5 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: An Open Letter to the Reddit Community
I'm glad Morocco is tolerant. I understand your frustration and that was a beautiful story but here's what I have to say.
My parents are Middle Eastern Christian folk. My lineage derives from Syria, we are Orthodox Christians. In the 1950s my family moved to Egypt due to religious discrimination in Syria.
Egypt had a vibrant Christian community, *had*. Things in Egypt were not much better. My mother told me a story of when she was young she went out in a t-shirt during Ramadan. She was gashed and hit on her arm to the point she bled profusely and still has a scar to this day.
My father, who finished second in his engineering class, was denied entry and even a job simply for being Christian. The president of Egypt at the time, Anwar Sadat, banned the Coptic Pope from even leaving his home.
Where my father grew up, not too far outside of Cairo, Christian graves were dug up by Muslim agitatiors. Persecution of Copts still go on to this day without notice from Western Governments despite pleas and cries for help. The Syrian Christian population was forced into captivity.
I understand there are good Muslims in the world, but I cannot sit here with my people genocided and my ancestors historic never ending cycle of persecution and maltreatment go unnoticed. There is a reason behind all of this, and I just ask Reddit one thing, one simple thing - where was the public outcry when we begged for help and you weren't there to even acknowledge us?
Comment by koryisma at 31/01/2017 at 17:51 UTC
8 upvotes, 0 direct replies
We fail the rest of the world, constantly. Nobody is arguing that. Atrocities in Syria and many, many, MANY other places (for example, the persecution and veritable genocide of the Rohingya happening right now) NEED to be addressed. I'm sorry for what happened to your family and your people. Unacceptable-- and the international community needs to stand up.
But that doesn't have anything to do with this ban-- we can (and should) support the rights of persecuted groups everywhere, and still not target immigrants to the U.S.