By Ed Koch

On October 17th, The New York Times published an article on the plight of Christians in Iraq. There are an estimated 800,000 in that country, about 3 percent of the total population. 

The two largest sects are Chaldean Catholics and Assyrian Christians. The Times reports that the 1987 Iraqi census showed 1.4 million Christians in Iraq, “but many left during the 1990s when sanctions squeezed the country.”

The Times reported on the new Islamist bete noire, Pope Benedict XVI, because of his recent “reflections on Islam.” As a result, “[s]everal extremist groups threatened to kill all Christians unless the pope apologized.” To their credit, Sunni and Shia clergy denounced these threats. Nevertheless, “[i]n Baghdad, many churches canceled services after receiving threats. Some have not met since.” The Times tells us that “[i]n the northern city of Mosul, a priest from the Syriac Orthodox Church was kidnapped last week. His church complied with his captors’ demands and put up posters denouncing recent comments made by the pope about Islam, but he was killed anyway. The police found his beheaded body on Wednesday.”

When I read The Times’ article, I recalled my meeting with Pope John Paul II, one of the great friends of the Jewish community. It took place at the Vatican in May of 1985. I wrote about the meeting in my book, Citizen Koch. I will quote from the book rather than rely on my recollection of the event:

“Your Holiness, I’m Jewish, and I want to urge you to recognize the state of Israel. This is particularly important now because you recently received Yasir Arafat at the Vatican, and you embraced him. The Jews in New York City were very upset about this, but I explained to them there is nothing wrong with your doing that. Your religiousness requires you to embrace every sinner. In fact, Your Holiness, you did something which I tell people nobody else would do. You went to the cell of the Turk who tried to assassinate you. And you forgave him. Most people wouldn’t do that. I couldn’t do that. So I am not distressed with the fact that you embraced Arafat.”

“Mr. Mayor,” the Pope interrupted, “I understand your concern, and the concern of the Jewish people. Let me reassure you, I have been very supportive, in every possible way, and I will continue to be so in the future.”

“Your Holiness,” I said, “the best way you could reassure Jews of your affection and support is to recognize the state of Israel.”

“Well,” he said, “we do have relations with them. They’re not formal, but we certainly do meet with representatives of the state of Israel.”

“It’s not the same, Your Holiness.”

“Perhaps not, but what you seek is difficult. It will happen someday, but it can’t happen now. I have a responsibility to the Catholics who live in the Koranic lands and who would be in danger if we recognized Israel.”

“Your Holiness, you are revered throughout the world. It’s inconceivable to me that anyone would seek revenge if the Church took such a position.”

Pope John Paul II did establish diplomatic relations with the State of Israel on December 30, 1993.

My point? Islamic terrorism and the fear of it is not new, existing long before the invasion of Iraq by the United States and its coalition partners. It appears that the Europeans are slowly awakening to the dangers inherent in allowing the Muslim community to separate itself from the mainstream communities in Holland, Belgium, France and England.

Nevertheless, there are many in the Western world who believe that the United States and its coalition partners should withdraw from Iraq and that such capitulation will somehow end Islamist terror or at least seriously reduce its intensity in the world outside the Middle East. Can we or should we abandon the Middle East? Should we leave our allies, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia to the tender mercies of Islamic terrorists? There were many before World War II who would have left the Jews, England, France and Russia to fend for themselves in the face of the annihilation sought by Hitler and his Nazi armies.

There are those in every Western democracy who are losing their resolve to standup to the Islamic terrorists. U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) deplores the use of the term “Islamic fascists,” sometimes used by the White House. The terrorism we face is worldwide and has an Islamist goal — the restoration of the caliphate, one Islamic state encompassing Spain, North Africa and the Middle East to the Far East, including Indonesia. Take them at their word. As the former leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq said before he was killed by U.S. forces, “Killing the infidel is our religion, slaughtering them is our religion, until they convert to Islam or pay us tribute.”

In contrast to Feingold, two leaders in the Western world recently spoke directly and fearlessly about the threat we face. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, responding to the intimidation by Islamic terrorists which caused the cancellation of a Mozart opera, stated, “It makes no sense to retreat.” The other, Rupert Murdoch, commenting in The New Yorker magazine on the rise of militant Islam, said, “These people intend to change civilization, and they are prepared to take a hundred years to do it. We keep having to speak politically correctly about it, saying Muslims are wonderful, it’s just a tiny minority. They are not all terrorists, of course, but the frightening thing is that it is the children of those good original immigrants who are being brainwashed in big numbers.”

Chancellor Merkel is right. No matter how difficult the road ahead, “it makes no sense to retreat.”

Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch can be heard every Friday at 6 p.m. on Bloomberg Radio.