Not Much Of A Merry Christmas In Muslim Majority Countries

There can be little doubt but the advocates of violent political Islam have determined that no Christian shall remain above ground anywhere in Muslim majority countries.  From Morocco to the Philippines, from Egypt to Nigeria, it is a very risky business to be a practicing Christian.  It is nearly as lethal to be a practicing Christian in the Muslim dominated states today as it was to have been a Jew in Nazi Germany.

Having purged Jews from their midst to a degree which would have warmed the hearts of Hitler, Himmler and Co., the Muslims now have set their very deadly sights on the Christian communities.  As events of recent vintage in Iraq, Pakistan, Egypt, and other, nearby locations have made plain, there is a slow motion sort of holocaust underway.

And, the reactions of Christians generally?  The response of major American denominations?  The US government?

With the notable exception of a few articles of protest and a handful of Congressional Resolutions, the word best characterizing the push back by Christians in the US as well as the US government is "none."

Nor is the lack of outrage, of protest, of sharp rebuttal limited to American denominations and officials.  The Pope in his Christmas address to the faithful made a low key reference to the plight of Iraqi Christians while reserving his big rhetorical guns to support the Catholics in China who resist the official, government approved pseudo-hierarchy   The Archbishop of Canterbury, who is the head of the world wide Anglican communion, took his Christmas opportunity to demand that the rich share in the sacrifices of governmental austerity.

Perhaps so few religious and political leaders care much because the Christians under attack generally are not members of well established, well-known denominations either in the US or Western Europe.  Copts and Syriac Christians are not long standing communities of faith in the US or Western Europe.  Few who occupy the pews of American churches are aware of the long history of these groups, how they trace their roots back to the days shortly after Paul and the other Apostles shook the dust of so many towns across the Middle East, leaving behind the seeds of a potent view of life and God which would give rise ultimately to these denominations now under terminal threat.

In dogma and doctrine, the Christians of Iraq, Syria, Egypt and elsewhere may differ markedly from Western denominations, but in their basic confession of faith they share identity with all the myriad Protestant churches as well as both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox communities.  They are Christians as have been their ancestors in the region for the past two thousand years.  Only Jews have been constantly present in the Mideast for longer than these Christian confessions.

And, like the Jews, these Christians have been the target of Muslim hostility since the all conquering scimitar first cut through the clear air of the region spreading the words of the Prophet not by force of reason but by sheer force of arms.  In recent times, resurgent political Islam has taken up the scimitar with even deadlier intent and consequence.

The ancient approach of "convert or die" has been replaced by the simpler, "die, Christian."  And as the blood flows and fear grows, the West watches in silence.  The Christians of the West as well as the governments of the purportedly Christian majority Western states watch, wring their hands, and neither do nor even say anything in protest, in opposition, or in support of their badly beleaguered Brothers and Sisters in Christ.

What a far and shameful distance this behavior is from the days of the Cold War when all Christian denominations as well as the governments took sharp issue with the treatment of Christians meted out by the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe.  Those of a certain age can remember well the days of prayer, the petitions of protest, the resolutions of condemnation focusing on the Christian martyrs to their faith and the persecution they suffered from the atheistic governments of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact states.

The American Congress was so motivated by the atheistic nature of Communism and the concomitant persecution of Christians that it inserted the words, "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.  Public schools, not simply those of a parochial nature, invited speakers whose subject was the relentless oppression of Christianity and Judaism by the Communists.

All together the subject of Christian persecution by Communists was a constant theme of American culture through the Fifties and most of the Sixties.  It was a very big deal, a sort of social and political definer, a way of expressing the superiority of Western (particularly American) ideals and values.

None of that exists today.  Nor, given the triumph of faux-sensitivity and its operational handmaiden, political correctness, can it be expected to exist.  Not without intense, focused effort on the part of Christians of genuine commitment to their faith.

