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Exploiting Christian Persecution to Demonize IsraelTitled "Why Won't the West Defend Middle Eastern Christians?" and written by Diarmaid MacCulloch, a Fellow of St. Cross College, the article touches on the persecution of Christians, but primarily as a springboard to attack American Christian support for Israel. Consider the following excerpt: … one of the silences which I find most frustrating is precisely the lack of noise from Western Christians about the fate of ancient Christianities in the Middle East. At the heart of the problems in the Middle East is seven decades of unresolved conflict between Israel and Palestine… Yes, Western silence vis-à-vis the plight of Mideast Christians is as real as it is frustrating, but exactly how is MacCulloch able to jump to the conclusion that the Arab-Israeli conflict is "the heart" of the problem? What about the well-documented Islamic doctrines that codify the suppression and persecution of Christians and other non-Muslims? What about the documented fact that Christians under Islam have been persecuted for more than 1300 years before the existence of the state of Israel, in complete accordance to said doctrines? What about the fact that Christians are currently being persecuted in every corner of the Islamic world, as documented in my monthly "Muslim Persecution of Christians" series—including diverse countries such as Pakistan, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, and every corner of Africa—and not just the Middle East? Surely this is the true "heart of the problem"—and not the tiny and relatively new state of Israel. Of course, to thinkers like MacCulloch, all the above points concerning Islamic hostility for Christians are not open to consideration, for they portray Islam in a negative light and so must be false (see Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians for abundant documentation otherwise.) Instead, MacCulloch offers politically correct boilerplate statements, such as: "Christians are scapegoated for their faith by an extremist militant minority of Muslims, who betray their own religion by intolerance, and who make other Muslims ashamed of what is happening." Indeed, it is MacCulloch who betrays himself by characterizing Islam as a "tolerant" faith when any moderately objective reading of doctrine and history—made manifest in daily headlines—all prove the reverse. Likewise, instead of delving into and exposing the true "heart of the problem," MacCulloch critiques Protestant eschatology and U.S. support for Israel, the consequences of which "have been particularly dire for the traditional Christianities of the Middle East." It would have been more useful and sincere if he had addressed more glaring questions, for example:
The theme of silence permeates MacCulloch's Daily Beast article—specifically, that Western Christians are silent concerning the plight of their persecuted brethren. This silence is true and troubling—and many mainstream American Protestant denominations are certainly guilty of it. However, instead of exploiting the sufferings of Christian minorities simply to scapegoat Israel—ironically a nation that is in an existential struggle against the very same ideology and forces that persecute Christians—it might have been better for MacCulloch himself to be silent. Raymond Ibrahim, author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians (Regnery, April, 2013) is a Middle East and Islam specialist, and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum. |
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Thursday, November 7, 2013
Exploiting Christian Persecution to Demonize Israel :: Ibrahim in Human Events
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