emergency Move Derided/Naharnet
State Department: U.S. isn’t working to undermine Syria government/Reuters/Haaretz
Assad's bloody crackdown on protest threatens a tipover into sectarian war/DEBKAfile
VIDEO: More Syria protesters 'shot dead'/BBC News
The Middle East Channel: The false hope of revolution in Syria/Foreign Policy
Syria lifts emergency but police arrest leftist/Reuters
RF lauds Syria's intention to start reforms – Lavrov/ITAR-TASS
Libya, Syria and Middle East unrest - live coverage/Boston Globe
Syria speaks of reforms, then bans most protests/The Guardian (blog)
Lebanese Future Movement seeks summons of Syrian ambassador/Jerusalem Post
Sleiman and Mikati may visit Damascus soon, report/iloubnan.info
Chamoun meets with US ambassador/Now Lebanon
Berri Calls for Session for Joint Committees on April 28/Naharnet
March 14 Rejects Campaign against Mustaqbal, Jarrah; Warns of New Plan to Create Strife in Lebanon/Naharnet
Berri: No parliament file on Jarrah accusations yet/Now Lebanon
PM-designate Denies Preparations for Miqati-Suleiman Visit to Damascus/Naharnet
Al-Mustaqbal, March 8 Rattle Sabers Over Demand to Summon Syrian Envoy/Naharnet
Reports: Christian Leaders Disagreed on Hizbullah Arms but Agreed to Meet Again/Naharnet
Pro- and Anti-Syrian Regime Protests in Tripoli Likely to Be Prevented by Baroud/Naharnet
Qahwaji: Security of Lebanon, Syria Intertwined/Naharnet
Aoun: Atmosphere in Bkirki was Positive, But the Ice Was Not Broken/Naharnet
Miqati Telephones Bahraini PM Thanking him for Ending Procedures against Lebanese/Naharnet
Baroud: Everyone Has Right to Ask for Interior Portfolio, But Not at Expense of Those Who Worked Hard/Naharnet
Fransen Holds Hearing to Examine Which Documents Bellemare Can Give to Sayyed/Naharnet
 

Innocent Nigerian Christians are left for the wolves to be devoured
By: Elias Bejjani
April 19/2011
The Free World countries, Arab States, UN, and Europe democracies should all be ashamed of themselves. Where are all those prominent leaders, politicians and clergy; the hypocrites who only and only rhetorically advocate for peace, freedom and democracy? Their empty words have no meaning because they are backed with no actual deeds. Why president Clinton and his Secretary of State, Mrs. Clinton are so silent? And why the European countries are not taking any action? And why not even one Arabic country condemned the massacre? Simply, because they are all selfish, materialistic, abandoned faith, total detached from any human feelings, numbed their consciences and distanced themselves from Almighty God. For all these earthly reasons they do not care anymore. The savage criminals sure can kill the bodies of those poor and peaceful Christians, but will never be able to kill their souls that are now in heaven. Let us pray for the souls of all the innocent victims in Nigeria and strongly denounce the Horrible crimes that are unfolding against peaceful Christians in Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, Nigeria and other countries.
Background
Muslim Mobs Kill At Least 100 Christians, Burn Over 40 Churches in Northern Nigeria
http://www.persecution.org/2011/04/19/muslim-mobs-kill-at-least-100-christians-burn-over-40-churches-in-northern-nigeria/
Washington, D.C. (April 19, 2011) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that Muslim rioters have killed more than 100 Christians and burned down more than 40 churches in an attack that began yesterday in response to the election of Jonathan Goodluck, a Christian, as president of Nigeria. The rioters even destroyed the homes of many Muslims who supported President Jonathan Goodluck.
The Muslim attackers allege that the election was rigged and General Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim presidential candidate, is the rightful winner. Yet, impartial observers have called this election the fairest in decades. According to the Commonwealth observers’ report, “The elections for the National Assembly and the Presidency were both credible and creditable and reflected the will of the Nigerian people."
According to ICC sources, it is difficult to know the full extent of the damage. The casualties could be much higher as the attacks took place over many of the 12 Muslim majority states in northern Nigeria. The situation is beginning to calm since security forces were deployed and enforced a 24 hour curfew. Christian minorities living in northern Nigeria have faced repeated bouts of violence and discrimination at the hands of the Muslim majority. Since the introduction of Sharia law in northern Nigeria in 2001, tens and thousands of Christians have been killed.
“Christians in northern Nigeria are being killed and their churches and property destroyed for voting for the candidate of their choice. Why should churches be burned when just it’s an issue of politics? Why should Christians be killed just because someone won an election? Goodluck is not the president just for Christians; he is the president for every Nigerian. Why should Christians suffer because Jonathan won the election?” said a Christian leader in the northern Nigerian state of Kaduna.
Jonathan Racho, ICC’s Regional Manager for Africa, said, “We are very saddened by the violence against Christians and their property in northern Nigeria. Disputes over elections shouldn’t have been allowed to lead to religious violence against Christians. We have repeatedly seen Muslims attack and kill those of other faiths at the slightest provocation. We urge Nigeria to fully investigate this attack and bring the perpetrators to justice. As long as these attackers operate with impunity, the attacks will continue.
You are free to disseminate this news story. We request that you reference ICC (International Christian Concern) and include our web address, www.persecution.org. ICC is a Washington-DC based human rights organization that exists to help persecuted Christians worldwide. ICC provides Awareness, Advocacy, and Assistance to the worldwide persecuted Church. For additional information or for an interview, contact ICC at 800-422-5441

