Some blame Israel. Others know better. Islamic Tolerance Alert by Erica Silverman in the Washington Times (thanks to Sr. Soph):
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A small group of Palestinian Christians stands outside Gaza City's Baptist Church on a Sunday morning, waiting for the generator to power up. The church is cold and dark in the dead of winter, Israel having reduced fuel supplies to Gaza in an effort to pressure Hamas to halt rocket fire into Israel.Freshly bound prayer books, containing traditional American hymns, are tucked into the backs of the chairs in the fifth-floor prayer room. But there are no visible religious symbols in the room or outside the building, constructed about a year ago with the help of Christian donors in the U.S. and abroad.
Just eight worshippers are present for the service, compared with more than 100 who attended Sunday prayers six months ago.
Gaza's small Baptist community is dwindling rapidly. Pastor Hanna Massad, who attended seminary in California, took refuge in the West Bank after congregant Rami Eyad was killed in October. Mr. Eyad's religious bookshop was bombed in April.
Mr. Massad and his wife, director of the Gaza Bible Society, which is now closed, still hope to return.
Life has become increasingly difficult for Christians in Gaza since Hamas seized control of the coastal strip in June. Most Christians do not hold Hamas directly responsible, but they are calling for increased protection and accountability.
"The Hamas leadership, on the political level, wants to live side by side with the Christian community, but we are not sure who is responsible for Rami's murder," said Mr. Massad.
Ihab Al-Ghusain, a spokesman for the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, condemned the killing but said there had been no progress in the investigation. Some suspect an Islamic extremist group was behind the attack.
Church elder Farid Ayad, 67, now leads the Baptist service. "As a child, I learned from the American Baptist Mission that was here since 1954," said Mr. Ayad. The mission left in 2001, but a representative from the Southern Baptist Church remains in Jerusalem.
Clergymen in Gaza estimate there are about 3,000 Christians still living in the Gaza Strip. Most are Greek Orthodox, but there are also a few hundred Catholics and a handful of Baptists. They live among some 1.5 million Muslims in the 140-square-mile territory.
Some Christians believe the Hamas government is trying to protect them, if only to improve their image in the eyes of the West. But for others, the threat has become too great.
Over the past few weeks, Israel granted temporary permission to hundreds of Gaza Christians to travel to the West Bank for the holidays. At least six families — more than 40 people — did not return.
Wael Hashwa and his family of four are now living in the West Bank town of Beit Zahur, near Bethlehem. "We are living here month to month, waiting for the situation to improve," said Mr. Hashwa, who was employed by a now-closed organization of Christian ministers in Gaza.
The Baptist community, self-described as evangelical, has been a principal target of the extremists because of its missionary work, which has been halted.
"Christians get killed here, let alone a Muslim who converted," said Ashraf, 36, from Gaza City, who declined to provide his last name. "I stopped going to church even before the coup."
Father Artymos, originally from Greece, leads the St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church, founded 1,600 years ago in Gaza's old city. Christians and Muslims live peacefully together in Gaza, said Father Artymos, but conversions and the construction of new churches are prohibited.
The Rev. Manuel Musallan of the Latin Church in Gaza City blamed Israel for the woes of his tiny Catholic community, which also runs a school with 1,200 students, many of them Muslims.
"The embargo is inhumane. It attacks the innocent here — children, the sick and the elderly," he said. "If Gaza is to be prepared for peace, this is not the way."
Father Musallan meets regularly with the Hamas leadership, but members of his congregation are not as confident. "We are afraid Hamas is targeting Christians," said Issa, who manages a designer-clothing store in the city center.
...CHristians and other non Muslims disappearing from Muslim lands?.....a sure sign of the religious intolerance of Islam....Ban Muslim Immigration...
Some blame Israel. Others know better.
