Jean-François Colosimo on the Russian Church and Russia's Intervention in Syria

French original here. A brief but fascinating discussion of just war theory in the Russian philosophical tradition can  be found here. Jean-François Colosimo is most recently author of  Les hommes en trop : La malédiction des chrétiens d'Orient.


For the Russian Orthodox Church, the intervention in Syria is a "holy war". 

The spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church describes Russia's military engagement in Syria as a "holy war". 

Reacting to these remarks, the Orthodox philosopher Jean-François Colosimo recalls Russia's role as protector of the Orthodox Christians of the Middle East.

What statements?

"The fight against terrorism is a holy war and today our country is perhaps the one that most actively fights against it," declared the spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church, Vsevolod Chaplin, as quoted by the Interfax news agency.

In passing, he also described the Russian military intervention in Syria as "in accordance with international law, with the mindset of our people and the particular role that our country has always played in the Middle East."

For his part, the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in a statement also expressed his support for the Russian strikes in Syria. "Russia has made a responsible decision in using its armed forces to defend the Syrian people who are beset with misfortune," he declared.

But the patriarch assured that he is praying "that this local conflict does not become a great war, that the use of force does not cause the death of civilians, and that all the Russian troops return home alive."

What context?

"Chaplin is prone to making outrageous statements!" The warning of Jean-François Colosimo, Orthodox theologian and philosopher and director of Editions du Cerf, regarding the remarks of the Russian Orthodox Church's spokesman is clear.

This expert familiar with the Russian Church regrets the use of the concept of "holy war" by the Church. According to him, it is a "motif of identity", suggesting that the Russian Church has not learned from its experience of martyrdom. "This is a theological disaster, a fundamental error," he sighs.

In his view, the statement is nevertheless in line with the "symbiosis" between the Kremlin and the Moscow Patriarchate in the domain of foreign affairs.

"Patriarch Kirill was himself the minister of foreign affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate before 1990," says Colosimo, stressing that he dedicated himself at that time to uniting the Russian Orthodox communities abroad, creating an extensive cultural network abroad, a network that the Russian state does not possess.

The director of Editions du Cerf explains this support in terms of history. "Since the 19th century, all Russian foreign policy has been based on access to warm water. And this requires the protection of the Greek Christians of the Middle East, that is the Orthodox," the Latin Christians of the Middle East traditionally being under the protection of France.

What future?

Putin's Russia has kept strong contacts in the Middle East, particularly in Syria which is home to the largest Greek Orthodox community in the Middle East, unlike Iraq, where the Christians are mostly Chaldeans and so Catholics. "The current Patriarch of Antioch who lives in Damascus has made several trips to Russia in recent months," explains Jean-François Colosimo.

Moreover, if Russia is defending the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah axis,  it is in order to oppose Saudi Arabia: first of all because Wahhabism (and therefore Salafism, the basis for jihadism) is infiltrating more and more into the Caucasus and secondly, because Saudi Arabia is supported by the United States.

"Russia is the enemy of the friends of the United States, and vice-versa," Jean-François Colosimo continues. Defending this axis is even more important at a time when thousands of young Russians are signing up for jihad in Syria and Iraq, and not only from the Muslim republics."

"The challenges and interests of Putin's Kremlin and those of the Orthodox Church are distinct but inseparable," says Colosimo.

Fr Georges Massouh: Christianity will not Disappear from its Country

Arabic original here.

Christianity will not Disappear from its Country

The Christians in my country-- or at least most of them-- think that their existence in this Middle East will not last without the support of the rulers and strongmen of this world or without dispensing with Christian "beatitude". However, if we go back through Christian history, we find that the persistence of Christianity has been fundamentally based on sincerity and faithfulness to the teachings of Christ the Lord, those teachings that reached their culmination on the cross. It is a mistake to think that the Christian presence in the Middle East has persisted thanks to their own power.

At the end of the second Christian century, an unnamed Christian sent a letter to a pagan named Diognetus in defense of Christianity in which he said, "Do you not see how they throw Christians to wild beasts in order to compel them to deny the Lord, but they are not defeated? Do you not see that the more martyrs there are, the more Christians there are?" The writer of the letter adds that, even if they are a small group of people, it is not right for Christians to isolate themselves in ghettos, since they are in the midst of the world, enriching it like the power that the soul radiates through the body.