Mideast without Christians
Op-ed: Christians must realize Israel’s fate intertwined with fate of non-Muslims in region
Giulio Meotti/Ynetnews
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4058379,00.html
This is the saddest Easter in the long epic of Arab Christianity: The cross is near extinction in the lands of it origin. The much-vaunted diversity of the Middle East is going to be reduced to the flat monotony of a single religion, Islam, and to a handful of languages.
In 1919, the Egyptian revolution adopted a green flag with the crescent and the cross. Both Muslims and Christians participated in the nationalist revolution against British colonialism. Now, according to the Egyptian Federation for Human Rights, more than 70 Christians a week are asking to leave the country due to Islamist threats.
The numbers are telling. Today there is only one Middle Eastern country where the number of Christians has grown: Israel. As documented in the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, the Christian community that numbered 34,000 people in 1949 is now 163,000-strong, and will reach 187,000 in 2020.
In the rest of the Middle East, the drive for Islamic purity is going to banish all traces of pre-Islamic pasts. This has affected not only Christians, but other non-Islamic communities too, such as the Zoroastrians and Baha’is in Iran (the late also found refuge in Israel, in Haifa.)
The silence of the global forums, the flawed conscience of human rights groups, the self-denial of the media and the Vatican’s appeasement is helping facilitate this Islamist campaign. According to a report on religious freedom compiled by the US Department of State, the number of Christians in Turkey declined from two million to 85,000; in Lebanon they have gone from 55% to 35% of the population; in Syria, from half the population they have been reduced to 4%; in Jordan, from 18% to 2%. In Iraq, they will be exterminated.
Should the exodus of Christians from Bethlehem continue in the next two or three decades, there may be no clergy left to conduct religious services in Jesus’ birthplace. In Iran, Christians have become virtually non-existent since 1979, when Khomeini ordered the immediate closure of all Christian schools. In Gaza, the 3,000 who remain are subjected to persecution. In Sudan, Christians in the South are forced into slavery.
Israel’s flag a symbol of hope
In Lebanon, the Maronites, the only Christians to have held political power in the modern Arab world, have been reduced to a minority because of Muslim violence and Hezbollah’s rise. In Saudi Arabia, Christians have been beaten or tortured by religious police. Benjamin Sleiman, archbishop of Baghdad, is talking about “the extinction of Christianity in the Middle East.”
The Christian Egypt was symbolically represented by former United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a Christian married to a Jewish woman whose sister was the wife of Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban. In 1977, Boutros-Ghali, who was then Egypt’s foreign minister, accompanied President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem.
Sadat, who as a child had attended a Christian school, was killed because the treaty his signed with the “Zionists,” among other reasons, and his cold peace is now under attack from the new rulers in Cairo.
In 1948, the Middle East was cleansed of its ancient Jews. Today is the Christians’ turn. Just as Islamist totalitarians have ruthlessly persecuted Christians in the Middle East, they have been waging war for the past 63 years to destroy the Jewish state in their midst. That’s why the fate of Israel is intertwined with the fate of the non-Muslim minorities.
Should the Islamists prevail, the Middle East will be completely green, the colour of Islam. Under atomic and Islamist existential threats, the remnant of the Jewish people risks being liquidated before Israel’s centennial in 2048. It’s time for Christians to recognize that Israel’s survival is also critical and vital for them. During the Holocaust, when most Christians were bystanders or collaborators, the Yellow Star was a symbol of death for the Jews. Today, the white flag with the beautiful six pointed star is a symbol of survival and hope for both Jews and Christians.
**Giulio Meotti, a journalist with Il Foglio, is the author of the book A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel's Victims of Terrorism

Estonian tourists kidnapped in Lebanon beg for help in video: police
By The Associated Press /20 April/11/BEIRUT — A security official says Lebanese authorities are investigating a video that purports to show seven kidnapped tourists pleading for help. The video was posted Wednesday by local news website Lebanonfiles.com and uploaded on YouTube. It shows the Estonian tourists asking Lebanese, Saudi, Jordanian and French leaders to help them. A Lebanese security official said authorities are investigating the tape. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The Estonians were cycling in the eastern Bekaa Valley when armed men wearing masks kidnapped them on March 23. It wasn't clear whether the kidnappings were politically motivated, like the wave of abductions during Lebanon's civil war.ed.

Assad Regime 'Arrests Opponent' as Emergency Move Derided
Naharnet/Syrian authorities arrested an opposition figure in the restive city of Homs as rights groups derided the government's move to end decades of draconian emergency rule, an activist said to France Agence Press on Wednesday. Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Mahmoud Issa was taken into custody in Homs on Tuesday; hours after the cabinet approved a bill to rescind the state of emergency. The bill will now go before parliament, which is not due to meet until after May 2. The cabinet had also agreed to abolish the state security court and approved a bill regulating demonstrations, after the interior minister imposed a total ban on political gatherings and security forces shot dead protesters in Homs.
More than 2,000 people defied the authorities and protested against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in the northern coastal city of Banias late on Tuesday, witnesses said.
At least 10 people were reported killed on Tuesday in clashes in Homs, where some 20,000 people staged an overnight sit-in protest demanding Assad's ouster, AFP reported.
Later, "a patrol of the political security services arrested (regime) opponent Mahmoud Issa in Homs after he gave an interview to Al-Jazeera television," said Abdel Rahman.
In his interview, Issa spoke of the death of General Abdo Khodr al-Tellawi in the region of Homs and, according to Abdel Rahman, said he knew who carried out his murder and asked authorities to investigate and arrest them. The official SANA news agency said Tuesday that "armed criminal gangs... came upon General Abdo Khodr al-Tellawi, his two children and his nephew, and killed them in cold blood" and "mutilated" their bodies.
Assad's regime has blamed "armed criminal gangs" for deadly violence since pro-reform demonstrations erupted in mid-March across Syria, one of the Middle East's most autocratic countries. The latest overture by Assad's government was roundly criticized as failing to go far enough. Amnesty International, which says around 220 people have been killed in the month-long crackdown, including 26 in recent days, said in a statement that the "pledges ring hollow." The London-based international rights watchdog called on Assad to "back up his pledge to introduce reforms with immediate, concrete action to end the continuing wave of killings of protesters by his security forces."
"Assad should match his action in lifting the emergency by establishing an immediate independent investigation into the unlawful killings and other violations committed by his forces, and by providing reparation to the victims," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty's director for the Middle East. The Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights and its branch in Syria, the Damascus Centre for Human Rights Studies, said the move to lift emergency rule "falls short of significant human rights reforms."
"Evidence in the field also demonstrates the hardening of the response of the security forces to the spreading protests," they said in a joint statement. They added that security forces killed at least 30 demonstrators and wounded hundreds in Homs and Latakia, another key protest centre, between Friday and Monday.
With protests intensifying and spreading across the country, Assad delivered a speech to his new cabinet on Saturday and promised an end to the emergency law in force since 1963.
The law restricts many civil liberties, including public gatherings and freedom of movement, and allows the "arrest of anyone suspected of posing a threat to security."
Repeal of the emergency law has been a central demand of reformists since protests began on March 15. British Foreign Secretary William Hague called the emergency law decision "a step in the right direction" but added the "authorities should do more to ensure the Syrian people experience real political progress without delay."
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev spoke with Assad and "expressed his complete support for these reforms," said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said: "The violence there continues to raise serious concerns and it remains clear that the Syrian government needs to urgently implement broader reform."(AFP)
Beirut, 20 Apr 11, 12:29
 

