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Letter to President Obama about Christmas Bells in the Middle East
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Dear President Obama,
In your recent statement
on persecuted Christians at Christmas you stated:
In some areas of the Middle East where church bells
have rung for centuries on Christmas Day, this year they will be silent;
this silence bears tragic witness to the brutal atrocities committed against
these communities by ISIL.
When you say that "church bells have rung for centuries" you
are not speaking the truth. Bells have rung in Syria and Iraq for not
much more than a hundred years, at most.
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A
nakos (gong) outside St. James Church in Jerusalem.
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As determined by Islamic law, church bells did not sound throughout
the middle East for more than a thousand years from the 7th century
conquests until modern times (except under the Crusaders). This was due
to the conditions set by the Pact
of the Caliph Umar, by
which Christians of Syria surrendered to Islamic conquest in the 7th
century AD. In this pact the Christians agreed that "We will not
sound the bells in our churches." Churches in regions controlled by
Muslims used semantrons
(also called nakos) instead
of the forbidden church bells. Examples of these are still visible in
Jerusalem to this day, e.g. see here.
The pact of Umar is an example of what is known as a dhimma
pact. Christians living in regions conquered by Islam were known as dhimmis.
As dhimmis they were not permitted to display their religion in
public. The silence of the bells was just one of many restrictions
imposed upon Christians by Islamic law.
Hamas, when it took control of Gaza, also re-implemented
dhimma conditions over Christians, and ISIL has now done the same in
regions it controls.
The silence of church bells for more than a thousand years across the
Middle East bears witness to the conquest and long-standing suppression
of Christian societies under Islamic rule. Recent genocidal attacks on
Christians by ISIL are sadly but the end-stage of a long series of
abuses.
President Obama, it is good that you have desired to speak up for
persecuted Christians, but when you do so, please speak the truth. Please
do not whitewash history, because to do so partners with abuse.
Sincerely,
Dr. Mark Durie, BA, BTh, DipTh, PhD, FAHA
27 December 2015
Mark Durie, the pastor of an
Anglican church and founder of the Institute for Spiritual Awareness, is
a Shillman-Ginsburg Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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