FrontPageMag.com
By Raymond Ibrahim
April 8, 2011
The now infamous Koran burning by Florida pastor Terry Jones has created hysteria in the Muslim world. In Afghanistan alone, some twenty people, including U.N. workers, have been killed and beheaded to screams of “Allahu Akbar!” Western leaders around the globe—including Obama and members of Congress—have unequivocally condemned Jones’ actions (without bothering to point out that freedom of expression is a prized American liberty). Many are even blaming the deaths in Afghanistan directly on Jones; Bill O’Reilley says he has “blood on his hands.”
Yet, as Western leaders rush to profess their abhorrence at what one American did to one inanimate book, let’s take a quick look at what many Muslims are doing to many living and breathing Christians around the Islamic world—to virtually no media coverage or Western condemnation:
- Afghanistan: A Muslim convert to Christianity was seized and, according to sharia’s apostasy laws, awaits execution.
- Bangladesh: A Christian man was arrested for distributing Bibles near Muslims. Since Wednesday, thousands of Muslims have been rioting, injuring dozens—not because of Jones, but in protestation of women’s rights.
- Egypt: A Muslim mob burned down another Coptic church and dozens of Christian homes; when Christians protested, the military opened fire on them while crying “Allahu Akbar,” killing nine. Another mob cut a Christian man’s ear off “according to sharia.”
- Ethiopia: Muslims went on a rampage burning down nearly 70 churches, killing at least one Christian, and dislocating as many as 10,000. Christians living in Muslim majority regions are being warned to either convert to Islam, abandon their homes, or die.
- Malaysia: Authorities detained and desecrated thousands of Bibles.
- Pakistan: Two Christians were shot to death as they exited church; a Christian serving life in prison for “blasphemy” died in his cell under suspicions of murder.
- Saudi Arabia: An Eritrean Christian has been arrested for sharing his faith with Muslims and is facing the death penalty; other missionaries continue to languish in Saudi prisons.
- Somalia and Sudan: Christian girls—including a mother of four—were recently abducted, raped, and killed for embracing Christianity.
It should be borne in mind that none of these atrocities were performed in retaliation to Jones’ Koran burning; they’re just business as usual in the Muslim world. Moreover, the above list is but a quick and cursory sampling of the very latest in Christian suffering under Islam. Were one to include persecution from just a few months back, one could also mention the jihadist attack on a Baghdad church, killing 52 Christians; the New Year’s eve Coptic church explosion, killing 21; Muslim rampages that destroyed several churches in Indonesia, Nigeria, and the Philippines; Iran’s “round up” of some 70 home-worshipping Christians; and Kuwait’s—a nation that owes its very existence to U.S. war sacrifices—rejection to build a church.
Then there are the countless atrocities that never make it to any media—the stories of persistent, quiet misery that only the victims and local Christians know.
One would have thought that all this was at least equally deserving of media attention and Western condemnation as the burning of a Koran. This is especially so considering that, whereas only Jones is responsible for his actions, many of the aforementioned savageries—arresting and executing Christian missionaries and Muslim apostates, destroying or outlawing churches, seizing and desecrating not one but thousands of Bibles—are carried out at the hands of Muslim authorities and governments deemed U.S. “friends-and-allies.”
Such is the surreal and increasingly irrational world we live in, where irate Muslims and groveling Westerners obsess over the destruction of one book while ignoring the destruction of many human lives; where a guaranteed and hard-earned American right—freedom of expression—receives a lot of condemnatory huffing and puffing from those charged with protecting it, while murderous, barbarous—in a word, evil—behavior is devoutly ignored.
Raymond Ibrahim is associate director of the Middle East Forum and author of The Al Qaeda Reader.
This article was originally published here.
Comments
I believe we should be responsibile in our broadcast of any newsletter so not to distort or allow the opposition to increase against Christians. The Bibles though now to be released to East Malaysian Christians are stamped in the inside cover the word for East Malaysian Christians only. They are not desecrated.
I am a British missionary staying with friends in Malaysia at present and followed the news that was released about thes Bibles.
The Bible is the only book that has been proven true. History, archeology, the Jews themselves surviving thousands of years of persecution, are proof of the validity of the Bible. It spoke of the Arab people being a fierce people, even being brother against brother. God will not destroy the earth. His son is coming to judge and to mete out just recom pense for all - good to good and punishment and death to evil. He said His glory will fill the earth and that day is coming.
I believe in the coming of The Lord Jesus Christ to set up God's Kingdom upon the earth to cleanse it of all evil.
dhspina@gmail.com
ANY THINKING PERSON KNOWS ISLAM IS THE LAIR OF SATAN!
SO WHATS ALL THE FUROR?
