Encounter of civilizations Bari – 1/05-2006
The first diaspora stretches from the first centuries of Christianity until the 8th century, but does not present the characteristics of flight that it has today, but with the aim of spreading the Christian faith.
Evangelization spread from Syria to the western shores of the Mediterranean and even to the Far East.
A point of reference for these missionary undertakings was the Church of Antioch, a city in which the Apostle Paul stayed and which became a point of reference for the preparation of evangelization.
Under Arab rule, communications between the Eastern and Western worlds were almost nil; it was only at the time of the Ottoman Empire that local migrations took place to escape a governor who exaggerated in his persecutory zeal, even if emigration was still minimal.
After the brief interval of the Napoleonic occupation, in 1805 Mehemet Ali came to power, determined to lead Egypt towards an economic and cultural awakening with the contribution of minorities and Europeans, which led to the arrival of many minorities from neighbouring countries and Europe itself. Then followed an emigration to South America, where agglomerations or neighbourhoods were formed, divided by place of origin, but without any distinction between Catholics and Orthodox, contrary to what was happening at home.
Not even Muslim communities were excluded from this emigration; they too chose to live in other countries, especially for economic reasons.
In more recent times there has been a strong emigration of Christians from Egypt to Europe and North America, especially after the rise to power of Nasser, promoter of a totalitarian and dictatorial government, aiming at the constitution of a pan-Arab state with a strong Islamic connotation.
Christians and Jews of European origin are thus forced to return to their countries of origin, especially Italy, France, Greece, Malta and Great Britain. The local Jews emigrated to Israel, founded in 1948, while the descendants of the first Syrian-Lebanese immigrants mainly went to Lebanon and America.
Emigration did not spare even the Copts, who were notoriously reluctant to leave the banks of the Nile.
Today the number of Christian emigrants is disproportionate compared to those who remain; in fact, the Christians who remain in the Arab countries are in continuous decline, suffer from the ghetto complex and see an uncertain future.
With this, the Arab-Christian heritage is about to be annihilated because of the strong discrimination suffered by the Christian minority.
Let us take the Greek-Melkite Catholic community in Cairo as an example. From 1950 to 1970 the faithful of the community increased from 16,000 to 6,000: young people, forced to emigrate, cause the disintegration of the family nucleus, decrease births and increase deaths, causing precisely the reduction of the community.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the city of Aleppo in Syria was a Christian majority: today perhaps 100,000 Christians out of a population of 1,300,000 survive.
Only thirty years ago Lebanon was considered an example of peaceful coexistence between Christians, who were the majority, and Muslims. Today the situation is plummeting.
Also in Turkey Christians have disappeared almost everywhere, while at the beginning of the 20th century they were 32% of the population; in Iraq they fell from 35% to 5; in Iran from 15% to 2; in Syria from 4% to 10; in Palestine and Jordan from 25% to 4. This is a real exodus due, unfortunately, to the often veiled persecution to which Christians are subjected: participation in public life is denied because only Muslims are allowed to hold office; freedom of association and worship is denied; areas and attitudes are harassed (wearing necklaces with the cross, carrying sacred books) that limit the simplest personal freedom and so on.
As far as the holy places are concerned, Jerusalem had 33,000 Christians in 1948, in 1993 there were only 8,000 out of a population of 493,000. Considering that the local population growth rate should be 70,000, the proportion is nine times lower and is due to emigration to the West.
The few remaining faithful are divided into numerous Christian communities grouped according to origin, in the following extractions:
1) – Palestinian Syrian to which the Greek Orthodox, Greek Melkite Catholic, Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholic and Maronite communities belong, originating from the encounter between Hellenistic and Syrian culture;
– the Latin community, founded by the Crusaders and restored in 1847, formed by local Christians who have the Latin rite;
– the Anglican and Lutheran communities composed of the local Arab faithful;
2) – Armenian extraction forming the Armenian Church present in the country since time immemorial;
3) – Coptic extraction forming the Coptic Church from Egypt;
4) – Ethiopian extraction originating in Ethiopia.
The local authorities have long been aware of the reduction in the Christian presence and have worked in various ways to curb the emigration of young people by providing couples with home and work, and there are also many initiatives by the Churches themselves to increase the arrival and residence of pilgrims from all over the world.
Source: Giuseppe Samir Eid: “Christians and Muslims towards 2000”, Pauline, Milan, 1995.
Edited by Alessia Biasiolo
Giuseppe Samir Eid
Free web translation from the original in Italian
The published articles intend to provide the tools for a social inclusion of the migratory flow, shed light on human rights and the condition of life of Christians in the Islamic world from which the author come from. Knowledge of the other, of cultural and religious differences are primary ingredients to create peace in the hearts of men everywhere, a prerequisite for a peaceful coexistence and convinced citizenship in the territory.