This letter, which was composed at the height of the persecution that the Roman Empire waged against Christians, is the best expression of a Christian mentality rooted in the Gospel. Persecution did not deter Christians from the faith, but rather increased their numbers. Fear did not reign over those approaching persecution and it did not dampen their resolve. Rather, it increased their insistence on the correctness of their belief and their hope of eternal life. They approached martyrdom as ones approaching true life. This is why this era is called the golden age of Christianity. Christians did not join forces with emperors, governors or rulers and they did not make truces with Nero, Marcus Aurelius or Diocletian. They did not cooperate with them and they did not submit to their authority. Some men at the Roman court, some officers and soldiers, declared their Christianity by renouncing their positions and livelihoods in order not to serve an unjust state. They went forth to martyrdom after having cast aside the weapons that they could have used to fight, in order to bear witness to the Lord and His Church. In this way the Apostles Peter, the fisherman, and Paul were victorious over Nero and his entourage. In this way the Church was victorious over the Empire.

In his "Treatise on the Existence of God and the True Religion", the Orthodox Bishop of Harran Theodore Abu Qurrah (d. ca. 830) offers numerous proofs for the truth of Christianity and its divine origin on the basis of its miraculous spread. He says, "Christ's disciples were twelve men from among the Jews. And for the nations, the Jews were the lowliest and most hated nation in the world. They were the lowliest of their nation. They had no worldly regard and no lineage with which to attract people or guide people to themselves. Nor did they have possessions, a home, shelter, clothing, two days' food or saddle-bags by which people might be drawn to them seeking gifts from them. Nor did they have a king, a ruler or any cause or strength in this world so that some might be drawn to them by coercion, fear or power-seeking. Indeed, they were the opposite of this, with everyone oppressing and insulting them. Nor was there anyone among them who understood books or knew any of the wisdom of the world, through which people might be drawn to them. They called people to the Christian religion and did not allow them to indulge in the lusts of this world, in the abundance of its women, in its pride and its pleasures, so that people might be drawn to them. Instead, just the opposite of this, they teach abandoning it all immediately."

Theodore then gives proofs connected to the changes that Christianity brought to the morals of the nations and peoples that adopted it. He says, "The nations were in luxury, with the food, drink and drunkenness of the world and [Christianity] required them to fast strictly and limit themselves to bread and water. The nations persisted in marrying women and taking slave-girls like horses with obsence, unmentionable fornication. [Christianity] put an end to that for them, requiring chastity of them and limiting those who want worldly life to one wife, down to our own day. The nations raged and looted everyone's money, dominating everyone in this way. [Christianity] stopped them from this and caused them to distribute their wealth and belongings to the poor and needy."

Abu Qurrah follows his proofs for the truth of Orthodox Christianity by recalling the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels. He says, "The nations were insatiable, ravenous beasts that  devoured people, crushing their bones and eating their flesh without mercy or compunction. [Christianity] turned them away from this and made them like sheep among wolves. They are cursed and they bear it. They are beaten and they forgive. They are struck on the right cheek and they turn the left cheek. Their robes are taken and they give their cloaks. They are made to go a mile and they go two miles. They are asked to give and they give. They are asked to lend and they do not withhold. They are cursed and they bless. They are hated and they love, and many other such things."

There are other writings, which there is not room in this article to mention, that follow in precisely the same direction as the Epistle to Diognetus and Theodore Abu Qurra. Christianity has persisted, even though it adopted the way that is faithful to Christ's teachings, this way that some of those who speak in the name of Christianity claim will lead to the disappearance of Christianity.

It is a grave error for Christians to tie their survival to the survival of a regime that protects them or to a foreign intervention that will defend them. The most dangerous thing is for Christians to abandon their mission and their witness, which can be summed up as bearing the cross, for the sake of their survival. Therefore, Christians must hold fast to faith, hope, love and patience until these black days have passed. As for Christianity, it will not disappear so long as Christians want that it does not disappear.

as-Safir Interviews Met Silouan Oner

Arabic original here.

