A cover that declares a "War on Christians" is bound to get some attention. 
Writing in the February 12 issue of Newsweek, author Ayaan Hirsi Ali's argument is just as blunt. Enough with all this talk "about Muslims as victims of abuse," because really it's the other way around:
A wholly different kind of war is underway–an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm.
To suggest that a genocide is underway is, of course, a serious charge. And Hirsi Ali alleges that it is widespread:
In recent years, the violent oppression of Christian minorities has become the norm in Muslim-majority nations stretching from West Africa and the Middle East to South Asia and Oceania.
To make matters worse the media have been cowed into silence, due to "the influence of lobbying groups such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation–a kind of United Nations of Islam centered in Saudi Arabia–and the Council on American-Islamic Relations." She writes:
Over the past decade, these and similar groups have been remarkably successful in persuading leading public figures and journalists in the West to think of each and every example of perceived anti-Muslim discrimination as an expression of a systematic and sinister derangement called "Islamophobia"–a term that is meant to elicit the same moral disapproval as xenophobia or homophobia.
So there is a genocide underway, and there are specific groups obscuring this fact and steering media away from covering this horror–in effect making them complicit in the genocide.
This is a remarkably serious charge. It is rather shocking to see it printed in a national magazine with so little evidence.
Ali's piece is accompanied by a large graphic (which doesn't appear to be online) labeled "Terrorist Attacks on Christians in Africa, the Middle East and Asia." According to the graph, there were 45 such attacks in 2010. Violence of this sort is tragic; the anecdotes Hirsi Ali cites from Nigeria sound horrific.
But is it a genocide? And is the violence directed against Christians on the basis of religion? It is hard to see how one could make such a leap. In Egypt, for instance, Hirsi Ali points to an incident where Christian protesters were killed by state security forces. Hundreds have been killed in similar circumstances in Egypt over the past year. They were not all Christians, and they were not killed in a drive to stamp out members of a particular faith.
Hirsi Ali finds similar evidence elsewhere: "Since 2003, more than 900 Iraqi Christians (most of them Assyrians) have been killed by terrorist violence in Baghdad alone." Of course, Baghdad has suffered terrible violence since the U.S. invasion and occupation. It is unclear why these particular deaths, a small percentage of total killings in Baghdad, should be considered part of a genocidal Muslim campaign against Christians. She adds that "thousands" of Iraqi Christians have fled their homes. But millions of Iraqis have done the same, across ethnic and religious lines. It's hard to conclude that anti-Christian genocide is the story that is being kept out of the media by the likes of CAIR.
Hirsi Ali pleads with readers that we must "please get our priorities straight…. Instead of falling for overblown tales of Western Islamophobia, let's take a real stand against the Christophobia infecting the Muslim world."
It's hard to know what she means; is there really some great danger that the West is doing too much to protect Muslims? The real implication here is that there is a genocide that must be stopped. That is an extremely serious charge. She fails to provide evidence to support that case, and manages to smear a major American Islamic advocacy group in the process.
About Peter Hart
Reading all these posts brings to mind what an amazing country we live in.On my very street I have 4 ex marines out of six homes(strange gathering of jar heads we call it).All are republicans.All white.And all very successful.About a year ago a muslim family moved in down the road.I believe the father is a dentist.The girls are covered head to toe with only their eyes showing.Often they the girls take walks with the children.They are always greeted with a good morning or afternoon by everyone I know and it is always returned.We do have prejudices here in this country against muslims,and 911 made it no better.And Jews and blacks have their share.Gays,Mexicans and all the rest of us.It is a work in progress. But damn comparatively we are doing something… a lot of things right.
AbuBooBoo wrote: So the example you're citing was the failure to uphold a new law where an old law that did specifically target a group of people was illegally being enforced? "Segretory law" *targeting* Group X for discrimination makes your comparison invalid with anything I'm saying.
_______________________________________________
Thanks goodness the Supreme Court didn't follow this reasoning.
John, I don't know what more to explain to you. The Supreme Court comment was kind out of left field. I think again this is about apples and oranges when you see it as ten apples and one apple.
Most people see a qualitative difference between a law that says Blacks can't drive and racial profiling Black drivers (but even that is a bad analogy to police surveillance of Muslims because racial profiling means officers must at least pull Black drivers over for it to be racial profiling). They would agree that both are wrong but they are qualitatively different. I figure if you are as critical with your own reasoning as you are with Ayaan Hirsi's article you would see this too.
@AbuBooBoo: Had the Supreme Court followed your reasoning, then de facto segregation would still be in place. Nobody would be able to point to discriminatory laws on the books. So things ain't so bad then, right? There's a qualitative difference between discriminatory laws on the books and other discrimination, right? Never mind the absolutely drastic real world situation. No reason to adress the fact that, for some magical reason, school districts and the schools within them somehow ended up almost completely segregated.
That's what you seem to be saying: our discrimination ain't so bad, but those Muslim countries got a problem so bad that it's genocide. I'm saying that we both got problems, but they're just problems– not any evidence of genocide. And if we're gonna overblow their problems to the point we call them genocide, then we really oughta look more critically at our own problems because they ain't all that significantly different; from the Muslim world's point of view, they could very well see us doing things that aren't all that much different than what we call genocide when the shoe is on the other foot.
