{"id":29553,"date":"2018-07-03T13:02:29","date_gmt":"2018-07-03T13:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=29553"},"modified":"2018-07-04T08:50:33","modified_gmt":"2018-07-04T08:50:33","slug":"malta-marc-fromager-talk-can-christianity-survive-in-the-middle-east-acn-malta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/07\/03\/malta-marc-fromager-talk-can-christianity-survive-in-the-middle-east-acn-malta\/","title":{"rendered":"MALTA: Marc Fromager talk &#8211; &#8220;Can Christianity survive in the Middle East?&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>MALTA<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Marc Fromager talk: \u201cCan Christianity survive in the Middle East?\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">A large number of people attended a lecture on 2 July entitled \u201cChristianity in the Middle East \u2013can it survive?\u201d at the Corinthia Palace hotel organized by ACN Malta.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Stephen Axisa, National Director gave a brief introduction and thanked the Corinthia Palace for their generous sponsorship of the event.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The main speaker was Marc Fromager, author of numerous books and articles on the Middle East, who gave a first-hand account of the current situation in Iraq and Syria. He has been studying the Middle East for the last 20 years and has observed how the Christian communities there have almost vanished because of the discrimination and violence they have had to face.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cWe have to really underline the discrimination and specific persecution of Christians. It seems they don\u2019t have where to live and that is why a lot had to flee. The question is \u2018is there a future for them in the Middle East?\u2019\u201d said Mr Fromager.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">French author Marc Fromager started his talk with what he described as very good news, namely that displaced Christians are starting to return to their homes in towns and villages destroyed by war and ISIS occupation at a much faster rate than had been anticipated. This is indeed promising news for the future of Christianity in the Middle East, though many problems remain, particularly regarding rebuilding damaged homes and infrastructure and providing safe conditions for returning Christians to survive, work and prosper.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In the fast-changing Middle East, Christians are increasingly the victims &#8211; often collateral victims &#8211; of different issues, which Fromager identified <\/span>as:<span style=\"color: #000000;\"> radicalisation of Islam and resulting homogenisation of the Middle East; struggle for regional hegemony between Saudi Arabia and Iran; insatiable demand for oil and gas; the arms race and finally western interference and dependency on arms sales to Saudi Arabia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Fromager stated bluntly that the US and European countries should stop interfering in the Middle East. He said that this interference led to the creation of ISIS and the war in Syria. The crisis which followed has also resulted in the immigration problem in Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Fromager said that the greatest problem he sees is the radicalisation of Islam, which is presenting huge obstacles for communities with different religious beliefs to live together as they used to do in the past. He attributed this to the global spread of <\/span>Wahhabism<span style=\"color: #000000;\">, financed and encouraged by Saudi Arabia. There were also internal factors within Islam itself, which he believed was facing a crisis as ancient ways of life were not compatible with modern ideas of equality and freedom. This has caused some Muslims to become atheists or convert to Christianity, while others became strict fundamentalists and reverted to the lifestyle, beliefs and dress of the early days of Islam over 1300 years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Marc Fromager was followed by ACN Malta\u2019s Ecclesiastical Assistant, Mgr Prof Hector Scerri, who spoke about the difficulties Middle East Christians faced.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Archbishop Emeritus Paul Cremona O.P. gave the concluding address and led all those attending in a prayer for peace in the Middle East.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>ACN Malta<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h5>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MALTA Marc Fromager talk: \u201cCan Christianity survive in the Middle East?\u201d &nbsp; A large number of people attended a lecture on 2 July entitled \u201cChristianity in the Middle East \u2013can it survive?\u201d at the Corinthia Palace hotel organized by ACN Malta. Stephen Axisa, National Director gave a brief introduction and thanked the Corinthia Palace for&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29555,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>MALTA: Marc Fromager talk - &quot;Can Christianity survive in the Middle East?&quot; - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2018\/07\/03\/malta-marc-fromager-talk-can-christianity-survive-in-the-middle-east-acn-malta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MALTA: Marc Fromager talk - &quot;Can Christianity survive in the Middle East?&quot; - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"MALTA Marc Fromager talk: \u201cCan Christianity survive in the Middle East?\u201d &nbsp; A large number of people attended a lecture on 2 July entitled \u201cChristianity in the Middle East \u2013can it survive?\u201d at the Corinthia Palace hotel organized by ACN Malta. 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