Actually the God of Christianity and of Islam is the same God as the God of Abraham
There is only 1 God. Islam believes in Mohammed. There is only way to God and that is Jesus Christ. You are confused. If you read in Genesis you will find out that Abraham took his wife Sarah's handmaiden and she bore Ishmael (father of all Arabs). Sarah then conceived as foretold by God to Abraham and bore Isaac ( a Jew by birth).
The God of Christianity does NOT offer eternal drunken sex orgies with children in Heaven in exchange for the murder of innocent people on Earth. The only "god" that does that is allah.
A male who offers sex with others in exchange for something is known as a "pimp".
ALLAH IS A PIMP.
I beg to differ with you there matey, the Muslim Allah is NOT the same as the Judeo-Christian God, far from it, Allah is the Arabic word for God whether Muslim under Islam or Muslim under Christianity, they say that there Allah has NO NAME, whereas the Christian God has a Name, several in fact,JHWH is but one .
And I will point out, that Islam is NOT a religion it is a Theo-political Ideology,and is absolutely Satanic both in origin and in practice ... NO WAY is the Allah the same as Our YHWH ....
God Bless You,
Emmanuel.
P.S.
Their god as they call it is a little known Babylonian entity known as Bel, symbol being Crescent Moon and Star , it is the Babylonian Moon god .... Idol.
Actually, I believe it's the same God. Christians see God through His Son, Jesus Christ. Muslims see Him through the eyes of a mentally ill individual: Mohammad.
NOT!!!!!
Actually they are not the same God.
This is a typical mistake made by many people.
The God of Christianity is Jesus Christ.
The God of islam is satan.
The God of Abraham is Yahweh, also called the Father in the trinity.
To Anonymous: You could not be more wrong in your statement. The god that Islam worships is a god of war, hatred, violence,submission, polygamy and much more that is opposite of the God of the Bible. The God that Christians worship is a God of compassion, love, hope, peace, forgiveness, second chances, prophecy and miracles.The God that Christians worship has Jesus the Christ who was born thru prophecy, lived a perfect sinless life, died for all man-kinds sins and then resurrected three days later and is at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. Islam relies on Mohammad, a man, who performed NO Miracles, did nothing to help mankind, instead he murdered and raped, compare that to God's son who is God in the flesh who did miracles, raised the dead, healed the sick, there is no comparison! Yes Abraham did have two sons, but only one son, Issac,is the son that is legitimate. Ishmael was a son from a slave that was of the flesh not from God. No these two religions do have the same God, they are worlds apart. If anyone says anything that a Muslim takes offense to, these people don't think, they allow their anger to rise and take over their thinking. Burn their so called Holy Book and they kill innocent people. By the same token Christians don't kill if anyone destroys a Bible, although God will deal with this Himself.
Giving up your right to free speech because of threats of violence is giving in to extortion Extortion is a felony on the part of those who threaten violence, not of those who refuse to give in to it.
Watch The Zeitgeist Movies. Learn about all religions being based upon older religions. The Cristian and Jewish God should be the same one since the old testament is shared by both. That god mows down enemies as blades of grass.
Atrocities are a human invention and have been happening since we could pick up a rock and bash our neighbors head to take his food. Most religion was an attempt to quell that and make upstanding people out of humanity. But even god has gotten really mad and had to kill all but the chosen family and animals. Not really very tolerant.
So, God will have to kill us all again. As we Squabble over the very earth that we were made from. Since the tower of Babel incident(which god did to humans) we have all been at war. The building of the tower was a collaborative effort among man to be as god is or reach his heavenly abode. So, do to people 1000s of years ago I don't even know, our planet has been at war and will stay that way until our angry God kills us all for not all being buddies.
The 'My God is better than your God' problem is basic to humans and has been a great excuse for Kings, presidents, and Despotic Third World leaders all to choose manifest destiny and bulldoze right over those infidels. The only religions I know that haven't done this are the Mormons(never had their own country, so, haven't been properly tested.) and Eastern philosophies such as Taoism. Though these don't conform to the dogmatic standards of what we are talking about as religion. Even the natives of the US would fight over land and their gods would lead the charge.
They just had a lot more honor regarding prisoners and slavery than the rest of the world(Oh excluding african tribal societies, that is, until they were convinced to hunt down and sell into slavery their own countrymen.).
