Book review: The vanishing Christians of the Near East

William Dalrymple has written three travel books: In Xanadu: A Quest; City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi; and From the Holy Mountain . Having discovered Dalrymple only recently, I have read them all over the course of the last two months. They are that good.

Mr. Dalrymple has a deep interest in art, architecture and archaeology. He has a tendency to rabbit on about the arcania of arches and architraves. [That's enough alliteration. ed.] But there's a generous admixture of historical trivia, social commentary and humour, which renders his writing the opposite of dull.

From the Holy Mountain records Dalrymple's meandering journey through the Holy Land, as it used to be called, from Mount Athos in Greece to Al Kharga in upper (southern) Egypt. Along the way, the author, a not-quite-lapsed Catholic, finds himself touched and perplexed by the plight of the Christians of Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine and Egypt.

He paints a grim picture of the dwindling and downtrodden Christian communities, and gives vivid and provoking details of their persecution by Muslims and Jews alike. He makes the point that for the six centuries until the rise of Islam in the 7th century, the Near East was predominantly Christian. It boasted thousands of fine churches, monasteries, shrines and other holy sites. The 21st-century Christian pilgrim will see almost none of these, because they are being vandalized and wilfully obliterated by Muslims and (especially) Jews.

Whereas Christians are nowadays generally tolerant of the religious minorities in their midst, the same is not true of the Jews and Muslims of the Holy Land. Dalrymple hears and records the voices of survivors of deportation, persecution, humiliation and even massacre. Their graphic accounts give life and meaning to the sterile term "ethnic cleansing". And they are unanimous in their belief that within a decade or two, there will be no indigenous Christians left in the Holy Land.

Dalrymple writes "Christianity is an Eastern religion which grew firmly rooted in the intellectual ferment of the Middle East. John Moschos [Syrian monk and ascetical writer, c. 550-619] saw that plant begin to wither in the hot winds of change that scoured the Levant of his day. On my journey in his footsteps I have seen the very last stalks in the process of being uprooted."

From the Holy Mountain was written in 1997. In one section the author describes the confiscation of thousands of acres of Christian-owned land on the West Bank, where the Israeli government is busy building settlements on top of the rubble of Christian churches and Muslim mosques. Thirteen years later, the occupation and settlement of the West Bank continues.

William Dalrymple is no raving anti-Semite. But his travels in Israel lead his inexorably to the conclusion that the Israels intend to continue in their "settlement" until there are no Muslims and no Christians left in their "promised land".

In this hate crime -- for that's what it is -- the Israelis apparently have the full support of America and Canada. Such is the power of the Jewish lobby in New York and Toronto. Dear reader, if you want to make your pilgrimage to the Holy City, do it now, before it's razed to the ground.