Friday, January 8, 2010
The other side, from the Wall Street Journal Europe: Islamic Christianophobia - The world ignores the persecution of Christians in the Muslim world.
In Egypt, seven Coptic Christians were murdered yesterday by a Muslim gunman as they filed out of a midnight mass in the southern town of Nag Hamadi. In Pakistan, more than 100 Christian homes were ransacked by a Muslim mob last July in the village of Bahmaniwala. In Iraq that same month, seven Christian churches were bombed in Baghdad and Mosul in the space of three days.
Such atrocities--and there are scores of other examples--are grim reminders that when it comes to persecution, few groups have suffered as grievously as Christians in Muslim lands. Fewer still have suffered with such little attention paid. Now a new report from the non-profit ministry, Open Doors USA, shines a light on the scale of oppression.
In its annual World Watch List, Open Doors ranks eight Muslim countries among the 10 worst persecutors of Christians. The other two, North Korea (which tops the list) and Laos, are communist states. Of the 50 countries on the list, 35 are majority Muslim.
Take Iran, which this year ranks as the world's second-worst persecutor of Christians. Open Doors reports that in 2009 the Islamic Republic arrested 85 Christians, many of whom were also mistreated in prison. In 2008, some 50 Christians were arrested and one Christian couple was beaten to death by security officials. At least part of the reason for the mistreatment appears to be the result of Muslim conversions to Christianity: Apostasy carries a mandatory death sentence in Iran...[Read it all.]
I wonder why this is such an unheralded topic. Anybody care to guess why Anti-Christianism and Christianophobia dont recieve the press that Anti Semitism and Islamophobia Anti-Muslim bigotry do?
I wonder why EVil, a self professed white euro christian doesn't care when churches are bombed, christians are killed in muslim majority countries.
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/index.html#Attacks
Because Christians in the West have not been traditionally viewed as a persecuted minority for their "Christianness". The world is catching on to this phenomenon, particularly with regard to their Eastern brothers, very slowly.
Solomon, do you really think that the Western Left cares a toss about persecution of Christians in Muslim majority countries?
Christian organizations have been concerned about this for a very long time. Yet they dont get airtime in the Mainstream Media (dominated by Leftwingers) for these concerns.
BTW, my friend who owns and runs a business nearby is an Egyptian Christian Copt immigrant. The majority of Arab-Americans are Christians.
EV,
I wonder why the Vatican bishop Hilarion Capucci smuggled arms and explosives in his official Mercedes to the PLO in the West Bank while Arafat and co., were killing Christians in Lebanon with the slaughter/massacre of over 500 men, women and children in the Christian town of Damour in 1976?
But also actions by prelates of the Orthodox Church at the time also beggars a "why".
Could it be that Christian lives were expendable?
Personally, I think they should smuggle weapons into the Copts.
They fellow sounds like a real arsehole.
Speaking of expendable. It's seems to me that Jewish Israeli kids and citizens lives are worth less, than the inconvenience of the Security Fence/Wall, aka the Apartheid Wall, to Palestinian Muslims.... in the eyes of many. Twisted as they are.
You can see the same inversion, with regards to Westerners lives, putting them at risk, in order to not inconvenience Muslims and other ethnicities at airports.
Hey, I found this article by Edmund Standing interesting...
'Islamophobia' and the Abuse of the Discourse of Anti-Racism
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=447
By Edmund Standing
'Islamophobia' has many definitions, but it is generally understood to incorporate an irrational bigotry towards Muslims and a view of Islam which is based on prejudice. While anti-Muslim bigotry is undoubtedly a problem that needs to be confronted, the elasticity of the concept of 'Islamophobia' is dangerous, for it is open to abuse by those who seek to silence legitimate criticism of Islamism and Islamic beliefs and practices. Arguably, for many who push the idea that the West is in the grip of rampant 'Islamophobia', silencing criticism of Islamist politics or Islam itself is their true intention. The most disturbing aspect of the rise of the discourse of 'Islamophobia' has been the deliberate conflation of opposition to a religious ideology (or to theocratic politics) with racism. As Paul Sikander rightly notes:
The construction of the concept of 'Islamophobia' began in the aftermath of the Rushdie affair. The impetus for it was to stigmatise an entire range of individuals and opinions, from those who took issue with religious precepts of Islam, to those who questioned certain values of the religion, certain cultural practices recurrent inside the sub-culture of some British Muslim groups, all the way through to those who critically analysed Islamist politics.
For the first time, 'racism' was not considered to be the active discrimination against individuals because of their ethnic background. Now, 'racism' was asserted to be anything that remotely offended the sensibilities of religious Muslims, including those from within the Muslim community who dissented from a certain line on any range of issues.[1]
'Islamophobia' and the Left-Islamist Axis
continued...
I think Edmund misses on a couple of notes.
First off, going straight to the Nazis as exemplary of all historical and current anti Semitism, is promoting a fallacy.
Secondly, he also misses that the New Left has coddled minority racists and bigots under their umbrella, and under the banner of anti-racism. Using the lingo of human rights to promote bigots and haters within the society.
The Islamics are merely following the well trodden path. Indeed, many Leftwingers are aiding and abetting the Islamics as well, forming alliances with them. Islamics vote in larger majorities than Jews for Leftist parties in the West/Europe.
This is not new.