State Department: U.S. isn’t working to undermine Syria government
Spokesman of State Department Mark Toner says Syria's Assad 'needs to address the legitimate aspirations of his people.'
By Reuters /The United States is not working to undermine the Syrian government but President Bashar al-Assad "needs to address the legitimate aspirations of his people," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said on Monday. "No we are not working to undermine that government," Toner said in response to a question at a media briefing, adding the U.S. government was working to promote democratic processes in Syria and elsewhere in the world. Syrian President Bashar Assad and U.S. envoy George Mitchell in Damascus on September 16, 2010. "The Syrian government perceives this kind of assistance as a threat," he said. On Sunday, the Washington Post cited WikiLeaks documents which revealed that the United States was secretly funding anti-government groups in Syria. The U.S. initially began funding anti-Syria groups under the Bush administration, the report said, after he froze ties with Syria in 2005 in the wake of the assassination of Lebanon Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which many suspect was Syria's doing. Ties with the U.S. deteriorated increasingly with the escalation of clashes between Israel and Hezbollah along the Lebanese border in 2006. The U.S. publically criticized Syria's political and logistical support of the militant organization. The Obama administration has reached out to Assad, hoping to persuade him to change the administration's policies regarding Israel, Lebanon, Iraq and support for extremist groups. In January, the U.S. stationed an ambassador in Damascus, the capital, for the first time in five years. The Post said it was not clear from the WikiLeaks documents whether the U.S. was still financing Assad's opponents, though they showed funding had been set aside through September 2010.

Assad's bloody crackdown on protest threatens a tipover into sectarian war
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report April 20, 2011, President Bashar Assad, while abrogating Syria's detested 48-year old emergency laws on Tuesday, April 19, immediately replaced them with new draconian measures banning any kind of public protest against his regime and permitting midnight arrests. His bloody showdown with widening circles of protesters is in its final act, debkafile's Middle East sources report, and threatens to explode into a sectarian war. In the last crucial stage of his fight for survival, Assad has persuaded Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon to seal their borders to stem the smuggling of arms and provocateurs to Syrian opposition groups – a closure planned also ro block the flight of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria in the next stage of the crisis. State TV interrupts regular broadcasts to show horrific images of smashed bodies alleged to be of army officers and troops murdered by the protesters. The authorities are gambling on the people rising up against the protesters for laying hands on soldiers. But the risk factor is great because military personnel watching the pictures are just as likely to decide that the better part of wisdom is to save themselves rather than the regime.
In any case, debkafile's military sources report that the decision to deploy the army for cracking down on the protests racing from city to city is a final act of despair because the troops and their officers' loyalty to the president is far from assured. Nonetheless it was taken Tuesday, April 19, after the heads of the regime discovered that some of the arms and fighters smuggled into Syria had been diverted from mixed-bag opposition groups to specific Syrian ethnic, religious and tribal communities who were getting ready for the unrest to change in character and tip over into sectarian warfare. The Lebanese Druzes, for instance, are pumping weapons to their brethren in southern Syria; Lebanese Sunni Muslims are arming Syrian Sunnis in the coastal towns of Banias and Latakia; the Alawites who live mostly in the Aqar district of Lebanon are taking care of their coreligionists on the Syrian side of the border; Christians of the "Lebanese Forces" grouping are smuggling weapons to Syrian Christian villages; while Iraqi and Turkish Kurdish tribes have stepped up their consignments of weapons, fighters and activists to the Kurdish community of northern Syria.
Damascus also accuses Saudi Arabia of keep the protest movement afloat with smuggled arms and funds.
Because his military and security strength cannot be stretched two ways - both to block the smuggling routes and suppress the raging demonstrations, Assad appealed to the King of Jordan, the Lebanese President and the heads of government in Turkey and Iraq for action to "hermetically seal" their borders. Although they obliged by redoubling their guards, it is unlikely that they can stop the arms smuggling altogether.
The opening shot for sectarian strife came from the regime itself. Tuesday, shortly after the emergency laws were lifted, Syrian Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim al-Shaar characterized the uprising as "an armed revolt by Islamist radicals seeking to establish an Islamic state in Syria." Syrian citizens must "refrain from taking part in all demonstrations or sit-ins under any banner whatsoever," said al-Shaar. "The laws in force in Syrian will be applied in the interest of the safety of the people and the stability of the country."
More demonstrations thereupon spread across the country.
Wednesday, Iranian and Syrian sources predicted an escalation of the unrest. The fact that this information was relayed by Iranian sources indicated that Tehran had pitched in to help Bashar Assad cope with the massive opposition before it topples him. Acting under the annulled emergency laws, Syrian security forces in civilian garb went into action before dawn Wednesday, April 20, knocking on the doors of Sunni clerics in Homs, the third largest city in the country, and taking them to out-of-town prisons. When relatives inquired about their whereabouts, officials replied they were "missing." According to some reports, up to 100 people have been killed in Homs in the last 24 hours. The injured are hiding in private homes afraid to go to hospitals where security men either finish them off or detain them. The fate of some 5,000 detainees remains unknown and many believe several hundreds may have been killed and buried without the knowledge of their next of kin, some of them taken out of overcrowded prisons.
In Lebanon, Sunnis and other anti-Assad elements allied to opposition groups in Syria fear President Assad may send his agents to purge them too. Associates of the ousted Sunni prime minister Saad Hariri, the Christians' Samir Geagea and Druze chiefs have gone underground and begun evacuating their families to Europe for fear of being targeted for assassination.