The Bishop of Britain to as-Safir: The Christians of the Middle East will not Melt Away

by Bilal Slaytin


In calm and confident language, the Bishop of Ireland and the British Isles Silouan Oner responds to as-Safir's questions in his first interview with the press following his consecration. He does not hesitate to say what he wants and he does not like secrecy or shying away from reality in his responses about issues that are sensitive for Christians, especially those that preoccupy public opinion, chief of which is the issue of Christian emigration from the Middle East.

The first bishop of the Diocese of Britain, newly created by a patriarchal decision, does not deny that the emigration of Christians from the Middle East played a fundamental role in Britain becoming independent from the Diocese of Europe. The number of parishes there has grown "and we must as a church do good by them, follow up on them, and be attentive to their spiritual needs," says Oner. The new situation and the geographic breadth of the Diocese of Europe means that there are two new dioceses, Germany and Britain, alongside the Diocese of France, while Sweden remains a vicarate dependent on the Patriarchate in Damascus.

The decrease in the number of Christians in the Middle East saddens Oner, but he does not fear for their existence. He says, "They are decreasing but they will not melt away from the Middle East," affirming that "they remain and remain and remain." He then looks at the walls of the bishopric in Lattakia, which is 1400 years old and adds, "Christians will not disappear from the Middle East. Nothing overcomes the Church. She remains forever. Christianity is like the leaven that leavens the place. Christ is present and He will not allow the Christians to melt away." The former vicar of the bishop in Lattakia responds to questions about the role of clergy in reducing emigration by saying that their hands are tied in the face of this thorny issue and they are incapable of preventing it. If they tell a person not to go, he might come back a few days later and blame them for the killing of his child in the war and if they tell him to go, then they are helping to reduce the number of Christians in the Middle East. Therefore they keep silent in response to the question of emigration, even as they hope that all will remain and no one will live.

Many in the Middle East see Bishop Oner as possessing an open mind, which will help him in his new responsibilities. He is going from a sentimental Christian community to a rationalist, materialist Christian community and this is the great gamble that awaits him from the moment of his arrival. He also sees the West as thinking in a different manner than the Middle East, recalling the events that happened centuries ago when the Eastern Church split from the Western Church, explaining that, "the West, in its mentality, was the cause of the schism."

In Oner's view, the Christian mentality in the Middle East is different from that in the West. At the same time, however, he believes that the Orthodox community to which he belongs exists in every corner of the world with one mindset and one creed and so he is going to pastor Orthodox of the same mindset. If they have westernized a little from the proper Orthodox mindset in his estimation, he will work to return them to authenticity. He puts an emphasis on the phrase "if they have westernized" as a large proportion of his diocese's flock are Orthodox from a British background who joined the Antiochian Church during the time of the late Patriarch Hazim.

During the conversation, Oner stresses that "atheism is is the result of the Western mindset which relies only on the mind and excludes the heart, including that which has spread to a certain degree in the Middle East, where the Western mindset has started to invade the younger generations because of emigration and contact." Taking pride in his Easternness, he adds, "Our problem in the Middle East is a lack of trust in what we possess and the ease with which we lap up what others possess and so become influenced by them, thinking that in doing so we have become civilized, instead of us civilizing the West with the Eastern mindset. Westerners do not feel God's presence in their hearts and Easterners arrive at atheism when they estrange God from their hearts."

However, the bishop who is heading to Europe goes back and says that the Church is one throughout the world and it cannot be limited in a place, referring to the call for the unity of the Church.

Oner dismisses the objection that he is creating a conflict between the mind and the heart in the human person, using himself as an example, as he holds a doctorate in engineering. He says, "Here I relied on the mind, but in my relationship with God, I combined mind and heart and I placed God in my heart," adding that he "will carry with himself to Britain the love of God, the warmth of a relationship with Him, the mindset of the Antiochian fathers, chief among them John of Damascus, and he will convey the pain and suffering of the Middle East in order to be a witness to all those who are suffering."

Throughout the conversation, Bishop Oner, who is proud of his Syrianness, speaks classical Arabic, but suddenly he switches to a spontaneous, colloquial Arabic when the conversation turns to Syria. He says, "I have great faith in her... Love will be victorious there." He explains that he is departing Syria but that she will continue to live in him. He finds in his new responsibilities an opportunity to communicate with the West and to tell them that they erred in forming their opinions about Syria. He then expresses doubt that they will listen or that they will want to listen, particularly the politicians.

