(The Lion) — Arab Muslim nations respect power, not peace.
That’s according to Shadi Khaloul, an Israeli Aramaic Maronite Christian, who spoke to The Lion and a group of journalists in the Galilee Region of Israel Monday.
“They respect Trump in the Arab world because he shows power,” Khaloul said. “They don’t want to play games with him, but with Biden they can play games. With Obama, they can play games – with liberals, with weak, with Democratic people.”
Only two modern democracies of Muslim nations exist: Indonesia and Malaysia, Khaloul said. The government model is fundamentally opposed to the Islamic culture, which centers on power, he explained.
Khaloul serves as a reserve paratrooper captain in the Israeli Defense Forces and founded a private organization that preserves the Aramaic language and Maronite heritage of Christian Israelis and others across the Middle East.
This culture dates back to first-century Aramaic and Syrian Christians living in the region of Damascus. The people spread during the legalization of Christianity under the Byzantine Empire in 325 A.D. but endured centuries of persecution under the Arab invasions and Muslim conquests.
“Damascus was the first Christian Maronite town for Christians to preserve their Aramaic language – Jesus language, our Aramaic identity – and it’s not just building a town, my friends,” Khaloul said. “Through history of 1,400 years since Islam conquered this land and established the Islamic State. Back then, Christian towns were destroyed, Jewish towns in this region were destroyed, and no other Jews came back.”
Khaloul focused his Galilee-based organization on the education of children in the Aramaic language beginning in 2014. Three years later, he launched a Christian Jewish leadership program.
“We invest in the education,” he said. “What you educate, you get.”
In contrast, some of his Muslim neighbors teach children to hate Israel and the Jews in order “to weaken the state of Israel,” Khaloul said. Muslim children learn to call Jews and Christians “Kufar,” translated as infidels. No people who believe another group of people should not exist can reach a peaceful settlement, he said.
“You cannot appease someone who is not even counting you,” Khaloul said, referencing Pope Gregory’s recent statement on the war in Iran. “Any appeasement will not help you. They respect power. If you’re strong and you show power, they respect you. That’s why they respect Trump.”
