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In this mailing:
- Amir Taheri: The Modernization
of Middle East is a Sight to See
- Raymond Ibrahim: Slaughtered
Christians "A Viable Target"?
by Amir Taheri • July 16, 2017 at
5:00 am
- In
our neck of the woods, that is to say the Middle East, the
machinery of state had modernized itself by enhancing its
powers and developing new modes of control, manipulation and
repression.
- The
late Ayatollah Khomeini's discourse owed more to Lenin and
Stalin than to the great Muslim philosophers and theologians
of ages. Iran became modernized when Khomeini organized the
execution of at least 4,000 people in a weekend, something
even the bloodthirsty Agha Muhammad Khan Qajar never imagined
doing. Syria became modern when Hafez Al-Assad killed 20,000
people in Hama, something no Umayyad Caliph would imagine
doing.
- All
we have kept from our traditions is that of denying our own
responsibility, blaming it all on others.
The
footage from Syria and Iraq reminds of newsreels from Japan in the
wake of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Pictured above: Nagasaki, Japan on
September 24, 1945, six weeks after the city was destroyed by an
atomic bomb. (Image source: (U.S. Marine Corps/Wikimedia Commons)
In every age intellectuals shape and cling to one
concept as the organizing principle for an understanding of the
present and speculation about the future. From the end of the
1940s, as the colonial era drew to a close, the fashionable concept
was "modernization" and its variants such as
"development" and "progress"
But what constituted modernization wasn't quite
clear. Nor after what model should nations aspire in their quest
for progress and development.
by Raymond Ibrahim • July 16,
2017 at 4:00 am
- According
to a report in the Christian Post, Christians displaced
by Islamic attacks at the hands of Boko Haram terrorists are
being denied food and vital assistance at camps run by local
Muslim organizations. As many as 1.8 million people in Nigeria
are currently facing starvation. "They will give food to
the refugees, but if you are a Christian they will not give
you food. They will openly tell you that the relief is not for
Christians." — Bishop William Naga, who fled his home in the
Borno state, Nigeria.
- A
Pakistani government want-ad for street sweepers states that
applicants must be Hindu, Christian or Shia -- anyone but the
dominant Sunni Muslim population – illustrates the way in
which minorities are prevented from earning a living wage.
- A
sophomore at Rollins College in Florida was suspended for
challenging a Muslim professor's assertion that the
crucifixion of Jesus never took place, and that his disciples
never believed he was God. After the incident, during a Middle
East Humanities class, the straight-A student was graded an
"F" on a major essay.
Most
Christian churches in and around Mosul, Iraq were desecrated or
destroyed by ISIS. Pictured: The heavily damaged bell tower of
Saint John's Church (Mar Yohanna) in the town town of Qaraqosh,
near Mosul, on April 16, 2017. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)
The uptick in often lethal persecution of Christians
in Muslim regions has caused many Christian leaders to appeal for
aid. Canon Andrew White, the prominent minister known as the
"Vicar of Baghdad" told Fox News in March, "If there
is anything I can tell Americans it is that your fellow brothers
and sisters are suffering, they are desperate for help," he
said. "And it is not just a matter of praying for peace. They
need a lot – food, resources, clothes, everything. They need
everything."
White also went as far as to say that Christianity
in Iraq, where it has been since the times of the apostles, is
finished.
As Fox News reported:
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