President Obama is fond of saying that Islam is a tolerant religion. As he said in his famous Cairo speech in 2009 that “…throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.”

Obama Ignores the Fears of Middle Eastern Christians

by Richard L. Russell

President Obama loudly proclaims his enthusiasm for democracy in the Middle East as he did in his second inaugural address: “We will support democracy from Asia to Africa, from the Americas to the Middle East, because our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom.” 

But those lofty words ring hollow when one surveys the plight of minority Christian communities in the Middle East, which in the aftermath of 9/11 and the “Arab Spring,” are increasingly besieged under the watchful eyes of so-called democracies. 

President Obama is turning a blind-eye to the Christian plight, perhaps due to a combination of arrogance and embarrassment at how events turn out the opposite of his rhetoric.

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A steely-eyed look at the greater Middle East where countries have predominately Muslim populations—whether they be Sunni or Shia Islam, be in north Africa, the Levant, the Gulf, or South Asia—shows that Christian communities are under unofficial societal, if not official government, sieges. 

President Obama ought to look over his teleprompter to see that the realities on the ground in the greater Middle East today bear little resemblance to the words in his well-rehearsed speeches.


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