The simple fact that President Obama condemned violence in Iraq following the savage attack on the Baghdad church without once using the words "Christian" or "church" is telling.  It bespeaks the utter failure of commitment or even sensitivity to the rights and dignity of a group--Christians--which is subject to lethal attack simply because it is Christian.

Once before American leaders and Christian congregations were silent in the face of evil predicated upon religious belief.  That time was the Thirties when the first intimations of the foul antisemitism which would produce the extermination camps of the Holocaust were printed in American papers.  In the face of mounting evidence that the Jews of Germany and Europe generally were at risk of being wiped out, most American denominations kept silent.  The same was true of the US government.

It was because of the silence in the run up to the Nazi slaughter that American churches and government alike became so vocal in the denunciation of Communist persecution of Christians and, later, Jews.  We had learned the dangers of silence, of business as usual, of fearing to make a bad situation even worse.

Now, we Americans apparently have forgotten the truth of the Thirties and are somehow embarrassed by our collective behavior of the anti-Communist days of the Fifties and Sixties.  It is telling that today's leaders both in pulpit and politics were young in the worst days of the Cold War, were exposed unceasingly to the rhetorical overkill of those days.  We learned, falsely it seems, that speaking out is somehow ill-mannered and insensitive, somehow boorish and unsophisticated, in some mysterious way damaging to the self-esteem of the haters, the persecutors, the killers.

In the instant case, the Muslims, or at least those who are either exponents of political Islam or by their silence tacit supporters of those who preach hate, demand "death to Christians."  The situation today is far closer to that which prevailed in Germany during the Thirties and that makes silence by us in the West either personally or through leaders who fear to take a stand complicit in the crimes committed in Muslim majority states.

It is long past time for American denominations to stand up and demand an end to the butchery being done in the name of Islam.  At the very least American churches should insist that our government take a principled position against the slow motion holocaust underway in so much of the Muslim world.  American Christians should be insisting that our government use all the instruments at its disposal to stop the persecution, end the killings, succor the hurt, give refuge to those who must flee literally for their lives.

Anything less is not only anti-Christian it is most assuredly un-American.

(Full disclosure: The Geek is not a member of any denomination or community of faith.)

When Will Obama Admit, "It Is The Religion, Stupid!"

With the savagely lethal attack on the Chaldean Catholic church in Baghdad, the war being waged against Christians in Muslim majority states from Nigeria to Indonesia has exploded out of the media shadows where it has been concealed for several years now.  The statement issued by the Muslim entity behind the attack specifically called the worshipers and their church a "foul den of idolaters."  A pathetic lie was proffered in justification of the slaughter when the Mighty Warriors Of Allah alleged the Christians used the church as a place from which to wage war against Muslims.

The accusation was not only pathetic in its poverty, it was a lie of a magnitude which would have made even Joe Stalin or Dr Goebbels blush.

The totally expectable and quite pro forma denunciation issued by Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani in no way mitigates the ground truth that the attack was simply the latest in a long series of outrages committed against the once vibrant Christian community in Iraq.  The extent of the butchery and resultant fear suffered by Christians merely because of their faith is shown in one cold number: There are only 500,000 left from a total of nearly 1,500,000 when the Americans invaded seven years ago.  The rest, at least those who were not killed, left for distant and hopefully safer places.

Nor is the situation in Iraq unique.  In Egypt, the Coptic Christians, a faith community which dates back to the very beginnings of Christianity, has been under daily attack.  Copts have been killed.  They have been kidnapped.  Assaulted.  Raped.  Their churches have been vandalized.  Burned.  Blown up.  As in Iraq, there have been numerous reports of police and other security forces standing by, hands in their pockets, quite indifferent to the brutalization of their fellow citizens.

The brutality of Muslims against Christians has continued these past few years throughout the Muslim majority world.  Palestinian Christians have become an endangered species.  So have those in Syria.  Life is not better for people of the Cross in Jordan or across North Africa, just a tad less lethal.

