THAT FILM AND MIDDLE-EASTERN MINORITIES

"It's only a movie": "Jews have far more to fear than Mel Gibson. Jews have far more to fear from the International Judicial Court in the Hague as it condemns Israel for putting up a security fence to protects its citizens from homicide bombers. Jews have far more to fear from university campuses that refuse to protect them from violence from Palestinians"

Defending Mel Gibson's movie: "If the movie and the Gospels on which it's based are anti-Semitic, then why are those Christians most faithful to the New Testament among the strongest supporters of Israel?"

Mel Gibson is crying all the way to the bank. And he may make some money in the courts too.

It is also the first movie to allow Aramaic speakers to hear their language on the big screen. "Use of the Aramaic language had become common by the period of the Chaldean Empire (626-539 B.C.). It became the official language of the Imperial government in Mesopotamia and enjoyed general use until the spread of Greek (331 B.C.). Although Greek had spread throughout these Eastern lands, Aramaic remained dominant and the linqua franca of the Semitic peoples. This continued to be so until Aramaic was superseded by a sister Semitic tongue, Arabic, about the 13th century A.D. to the 14th century A.D., when Arabic supplanted Aramaic after the Arab conquest in the 7th Century. However, the Christians of Mesopotamia (Iraq), Iran, Syria, Turkey and Lebanon kept the Aramaic language alive domestically, scholastically and liturgically. In spite of the pressure of the ruling Arabs to speak Arabic, Aramaic is still spoken today in its many dialects, especially among the Chaldeans and Assyrians."

With all the attention being given to Mel's movie you wonder why so few commentators, so quick to sniff out any anti-semitism in the movie, haven't wondered aloud what form of imperialism suppressed Aramaic?

As this article points out, Aramaic was the parent language of Assyrian. "Today, the Assyrian presence in the Middle East is under immense pressure. In the past 30 years, Assyrians have fled from their native lands in record numbers with more than 1.5 million having emigrated to over 30 different countries, mostly in theWest. The predominant reason for this flight is because of Assyrian religious and ethnic distinctiveness vis-a-vis their Arab, Persian, Turkish or Kurdish neighbors. Because of these differences, Assyrians are severely discriminated against and are denied basic civil, human, and political rights. In most Middle Eastern countries,Assyrians are not even recognized as a people In Turkey, Iraq, and SyriaAssyrians are officially recognized only as a religious minority, either as "Turkish" or"Arab Christians." Even in the so-called UN protected "Safe Haven" of northern Iraq, Assyrians are referred to as "Christian Kurds."In Iran, Assyrians haverecently been semi-officially recognized as a people but only after more than 90%have emigrated over the past 30 years."

As the ethnic and religious cleansing of non-Muslim minorities (mostly Christians) from the Middle East continues, the Left's selective passion for the Palestinians is all rather sickening.

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