Huff Post editor: 'Why doesn't the Left advocate for persecuted Christians?'

Rome, Italy, Apr 27, 2015 / 23:08 pm

Lucia Annunziata, a journalist who directs and edits the Italian edition of The Huffington Post, has accused the political left in Western nations of remaining silent before ongoing massacres of Christians, which she called the "most horrible of the crimes perpetrated against the weakest."

The self-proclaimed atheist also complained that young journalists are not proposing to The Huffington Post stories relating the situation of persecuted Christians.

"I ask myself where is the Left, with a capital L, the social party wide as it is because of its history and principles, because it is outside of the cages of daily life, and loves itself because it is attached to its own sense of justice," Annunziata wrote in an op-ed published earlier this month.

This wide party, she continued, has remained silent "in front of the most terrible of crimes against the weakest … the massacres of Christians whose blood is shed in many parts of the world."

"Why have I not received any petition to sign, though I receive many of varied kinds? Why has no-one promoted, if not a public protest, a sit-in, or a meeting? I hear no slogans for persecuted Christians, nor do I get documents or petitions on the issue," Annunziata complained.

She lamented that "television is elsewhere, but that neither are young or ambitious journalists pushing The Huffington Post to give voice to these newly weak and helpless."

Noting the situation of the political left in Italy, Annunziata noted it has "taken up a huge number of causes," listing women's issues, youth unemployment, gay marriage, institutional reform, internet freedoms, innovation, poverty, austerity, the Islamic State, war, and the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and Tunisia's Bardo Museum.

However, she added, "with few exceptions, never does the Left express pain or horror for the men and women who die because of their faith."

Annunziata called death the "final violation of the most important right of personal freedom," and noted that Christianity is the faith of most Italians as well as serving as "the basis of the definition of the history and culture" of Europe.

She underscored that she is not Catholic, but "atheistic, and willing to remain so," and has not been a cheerleader for Pope Francis.

Yet as a journalist, she emphasized that "the news is the loneliness of this very popular Pope, who has been for months the sole voice to denounce the massacre of the faithful, and is presently the only head of state capable of pointing the finger against the immobility of Western countries over these massacres" against Christians – unlike what happened after the massacre at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

According to Annunziata, the reason for Western countrys' silence in front of the massacres of Christians is "the fear that defending Christians means activating other mines in the already tough struggle, thus giving the 'green light' to a reaction and finally legitimizing" the claims of Rightist political parties which are "already fanning the flames of racism and of the clash of civilizations" for their own interests.

"Respect for human rights is the first sacrificial victim of the reason of state," and this is why "the Left, as the political party that always claimed the strength and conviction to engage in the defense of the weakest" should take some stance, since this party has "a great deal of clout in Western countries."

Annunziata proposes that "governments draft a plan to put thousands of refugees in safety" – providing them shelter, schools, and healthcare facilities, but also providing "citizenship to all the families willing to flee their countries," with peculiar attention to "all the young people willing to come to Europe to study or work."

This effort may be compared to that put into action by Western countries for thousands of Jewish victims of Nazism following the Second World War.

"This is not much, but it is a beginning, and also an effective message of moral strength and solidarity to oppose the violence of ISIS," Annunziata concluded.