Reports: Christian Leaders Disagreed on Hizbullah Arms but Agreed to Meet Again
Naharnet/The four Christian leaders who met in Bkirki on Tuesday disagreed on Hizbullah's weapons, An Nahar daily said, but confirmed that the officials would meet again after the Christian-Muslim summit next month. An Nahar said Wednesday that the meeting, which was held under the sponsorship of Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, was calm. The dialogue began with remarks by Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun who defended his alliance with Hizbullah and stressed the need to preserve it.
He denied that Hizbullah was seeking "to turn Lebanon into an Islamic republic," the daily said. Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, in his turn, defended his alliance with the March 14 coalition and Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri and informed the conferees about the achievements of the Cedar Revolution.  As for Marada movement leader Suleiman Franjieh, he defended Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime and considered it a backup for Lebanon and the minorities in the region, including Christians. Aoun and Franjieh also said the country would be targeted without Hizbullah's weapons, sources told An Nahar. But Geagea and Phalange party leader Amin Gemayel stressed that the arms should be confined within the legitimate state institutions. Gemayel said during the meeting that if the officials were incapable of agreeing on major issues that concern Christians, then they should discuss topics that threaten the sect such as the naturalization of Palestinians and demographic changes. According to the newspaper, the conferees also discussed the cabinet and agreed that the government formation process should be speeded up. An Nahar said that the conferees agreed to hold a second meeting after the spiritual summit that is scheduled to be held in Bkirki on May 12. Bishop Boulos Matar was tasked with making the necessary contacts to set the stage for another meeting among the four top Maronite officials, it added. Meanwhile, LF circles told An Nahar and As Safir dailies that Geagea met with his party officials after the Bkirki meeting and informed them to deal with the FPM and Marada the same way the Lebanese Forces deals with other parties. This step includes stopping media campaigns against the parties, the circles said. They also described the Bkirki meeting as "friendly," saying there was no tension and the leaders, mainly Geagea and Aoun, exchanged jokes. The circles added that a handshake between Franjieh and Geagea "meant that the personal problem between them was over." Beirut, 20 Apr 11, 08:10

Berri: No parliament file on Jarrah accusations yet
April 20, 2011 /Speaker Nabih Berri said on Wednesday that he did not receive any file or complaint in parliament regarding the Syrian statements accusing Future bloc MP Jamal al-Jarrah of inciting unrest in Syria. “The parliament has no file on that issue until now,” Berri was quoted by the National News Agency as saying, He also added that he expects the formation of a cabinet headed by Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati after this week’s Easter holidays. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has been rocked by unprecedented protests since March 15 demanding reform. Meanwhile, three suspects testified last week on Syrian state television that they received arms and weapons from abroad to fuel a wave of protests in the country, naming MP Jamal al-Jarrah as a funder. The Future bloc has repeatedly denied the charges and labeled them as “fabrications.”-NOW Lebanon

March 14 Rejects Campaign against Mustaqbal, Jarrah; Warns of New Plan to Create Strife in Lebanon
Naharnet/The March 14 General Secretariat condemned on Wednesday the Syria's accusations that the Mustaqbal movement is meddling in Syria's internal affairs. It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: "Hizbullah has taken advantage of the Syrian campaign to attack the movement and accuse it of Syria's fabricated accusations in order to settle scores with the March 14 forces after its repeated demands that the party be disarmed." Hizbullah believes that launching the campaign will divert attention from the several crises it is going through, it continued. "The March 14 forces are a national, political, popular, peaceful, and civil movement and it voices its support to Mustaqbal bloc MP Jamal al-Jarrah," it said.
"It rejects the campaign against him and warns the Lebanese from getting involved in a new plan aimed at creating strife among them," the statement stressed.
"It demands that Lebanese sovereignty be respected, especially the constitutional immunity granted to the representatives of the nation," it added. "It therefore asserts Speaker Nabih Berri's responsibility in defending Jarrah and protecting him," it stated. "The March 14 forces have strived to prevent foreign meddling in Lebanon and it therefore rejects interfering in the affairs of others," it said. It also held Hizbullah and its allies responsible for the security and political repercussions maintaining their campaign will have in Lebanon. It warned of a "dangerous conspiracy against Lebanon," demanding Caretaker Foreign Minister Ali Shami to summon the Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali to clarify his recent statements on Syria's accusations. Beirut, 20 Apr 11, 13:17

Chamoun meets with US ambassador
April 20, 2011 /National Liberal Party leader MP Dori Chamoun met with US Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Conelly on Wednesday to address the latest developments in Lebanon and in the Middle East, the National News Agency reported.However, the report did not elaborate further.-NOW Lebanon

