Why is the British Government Attacking Christian Leaders?

Readers of The Times last Saturday were presented with an astonishing attack upon Evangelical Christian leaders which was said to have been issued by the British Foreign Office. Their criticism was directed at a small group of Christian leaders who have made several visits to Syria during the past nearly 8 years of conflict. The group that includes well-known Evangelical leaders such as George Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Nazir Ali, former Bishop of Rochester and Baroness Caroline Cox, have had meetings with President Assad in Damascus.

According to the report quoted by The Times the British Foreign Office says that their visits are undermining British Government policy which is aimed at overthrowing Assad. It is notable that the BBC never refers to the ‘Government of Syria’ or to ‘President Assad’: it is always ‘the Assad regime’. This is part and parcel of the British Foreign Office policy of trying to airbrush Assad out of the picture.

Is this a Humanitarian Policy or a Political Ploy?

But is this policy really based on humanitarian principles or is it simply a political ploy because we don’t like Assad being supported by Russia and Iran and we want to cosy up to Saudi Arabia who are fighting a proxy war with Iran in the Yemen and they hate Assad’s tolerant form of Islam?

Few Westerners UnderstandSyrians fleeing violence in their country crossed into Turkey, in Reyhanli, Hatay / See Photo Credits

There are few Westerners who really understand either the politics or the cultural complications of the Middle East with their many different branches of Islam and different social structures stemming from their different interpretations of their religion. It is nevertheless extraordinary that the British Foreign Office have mounted such an attack upon a highly respected group of Bible believing evangelical Christians.

Why issue such a statement just now, when the last visit of the group was back in April and the previous one was November 2017? Is the Foreign Office afraid that the war in Syria will be won by the Syrian Government forces by the end of this year and that Assad will still be in power? But surely that would make diplomatic talks even more important!

Significance of The Visits

The significance of the visits of this little group of evangelicals lies in their great concern for the small Christian minority that still exists in Syria. They certainly would not be supportive of Assad’s brutal policies that have brought tragedy to Syria, cost hundreds of thousands of lives, destroyed countless cities and caused millions of refugees. Assad undoubtedly is a monster; but the fact is that he is still the leader in Syria and someone has to talk to him about the future of Christians in his country.

Assad’s brutal policies that have brought tragedy to Syria

The interest of the Evangelical Christian leaders is that traditionally the Assad Government has been very tolerant towards Christians and has allowed them complete freedom to practice their faith in Syria without let or hindrance. This is in total contrast to Saudi Arabia where there is no tolerance of other religions and Christians are even banned from taking a Bible to the country: to establish a church would be utterly unthinkable! So why does the British Government unquestionably support Saudi Arabia, even despite the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi? Is it purely because we want their oil and we make vast sums of money by selling them bombers and weapons to kill and maim civilians in Yemen?

Who Will be in Power?

When peace is restored to Syria and elections are held, Assad, if he is still in power, will depend upon the support of Christians who traditionally form 10% of the population. I have not seen accounts of the discussions between the British evangelicals and Assad, but they will certainly not have avoided talking about the pursuit of the war and the inhumane use of barrel bombs and shelling of civilians. Their objective is to try to change the culture of Assad, not to get involved in political conspiracies to change the Syrian Government. In any case, a different leader, following a different form of Islam, might be less tolerant to Christians. This might be a case of the devil you know may be better than the one you do not know.

Christians in Syria would have been wiped out or reduced to slavery

The British evangelicals know that if the Islamic State fighters had won the Civil War and overthrown Assad’s Government, all the Christians in Syria would have been wiped out or reduced to slavery. The only hope for the future of Christianity in Syria is through negotiations with whatever Government that emerges after the civil war. This is the policy that the British Government should be pursuing.

British Foreign Office Bias

The British Foreign Office has never been supportive of the Christian gospel. 200 years ago, the East India Company, supported by the Foreign Office, bitterly opposed the sending of missionaries to India. It was the Clapham Group of Evangelical Christians led by William Wilberforce who forced a change of policy. And it was the anti-Semitic Foreign Office policy that undermined the Balfour Declaration during the British Mandate in Palestine which exacerbated the division between Arabs and Jews and led to the tragic situation that exists today.

When will the British stop interfering in foreign affairs in countries where they do not understand the culture? But Britain is not the only nation to do this. Most Western nations try to impose their type of democracy upon the rest of the world. Hence the tragic situations we see all over Africa, the Middle East and Asia.