Christians of the Middle East: "We have no weapons, but we have a determination to survive"

Kidnapped by militants in 2013, the Syrian bishop, the Metropolitan of Aleppo Paul (Antiochian Orthodox Church) and the Syro-Jacobite Metropolitan of Aleppo John Ibrahim could be executed. This was announced by the leader of the Orthodox Party in the Middle East ‘Masherik’, Roderick Khoury, who being in Moscow handed the project of Syria’s post war development created by the experts of his party to the interfactional parliamentary group of the State Duma for the protection of Christian values.

According to Roderick Khoury, the Christians in the Middle East live in the valley of death among wolves: "We, Christians, have no weapons in the literal sense of the word, but we have the determination to stay and survive in this difficult situation. We live in a region where a real beast lives, who accuses everyone else of infidelity, and where there is a political struggle, a military struggle. And in this situation we have to protect our religion, our faith. To do this, we had to create a specific organization. And so such party was established, the Orthodox Party of the Levant. We have two main directions, tasks. The first is to maintain the historical features and the historic faith that we profess. Secondly, we must maintain our political component, and protect our lives with the help of political organization. "

Khoury said that there are two threats for the Christians in the region - it is terrorism, which kills the body, as well as atheistic materialism that comes from the West and kills the spirit. "If our body and our soul will be killed, then what will be left of our beings? Therefore it was necessary to create a party like ours, the party of the Levant. The party that understands that these two dangers are the two dangers that threaten the very existence of Christians in the Middle East. Our party believes in a multipolar world, and we reject a world built on monopolarity. We would like to maintain a multicultural structure in the Middle East, so that this region does not turn into the dominance of some single culture. We have no problems in relations with those who live in our region. We only have problems with those who want to destroy us. And this is the main danger. It is terrorism. Until we put an end to terrorism, we are unable to engage in dialogue on other issues and address these issues, " Khoury said.

The danger of terrorism reminds him of the dangers of fascism and Nazism during the Second World War. ‘’Capitalist West and the communist East during the Second World War, managed to unite in order to counter nazism and fascism. And today the entire world, with all of its diversity, its ideological foundations and political aspirations, too, must unite to fight this beast [terrorism]. The West, particularly the United States, must recognize this danger. The Russian war against terrorism today is, first of all, a war in defense of the United States, for example, the people of the United States, who do not understand where his government is taking him and the whole world. "