Minorities struggle

The New Year’s Day bombing of a Coptic Christian church in Egypt is yet one more example of the difficulties Christian minorities face in Muslim states of the Middle East, a subject recently addressed by Pope Benedict XVI.

Like other Christian communities of the region, the Coptic Church dates back to the earliest days of Christianity, several centuries before the Prophet Muhammad was born and Islam founded. The Copts are ethnic Egyptians, indistinguishable from the 90 percent of Egyptians who are Muslim, except for the fact that they remained Christians for all these centuries, rather than convert to Islam.

The Christian communities in Iraq have equally ancient origins. An October attack on a Baghdad church during Mass killed 68, including two priests. Iraqi Christians have been fleeing the country or heading north into the Kurdish region. The Kurds, a mostly Muslim people with ancient roots in the region, have themselves been victims of discrimination by Muslim Arabs and Turks.

It seems unsafe to be a minority in a Muslim state. Is it any wonder the Jews of Israel, half of whom are immigrants or descendants of immigrants from Muslim states of the region, want to live in a Jewish state?

Howard Glass

Spokane