But sometimes a footnote can help illuminate a tragedy's unhappy whole.

For decades, the Middle East's increasingly beleaguered Christian communities have suffered from a fatal invisibility in the Western world.

And their plight has been particularly invisible in the United States, which as a majority-Christian superpower might have been expected to provide particular support.

There are three reasons for this invisibility.

The political left in the West associates Christian faith with dead white male imperialism and does not come naturally to the recognition that Christianity is now the globe's most persecuted religion.

And in the Middle East the Israel-Palestine question, with its colonial overtones, has been the left's great obsession, whereas the less ideologically convenient plight of Christians under Islamic rule is often left untouched.

To America's strategic class, meanwhile, the Middle East's Christians simply don't have the kind of influence required to matter.

A minority like the Kurds, geographically concentrated and well-armed, can be a player in the great game, a potential United States ally.

But except in Lebanon, the region's Christians are too scattered and impotent to offer much quid for the superpower's quo.

So whether we're pursuing stability by backing the anti-Christian Saudis or pursuing transformation by toppling Saddam Hussein (and unleashing the furies on Iraq's religious minorities), our policy makers have rarely given Christian interests any kind of due.

Then, finally, there is the American right, where one would expect those interests to find a greater hearing.

But the ancient churches of the Middle East (Eastern Orthodox, Chaldean, Maronites, Copt, Assyrian) are theologically and culturally alien to many American Catholics and evangelicals.

And the great cause of many conservative Christians in the United States is the state of Israel, toward which many Arab Christians harbor feelings that range from the complicated to the hostile. Continue reading

Source

• Ross Douthat in The New York Times

Ross Douthat joined The New York Times as an Op-Ed columnist in April 2009.

"Acknowledging the religious and political complexity which characterises Iraqi society, we hold in our prayers not only the Christian minority, but all Iraqi citizens whose greatest desire is for peaceful and just participation in the ordering of their country's affairs," the statement says.

"We offer our prayerful support for the Iraqi and other migrant communities within Aotearoa New Zealand who have reason to fear for the safety of loved ones and those who share their faith and culture."

Last week the Syrian Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan said Christians in the Middle East feel "abandoned, even betrayed" by the West as a militant Islamic force occupied large areas of Syria and Iraq.

Christians "are facing the biggest challenge for their survival on the lands of their forefathers in Iraq and Syria," the patriarch told Catholic News Service June 18 by email from the patriarchate in Beirut.

"We are very anxious, even devastated, because of the horrendous news that keeps coming to us from Mosul (Iraq) and surrounding areas," Patriarch Younan wrote.

The majority of Iraqi New Zealanders came to New Zealand as refugees during the 1990s and many were Assyrian Christians who had been persecuted for their religion.

The greatest concentrations of Iraqis are in Auckland and Wellington.

Catholic Iraqis belong to the Chaldean Rite of the Catholic church.

Click here to read more about the history of Christianity in Iraq.

To begin with the they participated in the activities of the local Latin Rite church.

In April 1996, a group of community members visited Bishop Dunn to ask him to assist them in their efforts to obtain a priest to serve the Iraqi community.

Dunn showed his willingness to make a place for any priest that would come to serve the Iraqi community either temporarily or permanently.

He agreed that the Iraqi parishioners contribute financially for the priest's upkeep.

He sent a letter of support to that effect to the Chaldean Patriarch at the time.

Saint Addai the Apostle Chaldean Catholic Parish was established in New Zealand in May of 2003 with the arrival of Father Fawzi Koro in Auckland.

He established the Church for the Iraqi Chaldean Catholic community in New Zealand.

The community is made up of about 3000 people distributed throughout the country, but the majority live in Auckland and Wellington.

There are about 250 families living in South Auckland.

At first a house was bought in Manurewa to be used as the centre for the Chaldeans.

It was was opened by Bishop Dunn in November 28, 2003 in the presence of Monsignor Zuhair Toma Qijbu the Patriarchal Vicar at the time along with a number of priests and a crowd of parishioners.

Later on a new centre was bought in Papatoetoe.

This centre, which includes the church building, a hall, classrooms and the priest's house this was acquired first in April 2005 with the help of the Catholic Diocese of Auckland who gave a loan of one million three hundred thousand dollars.

Source

• The Catholic Diocese of Auckland
• Wikipedia
• Staddai.org.nz
• Catholic Sentinel
• Image: spoke.net.nz

The Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East opened its doors in Manurewa.

Father Toma K Toma, who came to New Zealand from Iran in 1992, acknowledges the church has come a long way from its early beginnings and is happy to see it thrive in South Auckland - "it's a dream come true", he says.

People in the neighbourhood are very impressed with the new building and ask many questions, and he's proud to share his religion and culture, he says. Continue reading

One year ago, in the worst violence against Assyrians since the liberation of Iraq, Al-Qaeda terrorists attacked Iraqui Christians at Our Lady of Deliverance Chaldean Catholic Church in Baghdad during a Sunday evening church service, killing 58 parishioners, including two priests.

Commemorating the massacre, the news agency warned that "for Assyrians in Iraq, the scheduled departure of U.S. forces at the end of December 2011 is of great concern."

"Without the U.S. presence as a deterrent, Assyrians face the danger of unchecked Islamic persecution."

"The Shiite Maliki government is under the influence of Iran and the Shiites have not been friendly to Assyrians in Iraq, as they have engaged in the persecution and killing of Assyrians since 2004," the agency continued.

It warns that "for the United States and Europe, the lesson of the Black Sunday massacre should be clear: the Islamists are transnational, for them there are no nations, only the umma (the Islamic nation) ruled by Sharia. In Sharia there is no separation between mosque and state - the mosque is the state. Western governments must craft their foreign policy with this in mind, and develop policies to pressure Islamic governments to ensure that Christians and other non-Muslims are protected from the discriminatory laws and practices prescribed by Sharia."

Sources

• Assyrian International News Agency
• Image: Christian Science Monitor