Palestinian Christian Theologians against Israel

by Denis MacEoin • March 25, 2018 at 5:30 am

The purpose here is not to condemn the church for what it believes. These beliefs, however, make it difficult to understand how the leaders of a church can advocate such intimate relations with Muslims, for whom everything Christians believe is pure blasphemy.
In the Qur'an, Jesus is regarded, not as God or the Son of God, but as a prophet inferior to Muhammad. The Qur'an is emphatic in saying that Jesus was not crucified, but that someone else was substituted for him. Therefore, Christ did not die to save mankind; this salvation is reserved only for those who believe in the God of the prophet Muhammad.
No one is suggesting that Palestinian Christians should invite their own deaths by outrightly defying the Muslim majority. It seems inexplicable, however, why these Christians prefer to join with the Islamic resistance rather than to remain silent, accept their supposedly inferior status, and refrain from overt endorsements of what Muslims view as right.
On March 3, Britain's most senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, called for closer ties with Islam on the grounds that "the two religions have more in common than people think". What on Earth does this prelate think Muslims believe? After some 1400 years of rivalry and war, some sort of naivety and fuzzy thinking is making Christians the agents of their own destruction.

Pictured: The main access to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, known as the "Door of Humility". (Image source: Dan/Flickr)

It is sad but possibly to be expected that many Palestinian Christians – who are constantly under threat but have not been killed or expelled – identify closely with the cause of their Muslim fellows as they engage in often violent "resistance" to Israel and the limited Israeli "occupation" of the West Bank (Judaea and Samaria). Christians may have a long history in Syria and Palestine, but the earliest Christians, including Christ, were, of course, Jews. According to Christianity Today:

Continue Reading Article

The Real Cost of Afrin

by Amir Taheri • March 25, 2018 at 4:00 am

Pictured: Turkish soldiers at a military post on the border with Syria. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

With the Turkish flag hoisted on top of the municipal building in Afrin the other day, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his supporters are in triumphal mood.

In a sense they have the right to be, as this is the first time in almost 100 years that Turkey has scored a military victory against an adversary ready to fight. (Turkey's occupation of part of Cyprus in 1974 was achieved without major fighting.)

However, the euphoria inspired by what Erdogan terms "an historic victory" would have to be tempered by reality. That NATO's largest army in Europe should win a war against a ragtag band of lightly armed Kurds is no surprise. This is neither Alp Arsalan, after Malazegrd, nor Sultan Muhammad Fatih after capturing Byzantium.

The capture of Afrin represents a 19th century solution for a 21st century problem that Turkey faces.

Continue Reading Article