Book Reviewed: The Last Christians, by Sharon Howe and Andreas Knapp

Living in a state of terror

Jews, Christians, Yezidis and other religious minorities have been ill-treated in the Muslim nations of Iraq and Syria for many centuries. Their plight became more visible and excruciating when the Islamic terror group, ISIS captured many towns and cities and systematically tortured and brutalized non-Muslim communities. In the mountain village of Maaloula that lies 34 miles from Syria's capital, Damascus, important religious buildings such as the looming Greek Catholic monastery of St. Sergius was damaged by heavy shelling. ISIS also destroyed the ancient city of Palmyra that included the 1,800-year-old Arch of Triumph and the nearly 2,000-year-old Temple of Baalshamin. The Syrian archeologist who was an expert of the history of the city was beheaded. In the ancient Armenian town of Kessab stood the Holy Trinity Armenian Evangelical church. Its library, pews and altar had all been burned, and statues were riddled with bullets and Islamist slogans were scrawled across the walls of homes and shops.

In this book, Andreas Knapp, a German priest who works with refugees from Middle East narrates his experiences with displaced people from northern Iraq and Syria. These are disturbing stories of individual survivors and their families. In the chapter 16 entitled “Through a child’s eyes” describe in simple words how a young Muslim boy displaced from Iraq tells the story of being exposed to constant shelling and bomb explosions. The book does not give graphic details of the horrors. In Chapter 11, entitled “The decline of the Christian Middle East,” the author gives a brief account how Syria was a cradle for Christianism when the church was still at its infancy. In Syria, Christians still speak Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, the language of Jesus. It is the home of the first Gentile Christians. In fact Assyrians were the first to accept Christianity and set up the ministry of Jesus. Some New Testament scholars attribute to the experience of Paul when he was on his way from Jerusalem to Syrian Damascus with a mandate issued by the High Priest to seek out and arrest followers of Jesus, with the intention of returning them to Jerusalem as prisoners for questioning and possible execution. The journey is interrupted when Paul sees a blinding light, and communicates directly with a divine voice.

There are many well written books about the recent events in war-torn Iraq and Syria. This work comes from the personal experiences of the author after working with refuges coming to Germany from Iraq and Syria.