Oner continues to speak with emotion, saying, "I will speak of the suffering that the Middle East is experiencing, part of which could be stopped by a position or decision on the part of the West. I will give them an inside picture of what is happening in my country and I will not cease to speak about it. I will explain to them precisely that if they desire the good of Syria and of the Christians, then they must work to secure for them ways to remain and not help them to emigrate."

The operator of the Orthodox website al-Manara, a clergyman steeped in Middle Eastern thought and known for tendency to make eye contact and touch when speaking, closes by saying, "we must not shy away from the generations that have become closely tied to technology," and calls for investing in what he metaphorically refers to as a Pentecost in transmitting the word of the Gospel to the entire world. Working with technology is not a mistake. Rather, the mistake lies in avoiding it because that leads to avoiding the generations that are the extension of the Church.

Fr Georges Massouh: Claiming to Speak in the Name of Christians

Arabic original here.

Claiming to Speak in the Name of Christians

In his Epistle to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul mentions two currents that tug at Christians when he makes a distinction between those who boast in the flesh and those who boast in the cross: "For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ... for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus" (Galatians 6:13-14, 17). Christianity, according to the Apostle Paul, is not measured by the number of those belonging to it through baptism, but by the number of those who bear in their bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus. Therefore the Apostle warns Christians about falling into playing a numbers game, as Christianity has a qualitative value, not a quantity of  bodies that can be enumerated. Thus we realize why Christ did not call Christians to brag about their numbers, but rather spoke about the "little flock", calling on it to not fear the world.

The Apostle Paul warns Christians not to fall into the trap of those who are only concerned with boasting about their numbers. He speaks clearly about those who "do not keep the Law" but despite this want Christians to practice the Law so that they can boast in their numbers. He once again points out that the true Christian is not the one who has only performed the Law, but the one who bears the cross without interruption, the one for whom the cross has become a part of his body.

The Apostle Paul did not bost of the number of those who were baptized at his hand, although they were many. Instead, he reminds his audience that the sole thing that causes him to boast is "the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." For Paul, what is meant by the cross is not an object made of gold, silver or wood... but rather the heavenly things that the cross symbolizes, chief of which are love, martyrdom, self-sacrifice and unlimited giving...

Paul closes his discourse about the cross by eloquently pointing out that he himself bears "the marks of the Lord Jesus" in his body. By mentioning this, he means to once more recall the words of the Lord Jesus: "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me" (Mark 8:34). No one can be a disciple of Jesus if he does not deny himself. The precondition for speaking in the name of Jesus is that a person must renounce himself and his deadly ego. The true disciple of Jesus is the one who crucifies himself for the sake of the world, not the one who wants to crucify the world for the sake of pleasing himself and his lusts.

Many are those, clergymen and politicians, who claim to speak in the name of the Christians. Many are those who want to boast in the Christians' numbers and not boast in Christianity. What a difference there is between those two things! Those who boast in the Christians' numbers are not concerned with the holiness or moral corruption of the Christians. Boasting in Christianity is boasting in the living saints who still struggle upon this earth against sin, greed and corruption.

Those living saints are not concerned with what religious leaders or political leaders say and they are not concerned with demanding "the rights of Christians" and their shares of corruption, deals and appointments... This is because they have realized that the Christians' true weight is not defined by the weight of the blood, flesh and bones of their bodies, but rather by the love that they bear in their hearts toward their brothers in faith, citizenship and humanity. No one can claim to speak in the name of true Christians. Truth alone speaks in their name.

The entirety of what concerns these saints is that they have born the cross and that they have loved to the end.  They wait with a true longing for martyrdom. Anything else is worthless.

Met Georges Khodr: Towards the Unity of Mankind

Arabic original here.

Towards the Unity of Mankind

Those who love one another do not flee from one another. We remain together and we always try to be committed to one another. Remaining with others when we know their sins or their weekness is difficult. However, God has revealed to us that we are brothers and that we are called to remain His family-- that is, one family in Him. You make people your brothers if you love them. There is always a distance between people because of differences of convictions and temperaments but God has commanded us to see that brothers are one, even if they forget that fact.

How do they live together in peace if they do not believe that the Lord loved them and made them one? This is hard work in many cases, but it is what God has demanded so that we may know that we are His children. Temperaments have differed among people since creation and the difficulties of life have become more varied but humankind cannot live in combat or hatred. Love is an effort. You do not have it from your mother's womb. It comes to you first by God's grace and second by your effort. That is, it increases if you so desire and if your Lord so desires.