Assalamau Laikum all,
One day you will see the same sign outside salt lake city
"Most Christians do not hold Hamas directly responsible.." It is hard to evoke any shred of sympathy for the Christians of Gaza with statements like this. If you can't even name the evil living in your midst, you will never rid yourself of it, either spiritually or physically. Fr.Musallan is a traitor to his people. He should be fired; his school is mostly funded by the Vatican and the vast majority of students at his school are Muslim. One of my parish priests is going to Jerusalem next month and wants donations for certain charitable foundations in the region. Not a dime from me..he is on some Muslim/Christian inter-faith organization. He has probably already pledged most of the donations to our 'suffering' brothers and sisters, the Palestinians.(Muslim, that is)
Naseem,
You're in fantasy land but I'm going to reveal your secret.
Naseem used to have a Hindu boyfriend. Once while she was visiting him in India, they started making love.
In the throws of passion, Naseem cried out to him, "Oh, please kiss me where it smells funny!"
So he took her back to Pakistan.
"So he took her back to Pakistan.
Posted by: Provoslavni"
...was that before or after he discovered she was a he...
Gaza is a historical centre of Christianity, and some of the early fathers hailed from there. The one I can remember right now is Eusebius of Gaza, a learned commentator on the Bible, but I am sure there were others. Now it is joining the other ancient centres of our faith - Augustine's North Africa, Edessa, Paul's Tarsus, Antioch, John's Ephesus - where no Christian lives. And this is an ugly thought.
As a Roman Catholic I am angered and mortified to see that once again the biggest pantywaist with his wussy comments is THE CATHOLIC! Same in the USA where "peace" to the lefty Father Flakes and Sister Mary Sunshines equals "bend over and grab your ankles".
...Gaza still has Christians?.....
All Christians and Jews need to wipe the dust off and leave Muslim ruled lands.
Whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, 11 Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. 12 But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city
Luke 10 >>
King James Bible
Bad when God thinks more of Sodom then Islam.
For some stunning visual evidence of Byzantine Christian culture in Gaza before the Arab Muslim invasions, see the following link.
http://rubens.anu.edu.au/new/australia/canberra/museums/australian_war_memorial/shellal_mosaic/
Here you will see part of a Byzantine-era mosaic church floor, discovered in the neighbourhood of Gaza by Australian Light Horse troops in 1917, and taken home to Australia for safekeeping. Given what is now happening in Gaza, it is safer here than there...I am quite sure that the Muslims in Gaza, given half a chance, will systematically destroy all physical evidences of the its non-Muslim history.
Here is Lighthorseman Idriess's description of the mosaic, together with an account of the chaplain who supervised its rescue.
August 31st 1917, beyond Rafa, at Marakeb Beach, he writes:
“Padre Maitland-Woods [chaplain to the Australian troops] has had the time of his life. Some fragments of mosaic were found on top of a hill. With careful digging, the floor of a Christian Chapel was uncovered, done in beautifully patterned mosaic of coloured marbles. A Greek inscription said it had been built in the 622nd year after the Roman foundation of the City of Gaza. The Roman Era began in 61 BC, which gives the date of the chapel as 561 AD. The chapel stood on the road from Jerusalem to Egypt. In beautiful mosaic is written: “I am the True Vine. Ye are the branches”.
"The 'True Vine' issues from a green amphora of brilliant colours centring a red marble cross, a bright green glory shining from it. A cage with a bird symbolizes the Holy Spirit. On either side is a hare escaping from a hound (the soul escaping from temptation). Around the centre are tigers, lions, flamingos and peacocks in vivid colours doing homage to the central chalice. It is now called “the Shellal Mosaic”.
The Australian Dictionary of Biography adds the following information: “[Chaplain Maitland-Woods, 1864-1927] learned of the discovery—made on 17 April 1917 by troops engaged at Shellal in the second battle of Gaza—of an exquisite church-floor mosaic.
'With the aid of expert advice and materials from Cairo, he supervised the removal and packing of the damaged mosaic which was later mounted in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.
'Professor A. D. Trendall later dated the Shellal mosaic to A.D. 561-62 and assessed it as being worthy of 'a place of honour in the history of Byzantine art'.”
Gaza also has a long Jewish history which is, today, completely ignored by our mainstream media who tend to represent Gaza as if it had always been Arab Muslim territory. Besides its Byzantine-era Christian churches, archaeologists have found, in Gaza, evidence of a synagogue, ca. 508 AD.