In Pakistan violence against Christians--again often with security forces inactively present--is rampant.  The assaults, even the killings, barely merit notice in the public press.  Those who attack are rarely arrested, let alone prosecuted.

At the antipodes of the Muslim world, Nigeria and Indonesia, pogroms directed at Christians are commonplace.  In both countries as well as many in between these two pillars, churches are pillaged, burned, destroyed.  The authorities always seem baffled, at least to the extent that arrests are as infrequent as hot weather at the South Pole.

Throughout the lands dominated by Muslims, the ancient choice of convert or die echoes on the lips of the mob and the clerics behind them.  In a twist on this old theme, one of the gunmen in the Baghdad church told one of his priestly victims that he could convert but he was going to die nonetheless.

While it is self-evident that not each and every Muslim among the reputed one and a half billion is directly involved.  Still, those who do not personally hold the gun, wield the knife, hurl the bomb, or pound Christian flesh do not rally publicly and loudly against those of their brethren who do the dirty work.  In this case of Muslim excess as in so many others, silence equals agreement, equals support, equals empowerment.

Where is the presumed Muslim majority?  Why is this purported enormous percentage of Muslims not demanding that their governments take swift and decisive action against those who slaughter and terrorize in the name of the Prophet?

Is the deafening silence of the Muslim majority due to basic sympathy with the objectives of the perpetrators of violence?  This is not out of the realm of probability.  The history of Muslim dominated Spain is replete with examples of persecution onto death directed against both Christians and Jews.  Nor is the history of the Ottoman Empire devoid of similar examples.

Pogroms, persecutions, mass murders, all on the basis of faith.  And, it must be pointed out, regardless of the fact that the victims were protected peoples of the Book, members of Abrahamic faiths who paid their protection taxes, wore distinguishing clothing, and were otherwise living according to the humiliating requirements of Muslim law as provided in the Koran and Shariah.

History has powerful inertia.  As a result, the examination of the past, the real past and not the artifacts of apologists and other makers of myth, gives an excellent indication of present and future behavior by members of the same culture, society, or religion.  In the case of the contemporary persecution of Christians as in the DNA predicated hatred of Jews, the past is prologue.  That is the ground truth.

Then there is the problem of those in the US and the larger West who steadfastly and quite without a basis in reality refuse to connect the dot marked "Islam" with those unpleasant blotches of blood red marking acts of terror and murder.  The event at the Baghdad church due to the blunt honesty of the killers demands that we in the West without exception recognize the identity of those who seek to prevail, those who seek to cleanse not just Iraq but the world generally of people who do not share their unique dedication to the strictures and imperatives of Islam.

The bloody gauntlet has once more been slapped in our collective face.  Turning the other cheek may be an admirable goal expressed by those of the Christian faith but there is no requirement in that faith or any other to submit to terrorists and murderers.  There is no requirement that we refuse to both know and name the truth.

Quite the opposite.  There is a positive obligation that we not give in to the fear of offending those who tacitly wish us harm.  We have no choice on this world, in this life, other than calling out the killers for what and who they are--Muslims who take their faith too seriously, who invest too much of their human identity in it, who cover and conceal a base quest for power in the garb of belief.

Truth in blogging statement.  The Geek is not a member of any denomination of any faith tradition.

We must make no mistake about the dynamic expressed by the Prophet's Butchers.  They will not stop and we will know no peace until those who desire to shed innocent blood in the greater glory of Allah are themselves stopped.  Period.

Turkey Must Be Christian Again!

And, while we're at it so should Egypt, Syria and Iraq. Similarly Iran (nee Persia) should be reclaimed by Zoroastrians.

These sectarian alterations are only in line with the oft repeated trope by various and sundry exponents of Islam to the effect that Jews are recent interlopers on "historic Muslim territory." This superficial plaint overlooks a basic reality of history which applies not only in the disputed territories but throughout the Mideast.

