By Walid Shoebat

The average Joe finds himself lost trying to keep track of the politics within the Middle East. One smart contributor to the Financial Times presented the contradictory alliances of the region’s complicated nature in eight simple paragraphs:

“Sir, Iran is backing Assad. Gulf states are against Assad!
 Assad is against Muslim Brotherhood. Muslim Brotherhood and Obama are against General Sisi.
 But Gulf states are pro Sisi! Which means they are against Muslim Brotherhood!
 Iran is pro Hamas, but Hamas is backing Muslim Brotherhood!
 Obama is backing Muslim Brotherhood, yet Hamas is against the US!
 Gulf states are pro US. But Turkey is with Gulf states against Assad; yet Turkey is pro Muslim Brotherhood against General Sisi. And General Sisi is being backed by the Gulf states!
 Welcome to the Middle East and have a nice day.”

But what is missing in all this complicated analysis is that while evil conjures confusing conflicts and sectarian violence, the Middle East conflict is all about one thing—the extermination of Christians.

What does the sectarian violence have to do with Christians in Syria and Iraq? To answer this simple question, we need to ask, what did the Jews do during Nazi Germany to deserve the Holocaust?

To answer both questions is simple; in Germany they were killed because they were simply Jews. In Syria and Iraq Christians are being killed for simply being Christians.

Thats it.

Why else would Al-Qaeda linked rebels last year kidnap and then recently released 13 Syrian nuns in exchange for the release of regime prisoners?

Qatari officials as well as the Assad regime reportedly helped broker the agreement that allowed the nuns to return home to Syria early today after being kidnapped from their monastery in Maaloula, north of Damascus, in December.

And what did the Christians do in the affairs of either Shia or Sunni differences?

These are questions that the political and demographic analyst simply does not understand since these always think from a paradigm of economical and political circumstances. You can’t take your Bible on Fox and CNN and explain the human destiny. Neither will you find it in the regular church you attend. Its a subject that needs to be discussed during every Sunday sermon these days, but its not. It is found by looking at the world from God’s perspective.

Why is the situation for Syria’s Christians has deteriorated, particularly in the northern city of Raqqa, where a jihadist group recently forced local Christians to choose between converting to Islam, paying a protection tax, or being killed.

In Raqqa, you can find the flogged back of Jesus. His hunger and Him being in prison.

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), an offshoot of Al Qaeda in Iraq now independent of the global terror network, presented Christians with an ultimatum in late February that included at least a dozen conditions. Among them were refraining from renovating churches, many of which have been damaged in the war, or wearing or displaying crosses and other religious symbols in public.

All of the sudden, in Syria, ancient Islamic laws have been re-activated as we have predicted two decades ago.

Now the situation has become a prelude to what happened in Nazi Germany. Some 20 Christian leaders reportedly agreed to the conditions, including payment of a twice-yearly protection tax, ranging from about $125 to $500, depending on personal income levels.

Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom in Washington, expanded on the restrictions in the National Review late last month. “They are forbidden from reading scripture indoors loud enough for Muslims outside to hear, and the practice of their faith must be confined within the walls of their remaining churches, not exercised publicly (at, for example, funeral or wedding processions),” wrote Ms. Shea, who characterized the requirements as returning to rules attributed to the seventh-century caliphate.

Shea was speaking of the Omar Charter. Throughout the centuries the Jews suffered by the founders of the Islam faith to this day. The infamous Omar Charter declared:

The necks of Dhimmis (Jew and Christians with no rights in the land) are to be sealed when collecting the Jezzieh (tax imposed on Jews and Christians). The method of sealing is to bind the necks of the person with a collar, in it is a piece of lead, stamped on it the amount of his payment, the collar is not to be broken until the payment is completed. This is in accordance to the Quranic verse ‘Until they pay the Jezzieh by an upper hand, may they be subjugated (humiliated)’…And if the person was a Jew, he must wear on his shoulder a red or yellow banner, so he is recognized as a Jew. And if the person is a Christian, he needs to wear harsh clothes, with a large pocket in the chest area like women. As for Christian women, they must wear shoes with different colors, one black and the other white. And if a Jew or a Christian goes into a public bath, he must wear an iron, copper, or lead made collar around his neck so he can be identified from Muslims. Never a Jew or a Christian can build houses higher than a Muslim. They are not to crowd public roads but need to use narrow alleyways, and small streets. They are not to be saluted, nor their graves can be extended beyond the surface of the ground.

While the US is paying lip service. The ultimatum given to Raqaa’s Christians is but the most recent casualty of the West’s inaction.

It is amazing that during today’s demonstrations, Islamists and the liberal left wave the slogan Zionism = Nazism, yet a comparison between Nazi law toward Jews, and Dhimmi Law (Jews and other citizens with no rights) in the Omar Charter will reveal a true commonality:

Nazism: Jews need to wear a mark on their clothing to identify them as Jews. The Star of David for identification with the word (Jude) (must be) on the chest. A yellow banner is to be fixed around the shoulder or arm, as to be recognized as a Jew. They must live in the Jewish Ghettos.

Islam: Dhimmis (Jews & Christians) must wear identifiable clothing and live in a clearly marked house. For Jews, a yellow banner is to be fixed around the shoulder or arm, as to be recognized as a Jew. [1]

Nazism: Jews are not permitted to serve in the army or navy. They are not allowed to bear arms.

Islam: He must not ride a horse or bear arms. He must yield the right-of-way to Muslims.

Nazism: Jews cannot hold public offices, whether national, state, or municipal, salaried or honorary, (they) are closed to Jews. Jews cannot be Judges in criminal and disciplinary cases. Jews cannot serve on juries. [2]

Islam: Dhimmis (Jews & Christians) cannot be a witness in a legal court except in matters relating to other “Dhimmis” (Jews & Christians) or be a judge in a Muslim court.

Nazism: As compensation for the protection that Jews enjoy as aliens, they must pay double the taxes the Germans pay. [3]

Islam: As compensation for the protection that Dhimmis (Jews & Christians) enjoy, they must pay “Jizzieh,” a special tax to be imposed on Dhimmis (Jews & Christians) only.

Nazism: Marriage to Jews is prohibited. Adoption of Jews and by Jews is prohibited. [4]

Islam: A Jew cannot be the guardian of a Muslim child, or the owner of a Muslim slave.

Nazism: Jews must live in Ghettos.

Islam: They may not build their houses in the neighborhood of Muslims.

But perhaps it is time for the Christian Arabs to recognize that there is something in common between them and the Jewish people. That such persecution that was targeting the Jews has come to the Christians. It as they say in the Middle East, Saturday people first and Sunday people next. It is perhaps time for Christians in the Middle East to stop listening to the decades of anti-Israel propaganda: the two sects of the Bible are equally targeted regardless if one of the two refuses to agree with the other.

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1. Sunan Abu Daud, Book 38, #4390.
2. Lucy Dawidowicz, The War Against The Jews, Anti-Jewish
Legislation, p. 72.
3. Ibid., p. 75.
4. Ibid., p. 84.