The condition of a Christian community in any given nation of the Middle East is “an indicator of security and stability” a leading Russian prelate has told ambassadors drawn from the Arab world.
In an address to a gathering of 11 diplomats in Moscow, Metropolitan Hilarion chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations expressed his deep concern for the fate of Christian communities now struggling for survival in the face of Islamic militants.
“The great evil of extremism acting under religious slogans has raised its head,” he said. “Terrorists exterminate Christianity by fire and sword at the places where Christians have been living for nearly 2,000 years. I am convinced that the situation of a Christian community in this or that country of the Middle East is an indicator of security and stability.”
The Metropolitan went on to decry two persistent “erroneous ideas” accompanying the current strife in the Middle East.
“Regrettably, extremists often propagate the idea that Christians are a part of the sinful Western world, that they are accomplices of Islam’s enemies,” he said. “This idea is deeply erroneous if for no other reason than because Christians are the indigenous population of the Arab world.”