"The Judeo-Christian Community"

by Amir George
April 30, 2017 at 4:30 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10239/judeo-christian-community

"We hear day and night, 'the Muslim community' and 'Muslim-majority nations.'"
"Why, then, cannot we use 'the Judeo-Christian community' or 'Judeo-Christian majority nations'?"
"If we do not look after us, someone else will. But we may not like what comes out."

Seeing Turkey's election this month, in which the Turks used their democratic freedom to vote themselves out of their democratic freedom -- just to throw it out -- should remind us that the Judeo-Christian values which we take for granted are more fragile than we may have thought.

Shortly after the liberation of Iraq in 2003, the only way to get into immediate postwar Baghdad was to get a ride in Amman, Jordan, and take it across the desert to Iraq.

A bulletin board in Jordan's Amman Intercontinental Hotel would list who was going to Baghdad and we all hitched rides with whomever we could get.

So, on a crazy trip, the well-known "Baghdad Dash," three of us crammed into a tiny, not so cool-looking car and made our way across the desert.

Halfway, the engine stopped. In typical Mohammedan fashion, the driver said "Insha' Allah" ("God's will"), got out of the car and walked off.

The Iraqi desert (illustrative). Image source: U.S. Marine Corps/Lance Cpl. James B. Hoke.

My fellow-strandee, a Russian doctor, said he had been going to Iraq to help.

"I was going into Iraq to offer my services," he said.

"You are going to help as well. Our faith is what has called us to assist. The Judeo-Christian nations of the world need to band together to stand up for our freedoms, our nations, the values we care about: free speech, equal justice under law, separation of church and state, freedom of religion, independent judiciary, independent education -- things like that -- our whole humanitarian code of conduct."

I had never heard this thought expressed quite like that.

"We hear day and night, 'the Muslim community' and 'Muslim-majority nations,'" he said.

"Why, then, cannot we use 'the Judeo-Christian community' or 'Judeo-Christian majority nations'? Look at Europe, the Philippines, Israel, Africa, Australia, North and South America...This is our identity. We need to stop seizing on foolish and petty divisions and band together."

We found a satellite telephone and reached someone who rescued us and took us to Baghdad.

As we got of the car and asked if anyone had seen the driver, he said:

"It is time for the Christian world to stand up for our history, values and worldview along with our brothers, the Jewish community -- not only in Israel, but the world over. If we do not look after us, someone else will. But we may not like what comes out."

Amir George, an Assyrian Christian, is the author of "Liberating Iraq: The Story of the Assyrian Christians of Iraq."

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Related Topics: Iraq

Recent Articles by Amir George

The Case for Assyrian Independence, 2017-10-22
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2 Reader Comments

Berti • Apr 30, 2017 at 16:20

It is time for us to be writing to M.P's and downing St about free speech. It is time to stand up for OUR values. A democracy cannot exist without a "we" so if there is no "we", just a mulitculti mess, then it is goodbye democracy. Think about it: for me to consent to your winning party to rule over my losing party there just has to be a we. That is why there is trouble in the US and the UK .

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Elizabeth Lawson • Apr 30, 2017 at 12:41

Who can we hold accountable for the looming tragedy in Europe, and elsewhere Islamic Sharia adherents are attempting to force their ideology? Well, first, those who not only know little to nothing about democracy, the freedoms that have ensured their safety and passage through life so far, and the governments that have failed in their duty to inform and protect those who entrusted them with that responsibility. Next, educational institutions that have permitted the deterioration of acceptable academic standards, and who .....ignored the excesses of cultural and political ideologues in the classroom. I recall the statement " A people gets exactly the kind of government that it deserves" never a truer statement made when considering European governments today. NO illiberal, primitive, barbaric ideology, can take root in a country without the benign acceptance of its citizens. Christianity ushered in a golden age of care ( hospitals) education ( universities and education for all) democracy, ( freedom of speech, assembly, and the freedom to choose the God one wishes to adore) and a host of great advantages for all. Those who have turned their backs on all these freedoms by failing to defend them ( as in recent elections in Turkey) will be obliged to accept the consequences of their inaction. All but Islamic adherents will find themselves freedomless and at the edge of the scimitar in the newly remade European countries. Among the first victims will be the glitterati, whose public stamp on the idiocy that governs the feeble minded can be seen everywhere. We cannot expect great things from citizens who can barely put together a simple sentence ( in spite of copious years spent in academic institutions) nor can we depend upon the vast number of people who know nothing of the world, its history, or the looming threat ahead, but who are well versed on the foolish and trivial nonsense of the day. The Leonardo De Caprio's and Khardashians, and their regiment of narcissists would be proud of them.

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