Where are the Estonians?
Talking to Foreign Minister Urmas Paet
Matt Nash, April 20, 2011 /Now Lebanon
In his second trip to Lebanon since the March 23 kidnapping of seven Estonians, Urmas Paet, Estonia’s foreign minister, says Lebanese authorities are working hard but have scant information on the whereabouts of his country’s nationals. The seven men first came to Lebanon on March 15, then rode their bicycles into Syria three days later, where they stayed until returning to Lebanon on March 23, TIME magazine reported. Two white vans and a Mercedes pulled up to the cyclists in the Bekaa Valley shortly after they re-entered Lebanon through the Masnaa border crossing, and armed men jumped out and kidnapped the Estonians, leaving their bicycles on the side of the road. Initial reports suggested they were taken to a camp run by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.
However, Lebanese authorities conducted raids in and around the West Bekaa town of Majdal Anjar in late March and early April. They arrested seven people, and on April 8 a judge charged 11 Lebanese nationals – the seven in custody and four in absentia – with the crime. But acting Interior Minister Ziad Baroud has said it is unclear if the Estonians are still in Lebanon as they could have been smuggled through the porous border with Syria. On April 5, a previously-unknown group, Harakat al-Nahda wa al-Islah (the Movement for Renewal and Reform), sent an email to the Lebanon Files website claiming to have the Estonians, who were reportedly in good health. Attached to the email were scanned copies of three of the victims’ ID cards. The group said it would make demands later, and sent one subsequent email asking for ransom money, without specifying a sum.
On Wednesday, April 20, a YouTube video of the seven hostages began circulating in which they asked for help from Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Saudi King Abdullah, Jordanian King Abdullah, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Minister Paet spoke with NOW Lebanon on April 19, the day he arrived in Lebanon for the second time, about the ongoing investigation.
You met with numerous Lebanese officials today. What is the latest news you’ve heard?
Urmas Paet: The main latest news, what I’m really convinced of after today’s meetings, is that Lebanese authorities take this investigation very seriously. That all, also, very thin lines or pieces of information have been investigated, and this investigation continues. They are also looking still for one person who may be the bridge between the criminals who committed the crime – some of whom have been arrested – to those to whom the Estonian citizens were most probably delivered. The work continues. It continues also with partners in other countries. The Lebanese president today and the minister of interior both said very clearly that it is still a very important issue for Lebanon to find out who did it and why.
It has been reported that you’re in touch with Syrian authorities also. What contacts do you have, and what have the Syrians said?
Paet: We are and we have been in direct contact with many countries in the region, including Syria, and Syrian authorities promised also to deliver information or assistance if they can and if they have something, so that this contact during the past week has been permanent and regular. But we also know the internal political situation in Syria is also quite turbulent. So that it’s also clear that the first priority for their authorities and also intelligence agencies is their internal situation. But I think if the Syrians can assist, they will.
What other countries have you been in touch with?
Paet: We have had very active contacts with Turkey also, with Palestinian authorities. Also, I have spoken about it with the United Arab Emirates.
What role are they playing?
Paet: The most important issue still is collecting and getting information about this issue… using all possible connections, networks, sources of information from all these countries, but also embassies. It’s obvious that every embassy has their own contacts, friends and networks on the ground. So that in essence, [we are] trying to use every possible contact and network.
Do you think the kidnapped men are still in Lebanon?
Paet: It’s very difficult to say. Actually people who work with this issue every day here on the ground, also, they can’t tell. For me, of course, it’s difficult to say without any real facts. So that it’s possible they’re still here. It’s possible they’re in Syria, but you can also not avoid the possibility that they may be in some third country.
Have you heard anything more from Harakat al-Nahda wa al-Islah (the Movement for Renewal and Reform), which claimed responsibility for the crime?
Paet: No. That’s it. These two public emails that were published by Lebanon Files, that’s it. So there’s no additional proof or evidence, for example, about what they said in their emails, if it’s true or not or if it has some adequate basis. Nothing more.
Do you have any idea what the motive of this crime was?
Paet: Well, there have been many versions and speculations. Some of them seem to be more unlikely, some of them absolutely possible, if I may say so. But to say this one and concrete motive is the right one is impossible because we simply don’t know yet. We may analyze this or that, but we don’t know yet.
What are the next steps in the investigation?
Paet: Let’s see. The important next step is still the process. It means that every day’s work, trying to get and collect information, updating all of our networks, all of our partners’ networks – Lebanon, other countries in the region. There are two options. One is that through this work of finding information, someone finds something [concrete], whether this is Lebanon or other partners or whoever. The other option is the people who did this send a message which is more concrete than the previous ones

When will Israel, like Syria, lift its emergency laws?
A state of emergency allows a government to bypass regular legislative processes. It bestows upon the government broad powers that infringe on civil liberties.
By Aluf Benn/Haaretz /20/04/11
At the heart of the uprisings in Arab states is the demand to rescind emergency laws that confer governments sweeping security powers, and seriously infringe upon civil rights. Yesterday Syria's President Bashar Assad surrendered to protesters' demands, and annulled emergency laws that had been in effect in the country since the Baath coup in 1963.
Emergency law in Israel long predates its institutionalization in Syria. Four days after the state's establishment in 1948, the acting government declared a state of emergency, which remains in effect. Israel effectively adopted the state of emergency that had been declared by the British Mandatory government nine years earlier.
Knesset members voting on a preliminary reading of the military conversion bill, which would validate army conversion to Judaism.
A state of emergency allows a government to bypass regular legislative processes. It bestows upon the government broad powers that infringe on civil liberties. These include the power of administrative detention, seizure of land, arrest of infiltrators, and limitations on the rights of terror suspects. In Israel's improvisational style, numerous writs have been issued under emergency law guidelines for the monitoring of goods and services. In such case, the emergency law was used not because of any real concerns about state security, but rather for bureaucratic convenience.
In addition to laws that are meant to be implemented in times of declared emergency, such as various anti-terror measures and the law for the prevention of infiltration, Israel's security forces have broad powers under the 1945 "defense regulations," which were carried over from the British Mandate. These regulations can be implemented even when a state of emergency is not formally declared. They confer to security forces "draconian deterrence and punitive authority, including powers of seizure and confiscation, right of search and entry, the right to impound vehicles, censorship powers, the right to demolish homes, declare curfews, and more" (from "The Constitutional Law of the State of Israel," Amnon Rubinstein, Barak Medina ).
By the 1990s, criticism leveled by jurists about the extension of the state of emergency led to a revision in the law, whereby the Knesset can authorize a state of emergency for a year. However, any extension beyond a year requires discussion and approval of the Knesset. Since this revision was adopted, the Knesset has mechanically approved the extension of Israel's state of emergency every year. The last time such renewal was authorized was June 14, 2010.
In Israel, unlike Syria, citizens are accustomed to living under a state of emergency, and there is no public or political pressure to rescind emergency law. It is hard to imagine an Israeli prime minister standing up in the Knesset and declaring the annulment of the country's emergency laws, on grounds similar to the ones cited by Bashar Assad last weekend: "The annulment of the state of emergency will strengthen the security of Syria, and promote security while preserving the dignity of the Syrian citizen."
The Association of Civil Rights in Israel petitioned the High Court of Justice 12 years ago, demanding that the declaration of a state of emergency be overturned on the grounds that it infringes free speech, the right to strike, the right of assembly and other liberties. Whether or not we face an emergency, the Court's judges are acting as though they have time on their hands; they are still considering the petition.
The government has promised the High Court that it will act to "normalize" legislation in areas such as monitoring of goods and services. It has also drafted a new anti-terror law. Judges have reprimanded the government for the slow pace of emergency law revision, yet there is no sign that the High Court will decide on this petition in the near future, or that the state of emergency will be annulled. And so Syria, by cancelling its state of emergency, has surpassed Israel. Perhaps that provides cause to revisit and review Israel's emergency laws, before the present declaration is automatically renewed by the Knesset on June 13th?