If you publicly burned the Torah there would be some problems as well, it is a living book that is revered as
God's message on this Earth. The truth as God knows it. Anyone burning any holy book is asking for trouble. Considering the lack of respect the USA has for the bible as if it were light reading to be done in the bathroom of Motel 6 is disgusting. This lack of respect is one major reason the rest of the world hates the US. We lack respect for our own selves with our addictions to TV and BOOZE, Drugs and fastfood(Many on the planet would just be glad to have any food.). Another major reason why the world at large hates the US. Mostly though, the lack of respect for the peoples of the world as we sell them out by making deals with insane(yes Insane) despotic leaders that then attack us with weapons we sold them. But we will keep on watching 'American Idol' and drinking beers and eating burgers until the news comes on, and then comes the holier than though self rightous attitude, that lasts until we take our xanex or lunesta to fall asleep as we drank far too much star bucks coffee.
If you care so much go become a news correspondant that covers these atrocities, show them to the world. Our country is a giant reality show and the Book Burnings are staged on the world platform. Thugs chopping off peoples heads in third world countries mostly don't have I Phones to capture their deeds and tweet about them. Preachers in the US do, in fact they have studio quality cameras to stir up trouble world wide with. So, Keep on strirring guys. Like Bob Marley Said,"Stir It Up"!
Correction...if you burn a Torah, Jewish people all over the world do NOT go rampaging about beheading others. In fact, many Torahs and synagogues HAVE been burned and destroyed, without one single rampage.
Islamists have very openly threatened rampages if anyone so much as casts a tiny slur against their religion, be it via a cartoon, or a burned book.
Whilst it is disrespectful to burn a holy book, as the intent is to offend, so what? It's also disrespectful to burn flags, and the Islamists do it ALL the time - US, Israeli, British....anything that represents freedom, equality, self expression, the right to think and speak...they burn it.
AND THEY ARE THE ONLY ONES THAT GO ON RAMPAGES!
Well you do make some very good points there, but my personal feeling is that the creator of the Universe is going to punish Allah who is his, and everyone else's adversary. I have read the Koran and it is evil. For example there is no mention of the Golden Rule, nor is love mentioned. Jesus warned of false prophets, and look at the damage that twisted psycopath Mohammed has done? I don't believe in book burning generally, the Koran is the only one I would burn, or use as toilet tissue, or for my cat's litter tray!
Allah is a snivelling little toad and is going to get his come uppance. Why would G-d be so capricious and intolerent and kill us all! A lot of Biblical depictions are allegorical anyway It is a beautiful Universe and would be better without Allah / Satan.
Just my humble observation. I certinly don't hate the USA and appreciate the words of the Founding Fathers. You have been infiltrated by communists just as Europe has, they want the Jihadists to do their dirty work for them!
Greetings from the UK.
Epona.
Zeitgeist is propoganda garbage......... there's no learning to be done there. The fact you'd take that ridiculous movie at face value is what is really funny.
http://www.thedevineevidence.com/jesus_similarities.html
Unfortunately, we have no jurisdiction over these murderous peoples in murderous countries. However, why do we do such things as allow these people to live under their laws in our countries where they commit atrocities on their own daughters and we continue to do little or nothing about these acts.
I believe they will make up the New World Religion during the reign of the New World Order.
Glory to God!!!! Let's hire the Crusaders!!!!
Ok One individual has expressed his dislike
so what, no need for the whole muslim world to go hysteric.
Burn a bible, the whole christian world will not go and start killing people. Tolerance? Lacking.
I agree basically with what you write in your article concerning "...what many Muslims are doing to many living and breathing Christians around the Islamic world..." Nevertheless, the burning of the Koran was a foolish, irresponsible act, something Jesus Himself would never have done or condoned.
MUSLIMS PERCEIVE THE KORAN IN THE SAME WAY WE PERCEIVE THE BIBLE, THAT IS A LIVING BOOK. FOR THEM IT IS NOT AN INANIMATE OBJECT THUS WE HAVE TO LEARN TO RESPECT WHAT IS SACRED, AFTER ALL IT IS THE SAME GOD FOR ALL.
my GOD teaches peace and love.their allah teaches hate
shame on you
my GOD teaches peace and love.their allah teaches hate
shame on you
I commented above on this subject. The Koran is not a God Breathed Book. It was written by several men, not just Mohamed, It is a book of rimes that has over 120 references to kill Jews and Christians if they do not convert to Islam. I ask you, Where in the Word Of God The Holy Bible does it say that even one (!) time? It does not ! why? Because GOD does not demand death to those who do not worship him in this life, His Son died on the cross so that we may live eternal, a FACT witnessed by more than 500 people and ignored and refuted by Muslims. However it is one of the most proven facts in the History of the world. Without this fact Christendom would fail... But it lives on because it is a proven fact.
No destruction of a bundle of paper and ink warrants killing people. Your suggestion that these acts are morally equivalent betrays your utter lack of tolerance and humanity.
I don't think so.
look up the following link and know the truth about their god.
http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/moongod.htm