If someone ever tells you there is a Moderate Islam and a
Radical Islam and the latter is not representative of Islam, that person is an
outright liar or is deceived into believing a lie.
It’s kind of like telling a Jewish Holocaust Survivor there
is a Moderate Nazi and a Radical Nazi.
The horror that is Islam is being experienced NOW by
Christians in Muslim dominated nations. Can you say GENOCIDE?
JRH 5/26/19
Your generosity is always appreciated:
**************************
Genocide of Christians Reaches "Alarming Stage"
By Raymond
Ibrahim
May 26, 2019 at 5:00 am
May 26, 2019 at 5:00 am
·
Many of the world's most persecuted Christians
have nothing whatsoever to do with colonialism or missionaries. Those most
faced with the threat of genocide — including Syria's and Iraq's Assyrians or
Egypt's Copts — were Christian several centuries before the ancestors of
Europe's colonizers became Christian and went missionizing
·
The BBC report highlights "political
correctness" as being especially responsible for the West's
indifference....
·
Among the worst persecutors are those that rule
according to Islamic law, or Sharia -- which academics such as Georgetown
University's John Esposito insist is equitable and just. In Afghanistan (ranked
#2), "Christianity is not permitted to exist."
UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt (pictured)
commissioned an "Independent Review into the global persecution of
Christians," which was recently published. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty
Images)
"Christian persecution
'at near genocide levels,'" the title of a May 3 BBC report,
cites a lengthy interim study ordered
by British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and led by Rev. Philip Mounstephen,
the Bishop of Truro.
According to the BBC report, one in three people around the
world suffer from religious persecution, with Christians being "the most
persecuted religious group". "Religion 'is at risk of disappearing'
in some parts of the world," it noted, and "In some regions, the
level and nature of persecution is arguably coming close to meeting the
international definition of genocide, according to that adopted by the
UN."
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt is also quoted on why
Western governments have been "asleep" — his word — concerning this
growing epidemic:
"I think there is a misplaced
worry that it is somehow colonialist to talk about a religion [Christianity]
that was associated with colonial powers rather than the countries that we
marched into as colonisers. That has perhaps created an awkwardness in talking
about this issue—the role of missionaries was always a controversial one and
that has, I think, also led some people to shy away from this topic."
Whatever the merits of such thinking, the fact is that many
of the world's most persecuted Christians have nothing whatsoever to do with
colonialism or missionaries. Those most faced with the threat of genocide —
including Syria's and Iraq's Assyrians or Egypt's Copts — were Christian
several centuries before the ancestors of Europe's colonizers became Christian
and went missionizing.
The BBC report highlights "political correctness"
as being especially responsible for the West's indifference, and quotes Hunt
again in this regard: "What we have forgotten in that atmosphere of
political correctness is actually the Christians that are being persecuted are
some of the poorest people on the planet.
"
Although the BBC report has an entire heading titled and
devoted to the impact of "political correctness," ironically, it too
succumbs to this contemporary Western malady. For while it did a fair job in
highlighting the problem, it said nothing about its causes — not one word about
who is persecuting Christians, or why.
The overwhelming majority of Christian persecution, however,
evidently occurs in Muslim majority nations. According to Open Doors' World Watch List 2019
[WWL], which surveys the 50 nations where Christians are most persecuted,
"Islamic oppression continues to impact millions of Christians." In
seven of the absolute worst ten nations, "Islamic oppression" is the
cause of persecution. "This means, for millions of Christians—particularly
those who grew up Muslim or were born into Muslim families—openly following
Jesus can have painful consequences," including death.
Among the worst persecutors are those that rule according to
Islamic law, or Sharia -- which academics such as Georgetown University's John
Esposito insist is equitable and just.
In Afghanistan (ranked #2) , "Christianity is not permitted to
exist," says the
WWL 2019, because it "is an Islamic state by constitution, which means
government officials, ethnic group leaders, religious officials and citizens
are hostile toward" Christians. Similarly, in Somalia, (#3), "The
Christian community is small and under constant threat of attack. Sharia law
and Islam are enshrined in the country's constitution, and the persecution of
Christians almost always involves violence." In Iran (#9), "society
is governed by Islamic law, which means the rights and professional
possibilities for Christians are heavily restricted."
Equally telling is that 38 of the 50 nations making the WWL
2019 are Muslim majority.
Perhaps the BBC succumbed to silence concerning the sources
of Christian persecution — that is, succumbed to "the atmosphere of
political correctness" which it ironically highlighted — because in its
own report, it did not rely on the WWL. The problem with this interpretation is
that the study the BBC did rely on, the Bishop of Truro's, is saturated with
talk concerning the actual sources of Christian persecution. In this regard,
the words "Islam" and "Islamist" appear 61 times;
"Muslim" appears 56 times in this review on persecuted Christians.
Here are a few of the more significant quotes from the
Bishop of Truro's report:
·
"The persecution of Christians is perhaps
at its most virulent in the region of the birthplace of Christianity—the Middle
East & North Africa."
·
"In countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Iran,
Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia the situation of Christians and other minorities
has reached an alarming stage."
·
"The eradication of Christians and other
minorities on pain of 'the sword' or other violent means was revealed to be the
specific and stated objective of [Islamic] extremist groups in Syria, Iraq,
Egypt, north-east Nigeria and the Philippines."
·
"[T]here is mass violence which regularly
expresses itself through the bombing of churches, as has been the case in
countries such as Egypt, Pakistan, and Indonesia."
·
"The single-greatest threat to Christians
[in Nigeria] ... came from Islamist militant group Boko Haram, with US
intelligence reports in 2015 suggesting that 200,000 Christians were at risk of
being killed... Those worst affected included Christian women and girls
'abducted, and forced to convert, enter forced marriages, sexual abuse and
torture.'"
·
"An intent to erase all evidence of the
Christian presence [in Syria, Iraq, Egypt, north-east Nigeria and the
Philippines] was made plain by the removal of crosses, the destruction of
Church buildings and other Church symbols. The killing and abduction of clergy
represented a direct attack on the Church's structure and leadership."
·
"Christianity now faces the possibility of
being wiped-out in parts of the Middle East where its roots go back furthest.
In Palestine, Christian numbers are below 1.5 percent; in Syria the Christian
population has declined from 1.7 million in 2011 to below 450,000 and in Iraq,
Christian numbers have slumped from 1.5 million before 2003 to below 120,000
today. Christianity is at risk of disappearing, representing a massive setback
for plurality in the region."
The BBC should be commended for (finally) reporting on this
urgent issue — even if it is three years behind the times. As the Truro report
correctly observes, "In 2016 various political bodies including the UK
parliament, the European Parliament and the US House of Representatives,
declared that ISIS atrocities against Christians and other religious minority
groups such as Yazidis and Shi'a Muslims met the tests of genocide."
At the very least, it appears that the BBC has stopped
trying to minimize the
specter of Christian persecution as it did in 2013, when this situation
was just starting to reach the boiling point.
________________________
Raymond Ibrahim, author of the new book, Sword and Scimitar,
Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West, is a Distinguished Senior
Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the
Middle East Forum.
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