The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> Response From Dr. Ross

Response From Dr. Ross
Posted by pancho (Moderator) - Sunday, March 1 2009, 3:35:25 (CET)
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Dear Mr. Parhad,

Thank you for your letter. I actually might well thank you for the trouble that you caused me. The result was that I became familiar with the work of John Joseph and others. While I find inflated claims about ethnic identities disturbing, the history of the Christian & Aramaic speaking communities -- Syriac Orthodox, Chaldean, and Assyrian -- is sufficiently important and interesting that I am glad I was drawn into it further. I think what I found the most disturbing was that Assyrian nationalism seemed to identify its enemies in Jews and other Christians, while in fact the constant pressure and hostility against all the Aramaean communities is from militant Islam. Christians are being driven out of Iraq or killed, and harassed or worse in Turkey, because of Islamist ideology. Yet the fight against that ideology probably has even made the oppression worse than it was, by freeing many Muslims to vent their worst instincts. Turkey itself may one day split in civil war between the Islamists and the Ataturk secularists. That might be one of the better outcomes (with the Army dominated by secularists) -- yet I am sure that Christians would suffer more from it.

Yours truly,
Kelley Ross



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