Christianity, for the benefit of those who are historically challenged, emerged in the land now known as Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and, most importantly, Turkey. The great traveling salesman of Christianity, the Apostle Paul, worked with effective assiduousness to plant the new faith in gentile communities throughout the region. He did so with words, spoken and written, and not the sword.

The history of early Christianity is the history of the area which became the Eastern Roman Empire with its capital in the new city of Constantinople. For centuries before as well as after the moment when Constantine pronounced Christianity to be the state religion, the cities of the East, the bishops of the East, the Emperor of the Eastern Empire (and the Empresses ) created Christianity. The creation of the Church conferences--which occurred without major exception in cities now in Turkey--included the Great Schism which resulted in the split between Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic confessions.

The Eastern Roman Empire was Christian. So also was the North African littoral during the period of Visigoth domination. Constantinople outranked Rome as the center of Christianity. For centuries the same can be said of Alexandria, the center of the ancient Coptic church. Other cities of the (now) Arab Mideast were rivals of both Rome and Constantinople. While there was fighting between the Christians of differing perspectives on such key issues as the nature of the Trinity, the nature of the Christ, it is important to note that expansion of Christianity did not rely exclusively or even primarily on the use of armed force.

The most critical result of the internecine warfare which blotted so much of the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh centuries was the weakening of the vibrant Christian communities of the Mideast so that no organized resistance could be mounted when the sword waving Muslims exploded out of the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula. So demoralized were the Christians of the region following the generations of internal fighting that the Muslims were initially welcomed as the bearers of peace and tranquility. (That view would change.)

Constantinople, however, held out. The wars between the Byzantines and the Muslims saw Christian fortunes wax and wane. Still, the ancient capital of the Eastern Empire held out--even after it was sacked by Crusaders of Catholic adherence. Not until 1453 and then only because two renegade Christians, one British and the other Hungarian, built and operated the giant artillery pieces capable of demolishing the city's walls were the Muslims--Seljuk Turks--successful in militarily obliterating Christianity there, replacing it with an Islam of forced conversion.

Turkey has been Muslim for only 557 years. Before that it had been Christian for more than ten centuries. By the reasoning employed Muslims as regards Israel and Palestine, the followers of Islam are recent interlopers not entitled to a right of peaceful enjoyment of the conquered Christian land.

The same analogy applies to other one time Christian centers of the Mideast. Sure, the Muslims have been squatting in these historically Christian areas for longer, but they established their presence by force of arms, by conquest, by subjugation of the indigenous population and culture--including religion. From Iraq to the Atlantic coast of Morocco, Christians whether Arian or Orthodox, Coptic or Roman Catholic were suppressed, robustly.

Following the Muslim line of logic--that "recent" arrival and the use of force equals illegitimacy, it is only right that Egypt be returned to the Copts, Morocco to the Arians (if any have survived their repression by Rome for "heresy.") Turkey must be given back to the Eastern Orthodox Church (and the great church of Hagia Sophia be restored to its pre-Muslim grandeur.) The bloody success of the Shia of Iran must be rectified by a bringing back of Zoroastrian beliefs.

Of course these reversions are as realistic as Obama's vision of a world free of the nuclear djinn. However, as a thought experiment the exercise does underscore the absurdity of the Muslim argument that Israel is a foreign implant in the authentic eternal body of Islam. It also shows the intellectual bankruptcy of the Muslim notion holding that the Iberian Peninsula having once been conquered and subjugated by force now belongs forevermore to the Sons of the Prophet.

Listen up, Muslims and apologists, history has no independent existence. It is not some sort of force standing apart from the actions of humanity. Rather it is a record, a record of, in part, winners and losers. The Christians lost in their own historic heartland--and they got over it. Muslims "lost" in Israel. They can't get over it.

The choice for the Muslims is simple: Accept the fact that your wars and terrorism have failed; or, accept more misery and death in the years to come. In either event your choices will not be an invocation of "history" but rather making more entries on the record of human actions, both the wise and the stupid.