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Why
Are Christians the World's Most Persecuted Group?
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Why are Christians, as a new Pew report documents, the most
persecuted religious group in the world? And why is their persecution
occurring
primarily throughout the Islamic world? (In the category on
"Countries with Very High Government Restrictions on Religion,"
Pew lists 24 countries—20 of which are Islamic and precisely where the
overwhelming majority of "the world's" Christians are actually
being persecuted.)
The reason for this ubiquitous phenomenon of Muslim persecution of
Christians is threefold:
Christianity is the largest religion in the world. There are
Christians practically everywhere around the globe, including in much of
the Muslim world. Moreover, because much of the land that Islam seized
was originally Christian—including the Middle East and North Africa, the
region that is today known as the "Arab world"—Muslims
everywhere are still confronted with vestiges of Christianity, for
example, in Syria, where many ancient churches and monasteries are
currently being destroyed by al-Qaeda linked, U.S. supported
"freedom fighters." Similarly, in Egypt, where Alexandria was a
major center of ancient Christianity before the 7th century
Islamic invasions, there still remain at least 10 million Coptic
Christians (though some put the number at
much higher). Due to sheer numbers alone, then, indigenous Christians
are much more visible and exposed to attack by Muslims than other
religious groups throughout the Arab world. Yet as CNS News puts
it, "President Obama expressed hope that the 'Arab Spring' would
give rise to greater religious freedom in North Africa and the Middle
East, which has had the world's highest level of hostility towards
religion in every year since 2007, when Pew first began measuring it.
However, the study finds that these regions actually experienced the
largest increase in religious hostilities in 2012."
Christianity is a proselytizing faith that seeks to win over
converts. No other major religion—including Buddhism, Hinduism, and
Judaism—except Islam itself has this missionary aspect (these faiths tend
to be coterminous with their respective ethnicities: Buddhists, Asians;
Judaism, Jews; Hinduism, Hindus). Thus because Christianity is the only
religion that is actively confronting Muslims with the truths of its own
message, not only is it the primary religion to be accused of
proselytizing but, by publicly uttering teachings that contradict
Muhammad's, Christians are accused of blaspheming as well. Similarly,
this proselytizing element is behind the fact that most Muslims who
apostatize to other religions overwhelmingly convert to Christianity.
Finally, if indigenous Christians are many in the Middle East, because
that is the cradle of Christianity, in other regions with large Muslim
populations, such as sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia, Christian
missionaries have won over millions of converts to the faith—many of whom
are now targeted and persecuted according to Islam's anti-apostasy law,
which often calls for the death penalty.
Christianity is the quintessential religion of martyrdom. From
its inception—beginning with Jesus followed by his disciples and the
early Church—many Christians have accepted martyrdom rather than recant
their faith, in ancient times at
the hands of Romans, in Medieval and modern times at the hands of pious
Muslims and others. Few other religions encourage their adherents to
embrace death rather than recant, as captured by Christ's own words:
"But whoever denies me before men, I will deny him before my Father
in heaven" (Matt 10:33; see also Luke 14:33)." Conversely, Islam
teaches Muslims to openly renounce their faith (taqiyya)—not
just when their lives are threatened, but even as a stratagem of war—as
long as they remain Muslim in their hearts. Other religions and sects
also approve of dissimulation to preserve their adherents' lives. Back in
the 1800s, for instance, Samuel M. Zwemer, a Christian missionary,
observed that in Iran "Bahaism enjoys taqiyya (concealment of faith)
as a duty, but Christianity demands public profession; and hence
in Persia it is far easier to become a Bahai than to become a
Christian."
To summarize, because of their sheer numbers around the globe,
including the Muslim world, Christians are the most likely targets of
Islamic intolerance; because sharing the Gospel, or
"witnessing," is a dominant element of Christianity, Christians
are most likely to fall afoul of Islam's blasphemy and proselytism laws,
as even the barest pro-Christian talk is by necessity a challenge to the
legitimacy of Islam; because most Muslims who apostatize to other
religions convert to Christianity, it is as Christians that they suffer
persecution; and because boldness in face of certain death—martyrdom,
dying for the faith—is as old as Christianity itself, Christians are
especially prone to defy Islam's anti-freedom laws, whether by openly
proclaiming Christianity or by refusing to recant it, and so they die for
it.
Raymond Ibrahim, author of Crucified Again:
Exposing Islam's New War on Christians (Regnery, April, 2013) is a
Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate
Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
Related
Topics: Anti-Christianism
| Raymond Ibrahim This
text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an
integral whole with complete and accurate information provided about its
author, date, place of publication, and original URL.
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