Why does the U.S. keep ignoring Syria’s villainy?
By JOEL BRINKLEY
Tribune Media Services
Politicizing abortion piles pain on the suffering Why does the U.S. keep ignoring Syria’s villainy? Don’t misunderestimate firebrand from Minnesota Senator on Planned Parenthood: lies and damn lies America can get back to fiscal sanity from here These days, only oil sheiks can afford gas Missouri legislature fiddles while people hunger for jobs Playing the (Donald) Trump card means playing with fire The president’s obstinate approach to tax rates Don’t let Missouri lawmakers gut puppy-mill law Tax code far too often doesn't say what we think it says When the money's for nothing, nothing is free Latin America provides cautionary tale for Middle East Colleges price out middle class: Even best and brightest can afford it Race is on — Obama leans toward center Uighurs long to live free — let them Despite the costs, metro sprawl goes ever-outward A different war needs increased sensibilities Crime of sexual assault must not shame the victim Postwar lies to the contrary, the Civil War was about slavery Who’s the world’s most dangerous man?
You might think it’s Kim Jong Il, the psychopath-leader of North Korea who frequently blusters about using his half-dozen nuclear weapons. Or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the diabolical leader of Iran, sworn enemy of Israel and the West, working to build a bomb of his own.
Those two are obvious contenders. But my choice is Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s duplicitous dictator, precisely because he has duped presidents and prime ministers into believing he is their indispensable friend — even as he kills American troops, collects weapons of mass destruction and serves as the supply master for terrorist groups.
Even now, as his own people protest his rule, prompting him to shoot and kill scores of them, Washington’s criticism remains equivocal. A few days ago, President Obama remarked, “I strongly condemn the abhorrent violence committed” by “the Syrian government.” Then he added: “I also condemn any use of violence by protestors.” Are both sides equal offenders?
A few weeks ago, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Assad is entirely different from Moammar Gadhafi, the embattled Libyan leader: “many of the members of Congress of both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe he’s a reformer.”
Less than a week after that absurd remark, Clinton’s own department told congressional leaders “the flow” of terrorists crossing from Syria into Iraq, intent on killing American troops, “has lessened, though not ended.” (Embarrassed, Clinton’s recent statements have been tougher.)
Clinton is hardly the first senior official to be irrationally enamored of Syria. While secretary of state, Henry Kissinger famously remarked “there can be no war without Egypt and no peace without Syria.” Last month, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said she told Assad, “the road to Damascus is the road to peace.”
Where do these delusional views come from? For years, Washington has worked under the premise that, while Syria is unquestionably problematic, it is at least stable. Another government might be worse — the “devil you know” rule of foreign policy.
But how could any new government be worse? Consider Assad’s extracurricular activities. Since the Iraq war began, Islamic extremists have crossed his border by the busload, in full view of U.S. spy satellites.
He sells missiles to Hezbollah, the terrorist group in southern Lebanon and avowed enemy of Israel and the U.S. Last month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates noted Hezbollah now “has tens of thousands of rockets and missiles, more than most governments in the world” — all pointed at Israel.
Khaled Mashal, the Hamas leader, actually lives in Damascus and does his murderous business openly from a storefront. American intelligence shows that Syria has a vast store of chemical weapons. Assad pursued a secret nuclear-weapons development program, until Israel bombed it in 2007. More recent intelligence suggests that he is back at it, though this time the program is better hidden.
So I wonder why Washington is taking such an ambivalent posture toward Syria’s uprising, even though Assad has lifted his emergency law. Compare Syria to the other states in turmoil. Egypt was Washington’s best friend in the region. Tunisia’s leader was praised for his cooperation with anti-terror investigations, as was Yemen’s. Libya gave up its nuclear and chemical-weapons programs at Washington’s urging. Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet.
In fact, all of the other nations in play have tried to be American allies. To be sure, all of them have horribly oppressed their own people. But in recent years none has openly worked against Washington, as Syria does even now.
Why is Syria more dangerous than Iran or North Korea? The United Nations has multiple sanctions in place against the other two states, and numerous nations’ intelligence services are watching every move they make. Not so for Syria. In fact, Assad flaunts his contempt for Washington.
Last year, the Obama administration sent a new ambassador to Damascus, hoping to improve relations. The Bush administration had recalled the ambassador in 2005. Well, the very day after Obama made that announcement, Assad hosted a major, ceremonial state visit for none other than Ahamadinejad, the president of Iran. The timing was no accident.
Posted on Tue, Apr. 19, 2011 10:15 PM

