While We Are Talking About Religious Persecution

As reported here often, the 56-nation-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) within the UN is lobbying very hard to get a defamation of religions measure passed in the UN with the goal of criminalizing criticism of Islam world-wide. They only call it "religions" to make it more palatable to gullible Christians and Jews because in essence the OIC only accepts that there is one religion in the world that is valid-Islam. Here in the US, groups like CAIR and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) talk incessantly about "Islamophobia", a term of their own creation, even though American Muslims are not being persecuted in this country and rightfully enjoy all the protections of our Constitution. True, anti-Muslim feelings exist, but with few exceptions, they are not being carried into action other than words and negative stereotypes. Most Americans understand that innocent Muslims should not be punished for the acts of their co-religionists.

At the same time, non-Muslim minorities in Muslim nations are being actively persecuted-as in murdered, raped, arrested and having their places of worship burned down or bombed. Only a few Jews remain in Arab lands after having been driven out in 1948 when Israel was created. Those currently in Europe are being assaulted on the streets, mostly by Muslim immigrants. In Muslim nations, Christians are now the ones being driven out or killed. Yet nobody wants to talk about it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9762745/Christianity-close-to-extinction-in-Middle-East.html

Last week, I attended the annual MPAC convention, in which the main theme was victimization and Islamophobia. Even the Christian host, Pastor Ed Bacon of the All Saints Episcopal Church of Pasadena, which some of its detractors call the Church of Whatever, managed to trash his own religion. He said that Christians can "be very hateful" and that the history of the church was littered with evils such as the Crusades,  slavery, the Holocaust and- get this- "Evangelical Zionism." He didn't say anything about the occasional charges of anti-Semitism against the Episcopal Church itself.

Yet, like the proverbial 800 pound gorilla in the back of the room, there was the unspoken fact of the persecution of non-Muslim minorities throughout the Islamic world, from Copts in Egypt to Christians in Sudan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Baha'i in Iran and so on. Bacon said nothing about that, nor did his Jewish rabbi counterpart, Sarah Bassin.

Meanwhile, the other great bridge-builders of CAIR saw their CEO, Nihad Awad, hobnobbing with Muslim Brotherhood spiritual head Yusuf al Qaradawi as they announced plans to make a $ 1 billion dollar movie about the life of Muhammad. Nothing was said by Qaradawi about the Holocaust being "God's punishment for the Jews" or his wish to die in battle fighting the infidels.

But there was one great season's greeting coming from the largest mosque in Australia, where the local bridge-building imam told his flock not to wish Christians a Merry Christmas.

http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/it-s-a-sin-to-wish-merry-christmas-imam-1.1444590#.UNieA29ZWSo

(Nor is he the only one.) Courtesy of Vlad Tepes, here is a sermon from the Hopwood Lane Mosque in Yorkshire (UK).




Speaking of the UK, if you are planning to spend Christmas Eve at St Paul's Cathedral in London, be forewarned:

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/418051/20121224/muslim-protest-christmas.htm

And this just breaking out of Austria, where three churches were burned in the same town.

http://www.krone.at/Oesterreich/Feuer_in_3_Kirchen_Amstetten_sucht_den_Brandstifter-Phantombild_erstellt-Story-345385

(Hat tip Vlad Tepes)

And in Tunisia, the birthplace of the "Arab Spring", we have these words from a so-called moderate cleric, Ahmad al- Suhayli,  about the Jews. (There are still  a few Jews left in Tunisia; their synagogue was attacked several months back by a mob.)

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2012/12/tunisian-cleric-ahmad-al-suhayli-in-response-to-lawsuit-following-memri-tv-exposure-i-did-not-call-to-kill-all-the-jews.html

(Hat tip Atlas Shrugs)

Imagine if a Christian minister talked this way in a church sermon about any other religion. Would you remain in such a church? I wouldn't. But read his clarification; he wasn't talking about all Jews-just certain Jews.

If we are going to put an end to religious hate then we must address it from all sides. We cannot ignore the 800 pound gorilla because we are afraid to be called "Islamophobes". We have to ask-demand- that Muslims in Western mosques, when they hear these expressions of hate and intolerance, get up and walk out, as we would. If you choose to stay and listen to this intolerant speech directed against the majority population of the country in which you are living, then you cannot complain of so-called Islamophobia. You cannot complain of being "marginalized" or viewed with suspicion.

Respect is a two-way street. The natural reflex of Americans is to respect the religious beliefs of others, to welcome them, and allow them to practice their faith unhindered. I still believe most Muslims in America mean us no harm. As for those who do, however, we should not remain silent. We have enough hate in America as it is. We don't need any more.