Jews as well as Christians continued to live in Gaza after the Muslim invasions, despite severe oppression and persecution - there are records of their presence all the way through. In 1600 the Chief Rabbi of Gaza, Israel Najara, d. 1625, composed his famous “Sabbath Hymn”. In 1900 there were 50 Jewish families in Gaza; the Muslim Turks drove out Gaza's Jewish community during World War I; although those Jews returned, in 1929 the Muslim Arabs attacked them, killing 150 people, and driving out the rest. Such are the awkward little historical details that our main stream media now tend to gloss over.
Gaza, originally Jewish and Christian non-Arab at the time of the Arab Muslim conquests, is now Judenrein...and rapidly becoming Christenrein, at the hands of the Arab Muslim imperialists.
"All Christians and Jews need to wipe the dust off and leave Muslim ruled lands."
from a post above.
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I disagree! The words of Christ that are quoted refer to going into a town and proclaiming the Gospel. If they reject it, we leave since Christianity does not convert by force.
The Christians of Gaza are indigenous to Gaza. They have been there since long before the Muslims came. Before they became Christians, their ancestors were probably Jews who had lived there since the time that Gaza was conquered by ancient Israel. So why should they be the ones to leave? Make the Muslim invaders go back to Arabia.
As for Israel's right to re-occupy Gaza, here are the facts: In 145 BC Gaza was conquered by Jonathan the Hasmonean (Brother of Judah the Maccabee). There was a prospering Jewish presence in Gaza until the Roman ruler Gavinius expelled them in 61 AD as part of the First Jewish-Roman War but they returned a few years later along with the still Judaized Christians. By the time of the Mishnah and the Talmud there was a large Jewish community in Gaza. The remains of the ancient Gaza synagogue, built around 500 AD, were found near the city wharf. So the city of Gaza is the historic patrimony of both Christians and Jews. The Muslims have no right to it.
For way too long, Christians and Jews have fled before the Islamic tide. It's time we start taking back lost territory. We certainly should never surrender even one more inch to these invaders.
Another fact about Gaza: It was conquered by Muslims in the 630s after a siege during which the Jewish population of the city defended it alongside the Byzantine garrison.
Unfortunately, when Gaza was taken by Christian Crusaders, who forgot how the Jews had helped their Eastern Christian brothers two centuries earlier and the Jewish population was not treated with justice ("Father" Musallen seems to be in this same category). Nevertheless, the Jewish community survived until Gaza returned to Muslim control in 1187. During this period, the Jewish community in Gaza was finally destroyed.
It should be a matter of honour for Israel to undo this destruction. Unfortunately, with Ehud Olmert and his cohorts in charge, the Israeli government has little honour remaining.
All Christians and Jews need to wipe the dust off and leave Muslim ruled lands.'
...what a croc!.....in fact, much of so-called "Muslim ruled lands" were once Jew/Christian owned lands....Even today , the Muslims continue to evict non muslims from their, generally preferring to just kill they (less chance of them returning)....
...how about all Muslims must return the land formerly owned by Jews and Christians that have been confisctated by the Muslims...
For more on 'Israel Najara' the wikipedia link is actually not too bad:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Najara
It mentions that he was buried in 'the ancient Jewish cemetery of Gaza' ....not that I imagine the Destroyers have left even the slightest trace of THAT, by now.
For a sample audio of part of a musical setting of Yah Ribbon 'Olam, see the following link:
http://www.israelemb.org/la/culture/pastevents/EastWest/music/program.htm
- just scroll down to no 7 and click on 'play'.
Just the account of Israel Najara, together with the Shalla mosaic, gives us a hint of the spiritual and cultural richness of the Jewish and the Christian heritage of Gaza...as compared to, for example, the sickening output from Hamas' propaganda department.
Oops. Small correction to the above. Should read 'together with the Shellal mosaic'. I also suspect I should have written Yah Ribon 'Olam rather than Yah Ribbon 'Olam.
Sorry!