You belong to your Lord and to the people with whom you live. It is for them first of all that you make an effort. Those who are closest to you in location are the ones whom you love first. You are not a world unto yourself. You are not closed off. You love people and they love you and in this way you live together. You must draw near to them so that your love for them will increase and so that their love for you will increase. A believing society is those people who know that they are brothers or whom God has made brothers. In this way they become one family, God's family.

Different mothers bore us, but we must become God's family through love. My father is not your father and my mother is not your mother, but the Lord sees us as one and inspires us to feel that we are brothers.

Living among people is an effort, a coming together. It is you and I and I am not imposed upon you. You and I are different from the start of our effort. What is needed is our unity, despite differences of temperament and convictions. That is, the only thing that is needed is the love that transcends the difference into which we were born or raised.

Perfect unity between people is not possible. It is an effort, but it is a fundamental effort if we do not want to fight or slaughter one another. Our mothers bore us free to strive for our unity in love, since there is no other unity. Goodwill towards all, intellectual development and love are our common endeavor if we do not want the human race to perish.

Our unity, if we are believers, is God's work through His grace, but along with this it is the work of our desire for the good of all people. God created the world and left it for us to make through our love. The universe does not develope organically from itself. It is human beings who cause it to perish through their sins or make it live through their love.

The unity of mankind comes through our love for one another. We perfect it every day by gratuitously doing good works for all people, since they all need them and through them become new humans.

Met Georges Khodr: Deny Yourself and Follow Me

Arabic original here.

Deny Yourself and Follow Me

In today's Gospel reading, the Lord talks about self-denial when He says, "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." Then He says, "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"

The question posed here is this: how does the Lord want people do deny themselves and then gain their souls? As if these two things are mutually contradictory.

His saying in the first passage, "let him deny himself," means for a person to free himself from his lusts, from all his passions and his worldliness. He thought that his soul, that is his essence, is in the world, which he gulped down, ate, mastered and glorified in. This person thought that he existed if he acquired possessions or became great among his people. This person finds himself in the eyes of others. They see him as great, so he is great. They see him as clever, so he grows in greatness. However, if he stood alone before the Lord, he would see himself as empty. The hollow man fills himself with everything in this world in order to be able to know that he exists.

Each of us is struck with this affliction to varying degrees and so the Lord says: Deny yourselves. Reject your wealth. Reject your glories. Glories may come to you, but count them as nothing. Wealth may come to you, but count it as nothing. Various sorts of pleasures may come to you. Refrain from them and consider them fleeting. In this way you will overcome the world even as you are in the world.

Do not think that you are something important, as any ailment could beset you in an instant. One who knows that he will die knows that he is as nothing in his life. If you arrive at denying not only your sins and lusts, but at denying yourselves, then you will gain your souls because you will have said to the Lord: "Lord, we have understood that we are nothing and You are everything. Come, Lord Jesus, and fill our souls with Your presence." If you receive, you will taste this presence. It will begin to give you being. You will come into being from God. You will become new people. Everything you have and everything within you is from Him and you are grateful to Him at all times.

This compels us to follow the Teacher until the end, for each one of us to take up the cross and follow the Master. This is the cross: that we put to death everything that impedes our path to Christ and he path does not end at Golgotha. But how do we die with Christ? We mortify this body and its passions. He who has the power to consider all of life as nothing, to obliterate it in his eyes, in his heart, draws near to self-denial. If we do not do this, we remain bewildered between God and Satan. Why must we love the cross? Who loves the instrument of his torture? The cross is suffering and the Lord asks us to accept suffering gladly or to be pleased with it because of what awaits us after it, because of the joy that will dwell within us if we embrace the Crucified One, if we abstain from this world.

"Deny yourself and follow Me." A person does not love another person until the end. Usually a person does not die for the sake of another person. Each of us dies alone. But there is one person who loved us until the end. Christ was able to come down to earth not only for all of us, but for each of us individually. Each of us is loved individually and therefore we can bear the cross of the One who loved us and gave Himself up for us.

Fr Georges Massouh: Sectarianism or Secularism?

Arabic original here.

