The decree signed by President Donald Trump to block entry to the US
travelers to seven countries with an Islamic majority is not in favor of
Christians. On the contrary, it further incites the idea of a "Western war on Islam" and threatens to unleash vengeance on Christians in the Middle East.
Trump motivated the freezing of visas for 90 days to those coming from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and Sudan, as an operation to "protect" the United States from Islamic terrorists and somehow also to protect "Christians" .
To find support in his constituency, justifying his choice, he tweeted that "many Christians have died in the Middle East. We cannot allow this terror to continue. "
It must be said that Trump’s order, in sec. 5) admits that one can make exceptions for "individuals" of "religious minorities" who "suffer religious persecution in their country", without specifying the type of religion. But in general the popular version is that there is a closure of US borders only to "Muslims." It would appear that the Christians of the seven countries "banned" are permitted to reach the United States, although some Christian families of Syrian refugees have been unable to enter.
The first to lash out at the US measures was Louis Sako, the Chaldean patriarch of Baghdad. He pointed out that discrimination of refugees on the basis of religion shames the Christians in the Middle East and could provoke further violence against them, as they are already regarded as a minority "protected" by the Western powers.
Fr. Georges Massouh, of the Islamic-Christian Center at Balamand University, points out that facilities for Christians "do not help" the community of the faithful of the Middle East.
"The decision - he told the Orient-Le Jour – has a very racist thread that will exacerbate hatred and extremism. And it is the people of the region, including Christians, who will pay the price ... We must stop exploiting the minority dossier. " The reference is to the powers of France, Britain, Russia, etc .. who have led their plans for domination in the Middle East against the Ottoman Empire with the excuse of defending Christian minorities, Druze, Orthodox, Jewish, etc ...
From this point of view, Donald Trump seems to pursue the same policy of his predecessors. In 2001, after the attack on the Twin Towers, George W. Bush decided to attack Afghanistan (although the majority of the kamikazes who flew the planes against Towers were Saudis) and called this operation a "crusade".
The immediate result was a series of attacks against Christians in the Middle East and Pakistan. Even Barack Obama, with his strange defense of democracy in the Middle East, after the Arab spring lent his support to the Muslim Brothers in Egypt who felt free to attack churches and Christians throughout the country (in addition to the multiple attacks in Iraq ).
The continuity between the Republican and Democratic presidents is in fomenting and supporting a war between the West (American) and the Islamic world, without any care for the extremist terrorism that then takes vengeance on Christians.
From this point of view, the wisest voice seems to be that of the Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who pointed out that Trump’s decision "is a great gift to the extremists".