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Hatred
as an Article of Faith
by Mark Durie
Quadrant
February 23, 2015
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On
February 14, the Islamic State ritually beheaded 21 Egyptian Coptic
Christian laborers in Libya.
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The Islamic State sent me a letter this week, in the form of a short
film produced by ISIS's Al-Hayat Media centre. This was not addressed to
me personally, but to all Christians everywhere. Its title was A
Message Signed with BLOOD to the Nation of the Cross.
This was a video of the ritual slaughter of the 21 Egyptian
Christians. Their blood flowing in the ocean waves was the 'signature' at
the end of the video.
As I write this it is Ash Wednesday. This is the start of forty days
of Lent, a period of fasting and contemplation for Christians all over
the world. For many centuries it has been a custom of Christians to
receive a mark of the cross in ash upon the forehead as a sign of
repentance. As I received this mark of the cross today I was thinking of
the 21 Egyptian Christian martyrs. Copts permanently bear the sign of the
cross, tattooed on their wrists, as a sign that they will refuse to
renounce their beliefs.
I read out these men's names at our morning church services on Sunday,
here in Melbourne. And I also choose to honour them by writing to
acknowledge the truth about why they were killed, and in particular the
explanation given by their killers. I also wish to record, as a Christian
and a pastor, my intense protest at the White
House official statement of February 15, 2015, concerning this event.
This makes no mention of the reason the 21 were killed: their Christian
faith. This culpable denial dishonours them, as it dishonours me and
Christians everywhere.
The White House made no mention of
the victims' Christian faith, a culpable denial that dishonours them
and Christians everywhere.
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The White House statement claimed that "ISIL's barbarity knows no
bounds. It is unconstrained by faith, sect or ethnicity." Not true.
The Islamic State's actions are constrained by its theology, and in this
case its targets are also determined on religious grounds; they were
Christians. It is not an endorsement of the killer's Islamic beliefs to
acknowledge that these jihadis follow a form of Islam, and that their
sect and faith does constrain their behaviour accordingly.
President Obama has defended
his administration's misrepresentations on the grounds that the radicals
are "desperate for legitimacy" so "they try to portray
themselves as religious leaders, holy warriors in defense of Islam."
But these are not desperate people. They are shockingly confident in
their beliefs. They do not 'try to portray themselves' as Islamic: they
sincerely believe they are. Christopher
Hitchens got it right over a decade ago when he suggested of Al
Qa'ida recruits that 'they believe their own propaganda,' and 'absolutely
subscribe to the tenets of their version … of their religion, Islam.'
It is not an endorsement of the
killer's Islamic beliefs to acknowledge that these jihadis follow a
form of Islam.
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Obama also stated
that 'we must never accept the premise that they put forward, because it
is a lie.' This too is nonsense. A lie is a deliberate intention to
deceive, and these self-described jihadis are – at least by their own
understanding – speaking the absolute truth when they claim to speak for
Islam.
Some years ago I had the privilege of reading the Gospel at a Coptic
service held in St Paul's Anglican Cathedral, here in Melbourne. The
service was held to commemorate the 22 martyrs of the attack on Al-Qiddisin
Church in Alexandria on New Year's Eve. It was led by Bishop Suriel,
Melbourne's Coptic bishop. The Al-Qiddisin martyr's service impressed me
deeply. I long pondered the fact that the Coptic church of Egypt has been
grieving over the freshly dug graves of its martyred sons and daughters
since the dawn of Christianity. As I sat through the service and sung the
hymns about martyrdom, I thought, 'So this is what it means to be a
Copt'.
The Islamic State video, a polished production, depicts 21 Christian
men, hands bound behind them, being led one-by-one along a beach in Libya
to a point where they are forced to bow down with their heads in the
sand, and there they are beheaded, crying out Ya Rabbi Yasou 'Lord
Jesus!', some reciting the Lord's Prayer. Severed heads were then placed
on top of each corpse, their Muslim slayer standing over them. The final
film shots show the Mediterranean washing red with their blood.
The whole event was meticulously choreographed and rehearsed. The
video's obvious purpose is to humiliate and terrorise Christians, whom it
derisively calls, 'The Nation of the Cross'. I admire the courage of the
martyrs, who did not disown the name of Christ and the cross to follow
Islam, even as they were being mocked and killed by their tormentors.
It is indisputable that the whole script of this video is intensely
religious. It is packed with references to the Qur'an and the Hadiths of
Muhammad. As Graeme Wood comments in an important recent Atlantic
Monthly article, the Islamic State adherents are constantly
referencing Islam's sacred texts. In their everyday speech, 'Koranic
quotations are ubiquitous'. This film is no exception. For anyone who
knows anything about Islam it is impossible to view this film without
being aware of the heavy constraining influence of the Qur'an and the
Hadiths on the script. These references are essential for understanding
the true context, meaning and intent of the film.
Egypt reacted angrily to the
executions, but it has a long track record of not prosecuting Muslims
who massacre Christians within its borders.
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The Egyptian government reacted angrily to the executions, bombing
Islamic State positions inside Libya. Egypt was incensed about this
massacre – and rightly so – but it has a very long and enduring track
record of not prosecuting Muslims who have massacred Christians within
its own borders. General Al-Sisi is a leader who has been complicit in
this peculiar form of Muslim cowardice. This moral inconsistency is
causing great division and confusion among Copts at the present time.
