Greek Orthodox leader ties Christian persecution in Middle East to poor military planning by Karen L. Willoughby | 06 January, 2015
BROOKLYN, N.Y. (Christian Examiner) -- Poor planning led to the rise of extremists in the Middle East, says Thomas Zain, vicar-general of the Antiochian orthodox Archdiocese of North America.
Now, "the cat's out of the bag," Zain said in a Fox News special report on the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.
"We've tried to overthrow governments -- we meaning the West, U.S., whoever -- without thinking ahead to what the countries will look like after we remove the governments," Zain explained to Harris Faulkner, a Fox news commentator who guided the interview now posted to the Greek Orthodox website. "We remove them for whatever reason but we don't follow through with what's going to happen afterwards.
"So you have a situation for example in Iraq, despite billions of dollars and tens of thousands of American troops, and God knows how many Iraqi lives lost, and we still have no solid government in place," Zain continued. "In fact, it's worse now than it has been. ... We're trying to impose democracy without realizing it has to come from within."
Religious groups lived together relatively peacefully for generations because the secular governments in place "imposed that peace," the Greek Orthodox leader said. "In Syria, you never asked anybody what their religion was; they were Syrian, because it's a secular state.
"Was it the best form of government? Probably not," Zain said as he flung his arms wide open. "But all religious minorities were considered equal citizens."
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