For obvious reasons Chechnya is in the news.
As the style book now apparently requires the mass media preachers cautioned us
not to jump to the conclusion that the Boston Marathon bombers were Muslims,
even though very early on we knew they were from Chechnya. I am all for not jumping to conclusions but in
this case it is more than a good guess that these bombers were Muslims because there
are less than 100 Christians left in Chechnya. The Muslims expelled, terrorized
and killed the Christians there long ago.
No doubt politicians and pundits will demand
that we ‘understand’ and sympathize with these terrorists. I do sympathize with
Chechnya: what the Russians have inflicted upon the people of Chechnya is
unspeakably evil. But could we perhaps save just a bit of our sympathy for the
Christians of Chechnya?
“The Russian Federation is a complex patchwork
of republics, oblasts, territories and okrugs, varying in size, population,
ethnic background and religious affiliation. Chechnya, part of the Southern
Federal District, lies in the North Caucasus region, an area considered
Europe’s least evangelised. It is one of seven republics, containing a medley
of 50 to 60 ethnic groups of Caucasus, Turkic and Iranian origin.
Chechnya has long resisted Russian rule. The
wars of the 1990s between the Russian military and Chechen rebels ended only in
2009 with Russian withdrawal and a pro-Moscow president installed. The
conflicts were part of a wider strategy to form an Islamic Caucasus state
(self-titled as Nokhchiyn).
The 1.4 million Chechen are almost entirely
Muslim, and international Islamists have radicalized many of them. The
Christian presence in Chechnya has been largely eliminated or expelled. A
Baptist presence remains in Grozny. Most Christian organizations withdrew to
work among refugees in North Ossetia and Ingushetia. Hatred of Russians (and
thereby all Christians) and ruthless Islamist groups make ministry extremely
sensitive work.”
From
The Voice of the Martyrs http://www.persecution.net/russia.htm
I understand that even the good Baptists of Grozny have been eliminated since the summary above was written.
No comments:
Post a Comment