Middle East Christian groups protest strikes

Monday, March 29, 1999

NICOSIA [MENL] -- Middle East Christian exiles have protested NATO attacks on Yugoslavia, saying the bombing raids will help radical Islamic efforts to establish a Muslim state in Kosovo.

The Christian groups complained of what they termed a double standard whereby the West ignores Muslim government persecution of Christians in the Middle East. They said Christians are being forced out of such countries as Egypt, Lebanon and Sudan.

The Coptic American Union said Egypt, which receives $2.1 billion in U.S. aid, has encouraged Christian persecution. "Our women are raped, our children are kidnapped, our community is being ethnic cleansed by a government which is receiving US foreign aid," the group said in a statement from New York. "Why doesn't the president of the United States send his secretary of state to pressure the Muslim president of Egypt as he sends her to pressure the president of Christian Serbia. Did Mrs. Clinton raise the issue of the suffering of the Christians in Egypt, while she was touring a country of major persecution of Christians?"

George Abdelmassih, a leader of the American-Coptic Association said, "The Christian Serbian people should know that the 12 million Copts of Egypt are siding morally and politically with them against the Saudi-requested war against Christians in the Mediterranean."

Pierre Chamoun, a spokesman of the Assyrian Network, said Assyrians are being massacred in Iraq and Turkey. He said such countries as Saudi Arabia and other Muslim states want to create three Islamic countries in the Balkans.

In Beirut, the World Maronite Union [WMU] released a statement calling on the United States to bombard Syrian troops in Lebanon. He said the 30,000 Syrian troops protect the Shi'ite Hizbullah militia.

Christian activists said about four million Christians of Middle East descent live in the United States.