Sectarianism or Secularism?

The erudite bishop Georges Khodr states that he and the Orthodox are, in general, "strategically secularist, currently living within the sectarian system, participating in it without harm or prejudice because it is the current face of the state." He then reminds himself that "Historically and theologically, the Orthodox cannot be an ethno-religious party taking direction and commitment to a single political policy from the bishops or from those who are delegated with the worldly affairs of the Orthodox. We do not forget that we are only an ecclesial society and because we are this way, our presence has its particular aspect in politics. It is to be present with all and for all, on the basis of our faith commitment" (al-Kanisa wal-Dawla (Beirut: Manshourat al-Nour, 1982), p. 42).

There is a basic definition that can be agreed upon by those who call for secularism, however much they might differ in how they define it. This is the separation of religious and temporal authority and the independence of each of these authorities from the other such that each one respects its proper sphere. The political authority does not impose upon religious institutions anything that violates their beliefs and religious authorities do no expert legal tutelage over people and society.

Our position with regard to the state, whether it is religious or non-religious, believing or atheistic, is only based on the extent of its respect for the freedom, rights and dignity of man. The description of the state does not concern us as much as the standards it relies upon in governing. Many secular states are far more advanced than states with a religious character in terms of respecting human rights. There are states that have no religion that respect fundamental religious values more than religious states.

The secularism that we long for is that neutral and impartial space, that shared space that does not follow any religious or non-religious ideology, in which every individual citizen lives out his freedom through acting in accordance with his conviction in such a way that does not affect the rights of his partners in the one nation. The secularism that we long for is that secularism that respects religious, cultural, ethnic and political diversity...

On the other hand, most Lebanese agree that sectarianism is the fundamental reason for the country's constantly passing from one crisis to another. They agree that even if sectarianism is not the chief reason for the outbreak of internal conflicts, it is the fuel used by those interested in fanning the flames of these conflicts and transforming them into wars that have affected all Lebanese, who have paid dearly with their lives and livelihoods.

It has already been decisively proven that, in order not to slip into internal strife from one decade to another, the Lebanese must pass from a condition of sectarianism to a condition of citizenship where in political society and the state, national identity and national loyalty take precedence over other identities and sectarian loyalties. The primacy of national loyalty in no way erases other loyalties, which each have their own scope and sphere. In national affairs there is a shared loyalty and in religious affairs there are other loyalties and these cannot be mixed.

In the current social and political situation, we cannot deny that sectarian loyalties have a growing influence on the formation of relationships between Lebanese. At the same time, however, we cannot live in a state of flagrant contradiction between what we say and what we actually do. A sort of schizophrenia dominates the discourse prevailing in political circles in terms of affirming the importance of eliminating political sectarianism while at the same time eagerly working to entrench it. However, before eliminating political sectarianism, a number of necessary steps must be taken, without which it is impossible to truly put an end to sectarianism and instead we would just change to a new state of sectarianism even worse than the first where sects that are numerically the majority would dominate minorities.

What is surprising, however, is the belief some people hold in the usefulness of sectarian solutions to the problems sweeping our country. The sectarian ailment cannot be treated with more sectarianism. Therefore sectarian governance based on a sectarian division of spoils is not a rational solution but rather will only exacerbate the problem. What our country is witnessing is the logical result of what we failed to achieve over the past century, building a state of citizenship, institutions and law. We failed to build a state that upholds the rights and general freedoms of citizens, not the corruption of the authorities in power or the "rights of the sects". We have failed to build a state in which all citizens feel themselves as belonging, without feeling injustice or persecution. We have failed to build a state in which no one is rejected for not belonging to the dominant sect or to one of the large sects that monopolize authority in it.

The great Georges Khodr had the first word and he will have the last word: "It seems to me that the secular state that respects every religion and welcomes all citizens as equal in the status appropriate to their service is the closest to God's heart... Let us not forget that a state for Christians or a state for Muslims can be the entities the furthest from freedom and justice and that in the name of religion they can negate every human value and make their society into a terrible prison. The religious state is terrifying because we do not know of any state in history that was truly God's rule on earth but we know of theocratic states controlled by clergymen, by whatever name, rule according to texts attributed to or associated with their god and give reign to their lusts" (al-Kanisa wal-Dawla, p. 39-40).