The false hope of revolution in Syria
By May Akl
Foreign Policy/ April 19, 2011
http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/04/19/why_the_syrian_case_is_different
More bloody days seem to be ahead for Syria. Security forces have apparently decided to crackdown on what they call "Salafist armed groups", while protesters who call themselves "freedom fighters" seem to have become bolder since the first Deraa incident. But in the euphoria of the so-called Arab youth revolution, assuming and even hoping that unrest in Syria will eventually lead to the collapse of the Assad regime is not only an unrealistic assumption, but a naïve theory betraying a faulty knowledge of the Middle East -- and specifically the dynamics of Syrian politics.
Similarly, assuming that the events unfolding in Syria are of the same nature as the ones that rocked the Arab world, and led to the collapse of dictatorships long supported by the West, is also a misreading of reality. The latest April 10 ambush against a Syrian army patrol in the coastal town of Banias is proof that a Jihad-like approach is a force behind the movement demanding reforms. Despite atrocities the regimes in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, and Bahrain perpetrated against freedom demonstrators, there was no significant act of violence against national armies in these countries. More importantly, to be able to conduct such a successful ambush killing nearly 10 troops, one needs to be armed, organized, and well-trained. Indeed, this scenario does not resemble anything we are witnessing in the above cases.
In the context of these leaderless revolutions that stemmed from rightful social, economic, and political demands, the only organized and well-structured group has been the Muslim Brotherhood. For 83 years now, the aim of this widespread movement has been to instill the Quran and Sunna as the sole reference for ordering the life of the Muslim family and state. Whether it will finally succeed in doing so by claiming to embrace the hopes and dreams of the Arab youth is not to be ruled out. As such, the real beneficiaries of Arab regime changes are yet to be discovered.
While this theory has yet to be proven in Tunisia, Egypt, or Yemen, it is easier to note in Syria, where the last Muslim Brotherhood uprising was brutally crushed by Hafez Assad in Hama in 1982. But the Brotherhood in Syria, under claims of demanding reforms, does aim at overthrowing the Syrian regime. The latter has been struggling with the international community for quite some time now. And although deeply shaken by the investigation into Lebanon's Hariri assassination, the Assad regime has managed to survive tough years from 2005 until now. All of these ingredients make Syria's story a more complex and delicate one.
On April 1, a few days after the beginning of turmoil in Syria, and while on a visit to Turkey, the secretary-general of Syria's Muslim Brotherhood, Riad Al-Shaqfa, in a joint press conference with the Brotherhood's political chief, Mohamed Tayfur, said repeatedly that they didn't believe Syrian President Bashar Assad would carry through with promised reforms and predicted that protests would continue (the two men also reportedly called on the Syrian people to take to the streets). The statement proved so diplomatically costly for Turkey that its foreign ministry issued a statement a few days later, making it clear that the country did not adopt calls for instability in its neighboring country, even if such sentiments were voiced from its capital: "It is impossible for Turkey to tolerate and to approve any initiative which will harm the reform will of friendly and brotherly Syria and disrupt its stability along this critical period."
Earlier, at the end of March, Qatar-based Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, a fan of Nazi anti-Semitism who has said that Hitler was "Allah's divine punishment for the Jews", incited Sunnis in Syria on an Al Jazeera broadcast sermon to revolt against the Assad regime, and said that Assad was "a prisoner of his own religion." Giving the Syrian unrest a religious identity, it was not much of a surprise when, on April 1, Qaradawi further described demonstrators in Syria as "Jihadists."
Put in such perspective, the dynamics of the Syrian uprising are radically different than elsewhere. To the surprise of the Syrian authorities, cities where relatively significant demonstrations were held were not mainly Sunni strongholds or regions known for their historical abhorrence of the Assad regime. These demonstrations happened in multi-religious areas like the province of Deraa, considered to be the reservoir of high-ranking Baath military and state officials, such as the vice-president Farouk al Sharaa. This shows that the uprising seems to be fed by pockets of protesters rather than by a large popular movement. While in Tunisia, the largest popular protest gathered nearly 10 percent of the population, the largest combined protests in Syria have amounted to barely one percent of the population. Indeed, the so-called opposition essentially failed to mobilize the Syrian population.
This might be due to the fact that the Syrian people have not yet forgotten the Hama massacre and that they have not yet managed to break the barrier of fear. But that is harder to understand since, if there was a good time to break the barriers of fear, it would be now -- with the domino effect sweeping across the Arab world, and with a Syrian regime already partly ostracized by the international community and struggling to restore good international relations. And when freedom is so badly sought as we have witnessed in Egypt, Tunisia, and Yemen, oppression does not stop the crowd. Various "Khaled Said" phenomena are only supposed to fuel large-scale public anger rather than hush its voice.
But just as popular revolutions cannot be stopped, they cannot be provoked, either. As such, the groups that masterminded the Syrian turmoil might have placed a wrong bet, as their assumption that the Syrian people would be quick to join them has not been borne out in fact. Ultimately, this failure could be what motivated them to resort to other tactics -- such as the ambush -- which are more likely to make these groups lose their credibility as democratic freedom fighters and foster instability.
If the fear factor is only partly responsible for preventing a fully-fledged revolt in Syria, then the Syrian people must be apprehensive of another possible reality: the unknown of a post-Assad period. As it stands, most Syrians simply think that there is no better alternative to the current regime. Despite its history and much contested policies, Syria is -- pragmatically speaking -- a country that has managed to maintain its political stability in the region. It is an indisputable key player in the region: no solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to the situation in Iraq, or to the crisis with Iran or Hezbollah can be conceived without the involvement of Syria, one way or the other. This strength has fostered a nationalist feeling throughout the country. Further, Syria is a secular country where minorities are protected, and as much as they might want to see a regime change in their country, the majority of Syrians cannot accept their country becoming another Iraq -- in terms of security -- or another Saudi Arabia -- in terms of religious rule.
Another factor is that the Syrian people are generally proud of, and have high hopes for, their president. It is true that they are dismayed at the high level of corruption surrounding the president's old guards, but they do believe that he can make gradual change (which he has already started) with economic reforms to be followed by the recently announced new wave of media and political reforms, in addition to today's commitment to lift the 48-year-old emergency law. As such, they can view a gradual and smooth opening of the Syrian political system as a better and safer guarantee for a regime transition -- even as this remains a long-term project.
At the regional level, the fall of the Assad regime is very likely to have critical consequences on neighboring countries. From Turkey to Israel, going through Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq, this fall would mean a radical alteration of the political, and more importantly religious, map of the Middle East. The question lies in whether these states want to see Syria fall into the hands of the Brotherhood.
At the international level, policy-makers should be able to learn from their mistakes, especially in the U.S. In its bid to cut its losses when the oppressive and corrupt regimes it supported for so long fell apart, the U.S. found itself obliged to let go of their old allies and embrace the people's movement. But in Syria, such a movement does not exist.
While exhorting Arabs to embrace reforms, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced last Tuesday that President Barack Obama would lay out a U.S. policy toward the Middle East and North Africa in the coming weeks. Hopefully, this policy will for once refrain from falling prey to its own rigid categorization -- to the black or white approach -- and rather try to understand the subtleties of situations in different contexts. Hopefully, it will also acknowledge the fact that democracy and people power can actually be used as a cover for extreme groups to access power. Indeed, extreme Islam does not always come with a turban; sometimes, it comes with a tie.
After all, Clinton hinted in late February that the U.S. administration would not oppose the arrival of the Muslim Brotherhood to power in Egypt. It would have been more accurate to say that the US won't be able to do anything to oppose the Brotherhood's arrival to power since the group is so involved in the Egyptian people's uprising. But it would be outrageous -- to say the least -- to think that in Syria, the U.S. position will be aligned with that of Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi; unless American realpolitik sees al-Qaradawi as a "reformist" and "freedom fighter" opposing the "dictatorship of Bashar Assad".
**May Akl, a 2010 Yale World Fellow, is the press secretary of Lebanese MP Michel Aoun. She has contributed opinion essays to the Daily Star and YaleGlobal online magazine.