My comment after the Al-Qiddisi massacre in January, 2011, remains as
valid now as it was then: I deplore the lack of freedom of religion in
Egypt, the authorities' apparent unwillingness to protect the indigenous
Christian minority and its places of worship, and the lamentable track
record of the Egyptian justice system in securing criminal convictions
against those who have targeted Christians for attack. I call upon
Egypt's leaders to respond to these abuses honestly and with integrity,
without making excuses or indulging in denial.
There is a double standard in the house of Islam. Examples are legion.
The Jordanian royal house has been prominent in speaking up against
attacks against Christians in Iraq and Syria, yet at the time when the
Common Word letter was being released to the Christian world in 2008
under Jordanian royal sponsorship, its own Royal Aal Al-Bayt Institute for
Islamic Thought had posted on its website fatwas by its Chief Scholar –
the former Mufti of Jordan – which declared death for Christians for the
crime of leaving Islam, and even identified one person by name (see here).
King Abdullah has on the one hand been a champion of the rights of
displaced Christians in the Middle East, and God knows they surely need
one. On the other hand he has held
up the notorious Pact of Umar as evidence of Jordan's history
of religious tolerance:
Jerusalem, which is, regrettably,
subject to the worst forms of Judaisation today, stands witness to
fourteen centuries of deep, solid and fraternal relations between Muslims
and Christians, enhanced by the Pact of Omar [ibn al-Khattab], and
promoted by my grandfather, Sharif Hussein bin Ali, may God bless his
soul.
In contrast to this historical revisionism, the renowned Muslim jurist
Ibn Kathir, accurately
described the intent and effect of the conditions of the Pact of Umar
as guaranteeing the continued degradation of Christians under Islamic
rule: "This is why the Leader of the faithful 'Umar bin Al-Khattab,
may Allah be pleased with him, demanded his well-known conditions be met
by the Christians, these conditions that ensured their continued
humiliation, degradation and disgrace." (Those who read classical
Arabic may consult the Royal Jordan Aal al-Bayt Institute's own database
of commentaries here,
to view Ibn Kathir's original text.)
The highest legal authorities of
the Islamic mainstream continue to assert the right of Muslims to kill
those who leave Islam.
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The problem is that as long as Muslims allow derogatory words like mushrik
(associator, polytheist) and kafir (infidel) to be applied to
Christians, while also preaching Qur'anic verses that denigrate
non-Muslims, the hostility and hatred can only continue. As long as the
highest legal authorities of the Islamic mainstream continue to assert
the right of Muslims to kill those who leave Islam, bursts of extreme
religious hatred such as we have just seen in Libya can only continue. As
long as Muslims claim that the well-documented brutal slaughters of
Islamic conquest and the ensuing oppression of nations under the Islamic
system of dhimmitude were a mercy to the world, the 'opening' up (al-futuh)
of dark nations to light and truth, hatred towards non-Muslims will
continue to arise in the house of Islam.
The fundamental problem is not peculiar variants of extreme religious
worldview, it is a deeply engrained religious worldview that is not
acknowledged by many who hold it. Those who, like King Abdullah, allow it
room to breathe by claiming that it is something other than what it
really is are as much a part of the problem as the violent jihadis who
are proud to own the worldview.
In the house of Islam, hatred has deep roots stretching back through
time. In 1836 Edward Lane reported in The
Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians that it was standard
practice in many Cairo schools to require Muslim school boys to invoke
daily curses on the heads of Christians, Jews and other non-Muslims. In
essence these curses called for the looting, killing and enslavement of
non-Muslims. It is only against the backdrop of inter-generational hatred
that a television series on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion could
have become mainstream viewing in Egyptian society, and continuing
kidnapping, rape and killings of Copts are perpetrated without justice
for the victims.
There is an ill-wind of hatred blowing in the house of Islam and it
has been blowing for a very long time indeed. When this wind is whipped
up into a tornado, the world is appalled, but it is the constant steady
breeze of hatred that is the root of the problem.
As this letter was addressed to the Christians of the world, here I
give my personal reply to the Islamic State, written as a Christian:
I am not intimidated by your hatred. Our Lord Jesus Christ taught
us not to fear those who may kill the body. The people of honour on that
beach in Tripoli were those 21 courageous Copts, who dared to confess the
name of Christ, even with a knife to their necks. They knew well what
choice they were making. You thought to humiliate them, but the Word of
God tells me they are the vindicated ones, the men of glory. I believe
they knew that full well.
For you I have no hate, only pity. You wield the sword to kill
ideas and worship you do not understand, but you do this in vain. The
truth cannot be killed by your knives.
General Sisi of Egypt was right: because of you, people all over
the world are doubting Islam.
(Quadrant editor's note: This is an edited, shorter
version of a post at Lapidomedia:
Centre for Religious Literacy in World Affairs)
Mark Durie is a theologian, human
rights activist, Anglican pastor, a Shillman-Ginsburg Writing Fellow at
the Middle East Forum, and Adjunct Research Fellow of the Centre for the
Study of Islam and Other Faiths at Melbourne School of Theology.
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