Thank you very much for inviting me to contribute to this blog. I am utterly sick of the way recently that our government and indeed large swathes of the population of this nominally Christian country seem to think they can abuse and disrespect the Muslim population of this country, whether they are people who have recently come to live here or those whose families have lived here for years. In particular, as a practicing Christian I am always flabbergasted by other Christian’s fears that the country will be completely overrun with Islam. However, despite being a Christian I am not sure that would be such a disastrous thing.
One of the things that has always struck me on my travels to the Middle East is that some of the buildings in which I have felt a huge sense of presence in have been places like the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and the Omayyad Mosque in Damascus. I am aware that there have been Christian associations with both these places over the years but still they feel very special in a tranquil and holy way. I have particularly fond memories of the Omayyad Mosque on one visit when a group of pilgrims arrived and sat down together to enjoy their picnic inside the mosque.
As someone who organises pilgrimages to the Holy Land, I get particularly irritated by people telling me that we should only be working with Christians locally: we work with a Palestinian hotel in East Jerusalem run by Muslims, an Israeli Arab bus company in Nazareth, a Palestinian Christian family in Jerusalem co-ordinate all the arrangements on our behalf and an Israeli owned hotel in the Galilee. We also work with professional Palestinian (usually Christian) tour guides. Quite a spread I would say! I find this conception to only work with Christians weird because, at the risk of sounding like a contributor to Grumpy Old Women, would you not only a pint of milk from your corner shop if it is owned by “card carrying” Christians? – quite a rarity in this country anyway.
I think that Christians everywhere should be mindful of Palestine at all times, not least because this is where Christ was born, lived, taught and died. So my final rant today is the unbelievable way that since the Palestinian Authority elections earlier this year, which Hamas won for largely economic reasons in a democratic election, “we” in the West don’t and won’t accept this result because it doesn’t suit. Unusually there has never even been a suggestion that the result was rigged – which is often the case when people don’t get the result they want. In fact by withdrawing essential aid, the economic situation has got so much worse that people are literally starving as well as being robbed of the dignity that as human beings we all deserve. Well, as one of the previous bloggers said, “This just won’t do”.
Rosevardi
Especially published for 'Doctor's Free Time'
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4 comments:
Watford Man says:
The real tragedy vis a vis Christians, Muslims and the Middle East is that Christians make up a small but important minority of the Palestinian community plus Christian sites (e.g, Bethlehem) are part of the Palestinian territories illegally occupied by the Israelis and YET the world's Western Christian-majority countries throw their support behind a non-Christian state which has no problems with laying siege to churches or bombing Christian villages. Instead, Christian fundamentalists in the United States are now at the forefront of the pro-Israel lobby.
hmm..i have a few christian friends and well i don't think they feel threathened by the muslim presence. in full truth i think it is just the media and the way in which it works to make its money..selling contraversial stories to get people going...the palstinians are only targeted because their seen as a threat...in the end it comes down to 'you're wrong and im right'..one example would be britain and its nuclear bombs, can anyone justify the right for britain to hold nuclear weapons but not iran?!
In reference to your last comment about nuclear weapons, I refer you to my blog on that particular subject at http://notagp.blogspot.com/2006/10/youve-got-them-so-i-want-them-too_09.html.
The civil war, Lebanon witnessed many of them and now their main concern should not return to the Arab and bloody wars, has vowed the Lebanese people in the 14th of March to remain united in perpetuity, Muslims and Christians chanted that behind Shahid Jubran Twini, Palestine, and is now about to fall into the trap of civil war, which the government has Israel is behind the assassination of children and the elderly.
Free Palestine
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