The Silent Extermination of Iraq's 'Christian Dogs'
by Raymond Ibrahim
FrontPageMagazine.com
April 19, 2011
http://www.meforum.org/2878/iraq-christians-persecution
Last week an Iraqi Muslim scholar issued a fatwa that, among other barbarities, asserts that "it is permissible to spill the blood of Iraqi Christians." Inciting as the fatwa is, it is also redundant. While last October's Baghdad church attack which killed some sixty Christians is widely known—actually receiving some MSM coverage—the fact is, Christian life in Iraq has been a living hell ever since U.S. forces ousted the late Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Among other atrocities, beheading and crucifying Christians are not irregular occurrences; messages saying "you Christian dogs, leave or die," are typical. Islamists see the church as an "obscene nest of pagans" and threaten to "exterminate Iraqi Christians." John Eibner, CEO of Christian Solidarity International, summarized the situation well in a recent letter to President Obama:
The threat of extermination is not empty. Since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime, more than half the country's Christian population has been forced by targeted violence to seek refuge abroad or to live away from their homes as internally displaced people. According to the Hammurabi Human Rights Organization, over 700 Christians, including bishops and priests, have been killed and 61 churches have been bombed. Seven years after the commencement of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Catholic Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk reports: "He who is not a Muslim in Iraq is a second-class citizen. Often it is necessary to convert or emigrate, otherwise one risks being killed." This anti-Christian violence is sustained by a widespread culture of Muslim supremacism that extends far beyond those who pull the triggers and detonate the bombs.
The grand irony, of course, is that Christian persecution has increased exponentially under U.S. occupation. As one top Vatican official put it, Christians, "paradoxically, were more protected under the dictatorship" of Saddam Hussein.
What does one make of this—that under Saddam, who was notorious for human rights abuses, Christians were better off than they are under a democratic government sponsored by humanitarian, some would say "Christian," America?
Like a Baghdad caliph, Saddam appears to have made use of the better educated Christians, who posed no risk to his rule, such as his close confidant Tariq Aziz. Moreover, by keeping a tight lid on the Islamists of his nation—who hated him as a secular apostate no less than the Christians—the latter benefited indirectly.
Conversely, by empowering "the people," the U.S. has unwittingly undone Iraq's Christian minority. Naively projecting Western values on Muslims, U.S. leadership continues to think that "people-power" will naturally culminate into a liberal, egalitarian society—despite all the evidence otherwise. The fact is, in the Arab/Muslim world, "majority rule" traditionally means domination by the largest tribe or sect; increasingly, it means Islamist domination.
Either which way, the minorities—notably the indigenous Christians—are the first to suffer once the genie of "people-power" is uncorked. Indeed, evidence indicates that the U.S. backed "democratic" government of Iraq enables and incites the persecution of its Christians. (All of this raises the pivotal question: Do heavy-handed tyrants—Saddam, Mubarak, Qaddafi, et al—create brutal societies, or do naturally brutal societies create the need for heavy-handed tyrants to keep order?)
Another indicator that empowering Muslim masses equates Christian suffering is the fact that, though Iraqi Christians amount to a mere 5% of the population, they make up nearly 40% of the refugees fleeing Iraq. It is now the same in Egypt: "A growing number of Egypt's 8-10 million Coptic Christians are looking for a way to get out as Islamists increasingly take advantage of the nationalist revolution that toppled long-standing dictator Hosni Mubarak in February."
The destruction of Iraqi churches
At least Egypt's problems are homegrown, whereas the persecution of Iraq's Christians is a direct byproduct of U.S. intervention. More ironic has been Obama's approach: Justifying U.S. intervention in Libya largely in humanitarian terms, the president recently declared that, while "it is true that America cannot use our military wherever repression occurs… that cannot be an argument for never acting on behalf of what's right."
True, indeed. Yet, as Obama "acts on behalf of what's right" by providing military protection to the al-Qaeda connected Libyan opposition, Iraq's indigenous Christians continue to be exterminated—right under the U.S. military's nose in Iraq. You see, in its ongoing bid to win the much coveted but forever elusive "Muslim-hearts-and-minds™"—which Obama has even tasked NASA with—U.S. leadership has opted to ignore the inhumane treatment of Islam's "Christian dogs," the mere mention of which tends to upset Muslims.
**Raymond Ibrahim is associate director of the Middle East Forum