A Call to All Arab-Christians in Their Homeland or in the Diaspora

 

Christians in the Middle East are becoming fewer and fewer.

It is a great concern to our religious leaders, to our families, and also to many of our brothers and sisters of the Muslim faith in our home countries as we look to our future.

1-  GLOBAL FAMILY TREE               

 

 

Our Christian family names (last names) are about the same many times in the different countries like Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq etc. Take for example the names Haddad, Bader, Sayegh, Najjar, Khoury, Hijazin, Helou, Lahham, Totah, Batarseh, Jaar, Copty, Ennabi and many, many others. You find them everywhere, even in the US, Canada, South America, and Europe. I found hundreds and hundreds of my own family COPTY on Facebook and all over the world. It is amazing to connect with all of them who tell the same story of our family coming from originally from Egypt. Think of your own family... It seems that all of us come from two or three ORIGINAL CHRISTIAN TRIBES, some of us go back to the Ghassanides.
 
We IMMEDIATELY NEED:
That every single family work its own Family Tree (Arbre Généalogique) that will be connected to a GLOBAL data base that will help each one of us Christians from any Arabic country more easily find each other.

You need just  to put your name, the name of your father, the name of grandfather and your family name and the GLOBAL Data WEBSITE should give you: The full TREE of your family of origin, where they started, where did they go to live, and where they are now and who are you originally from.

If you have your own TREE and you have a website already please, try to send us the link or take the link and try to find out how you connect with other families in the world. And PLEASE, PLEASE, do not keep your findings to yourself; rather help others to connect.

 

This GLOBAL Website data base will help us

1. find our origins

2. connect us all over countries and continents

3. support each other

4. connect many of our families with some Muslim families, our sisters and brothers, and destroy all fanaticism between religions in our home countries.
    

2- STOLEN LANDS

 

Many of our homes, lands especially in the Holy Land and other Arab Countries have been TAKEN, STOLEN or SOLD. There are some organized mafia who are trying to take these lands and sell them without our proper and signed permission. I am dealing many times with such things with my parishioners of San Francisco who have lands in Palestine or Jordan. We need to protect these lands and houses.

 

1. Please send a copy of your ownership with a letter singed by a Religious Leader and Notary Public that says that no one has the right to sell, take, or use this land of yours. This copy will be put at the Tribunals of the Latin Patriarchate or Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, or Amman for Palestinians and Jordanians; at the Maronite, Greek Catholic Armenian, Assyrian, Chaldian or Orthodox Patriarchates of Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Iraq etc.

2. The respective Patriarchates with your copy of ownership and your letter signed by your local Religious Leader and public notary should protect your houses and lands when you discover that somebody even from your own family is trying to take, steal or sell your property or part of it.

Next you call or send an email to the respective Patriarchate and the respective tribunal should stop any transaction of your lands or houses.

3- A FUND TO PROTECT

 

WE NEED TO CREATE A FUND that can help us to keep or buy back these lands. It is not acceptable that we so easily lose our important presence in the land of our origin. The Patriarchates of our respective countries should help in this.

4- CONVENTIONS

 

Conventions would bring together the Christians and the Muslims of our home countries, uniting us in our work to build the future.

We know, as Christians and Muslims, that God, Allah, put us together for a purpose. We need to be an example of good will, cooperation, love, and share the land and the work of building up our home countries for the future generations.

 
Muslims should recognize that the Christians were in these ARABIC countries before them. Many of the Christians were in Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan at least 600 years before Islam; that we Christians built with Muslims these countries of contemporary times; that Christians were the bridge for Arab Countries between East and West and contributed to build many civilizations; that Christian had nothing to do with the Western policies and hegemony of the Middle East, and that they suffer as much as their brothers and sisters, the Muslims; that Christians stood with the Muslims of their home countries against the Christians of the West to defend independence and democracy.

Together, Christians and Muslims, we should stand for the future of our Home Countries and realize the PURPOSE of God-Allah in putting us together in one place.

Fanaticism is destroying the Christian presence in our Home Countries. Love and sharing will help us all to do the LOVING WILL OF GOD-ALLAH for all of us.

It is then so urgent and so important to work hand in hand as we find out that we as Christians from the ARAB- COUNTRIES are an important part of the countries that we still love, that our fathers created and for which some of them died.

We need to nourish in our children the love of these Home Lands and Countries.

I pray that many of our children will work hard to create such DATA and PROJECTS as they are good on the internet and computers. This will be a great service for all our families, many of whom are dispersed all over the world.

I pray in the name of God who brought us together from the one HUMAN family of LOVE that we will really be persuaded of the importance of these projects.

I promise to start it at my parish in San Francisco, and I call on all our priests of any church to do the same for the good of the many families that we are serving.

Msgr. Labib Kobti
www.Al-Bushra.org