I don't go so far as to say glass houses or anything. I think we have an incredible level of freedom and tolerance that a lot of the rest of the world doesn't enjoy. But it ain't perfect. And when we like to cry anti-Christian genocide when the facts ain't there to support it, while at the same time invading Islamic countries, whitewashing everything Israel does, etc., then it's gonna look pretty disingenuous to the other side of the fight.
Had the Supreme Court followed your reasoning, then de facto segregation would still be in place. Nobody would be able to point to discriminatory laws on the books. So things ain't so bad then, right?
Once again John, please try to stay on topic. If the practice (or law) is discriminatory that WOULD make it qualitatively similar to what's occurring in the Muslim world. Yes, I mentioned a difference between law and practice but these were all in the context that the law was inherently different to the practice.
That's why your example is irrelevant because we had been discussing a police practice that wasn't inherently discriminatory to laws in Muslim nations that are inherently discriminatory. Hence my entire point that they are qualitatively different.
There's a qualitative difference between discriminatory laws on the books and other discrimination, right?
No, John. There's a qualitative difference between non-discriminatory practices and discriminatory laws. There is a qualitative similarity between discriminatory practices and discriminatory laws. That's why I said my analogy of racial profiling was not a great example because there is a discriminatory component to pulling over drivers who are black, but it's still qualitatively different from a law prohibiting blacks from driving.
That's what you seem to be saying: our discrimination ain't so bad, but those Muslim countries got a problem so bad that it's genocide.
No one has said that John. I hate when people cannot bother to read someone's comment.
they ain't all that significantly different; from the Muslim world's point of view, they could very well see us doing things that aren't all that much different than what we call genocide when the shoe is on the other foot.
I'd like to see any qualitative similarity to the laws in Iran against Christians to any laws or practices in the United States affecting Muslims. So far there's police surveillance. This was done in secrecy so I'm doubtful Muslims have been discriminated in their daily lives by police surveillance.
And when we like to cry anti-Christian genocide when the facts ain't there to support it, while at the same time invading Islamic countries, whitewashing everything Israel does, etc., then it's gonna look pretty disingenuous to the other side of the fight.
Who is "we"? You mean Westerners who are not you? Most probably right-wingers?
I suppose that's an interesting observation. To me, it seems, the Right has recently taken up the issues they expected the Left to concern themselves with – religious persecution, fundamentalism, intolerance.
The Left is diplomatically silent to religious persecution in the Muslim world, despite their pedigree of being "internationalists".
This thread is a perfect example. The article was an attack on Hirsi Ali. Christian suffering in the Muslim world was only mentioned on this site because Ali wrote of it. It was forced. The author had to choose from not mentioning Hirsi's article and ignoring Hirsi to attacking Hirsi. Unfortunately for the author, attacking Hiris and her article meant that he had to post the contents of Hirsi's article.
I would be surprised if one article by a Leftist writer on this site was devoted to Christian or non-Muslim persecution in Muslim lands. I'm not a frequent reader of this site by any means, but I would assume there have been numerous articles on "Islamophobia", not only in the the United States, but also in foreign places such as Europe and Israel.
And if a Left wing, Muslim apologist writer had claimed the West was committing genocide in the Muslim world, as Danios from LoonWatch has recently done, we wouldn't see any type of reaction from Leftist writers indignant over the hyperbole by some sections on their own side.
The Left doesn't care about human rights. The Left only masquerades behind human rights when they can use the human rights issue to bash the side they hate. It's so thinly disguised these days when the current Leftist industry not only silently tolerates persecution but now engages in deciding which Muslims are "real", "fake" and "self-hating" by how well Muslims tote the Leftist party line.
And when we like to cry anti-Christian genocide
John, where is Fair.org when the Left and Muslims routinely accuse the West and Israel of anti-Muslim genocide?
I think the real question we should be asking is why the Hirsi article made the waves it did in the Leftist community.
Sorry John, but I don't think the Left is as impartial as you'd like others to believe.
I guess its okay to murder Christians since it (supposedly) doesn't rise to the level of genocide. What a brilliant analysis.
@AbuBooBoo Says:
February 19th, 2012 at 10:10 am
Yes indeed it was the Mamluk sultan Baibars he's actually the big historical Islamic hero in the Middle East.More famous and legendary then Saladin.It's only in Western Europe that Saladin became romanticized into this noble pagan ruler.In the Middle East he was not recognized as such until he got resurrected by Arab nationalists after the Ottoman empire was defeated in WW1 and the Europeans started to rule the area again which is even more odd considering he was a Kurd and not a Arab.It was here that Saladin was " rediscovered" the same is true btw of the word Crusade/Crusader there was no such word in Arabic until the early 20th century and is basically a Western concept introduced into the Arab world.The people at the time did not see the world in these terms.Nether did the Crusaders fight Islam for they did not know enough about each other.To the 10-13th century Arab he was fighting Frankish barbarian invaders.For the 10-13th century European Crusader he was fighting a demonic pagan race of Christ killers.They are described as such by the first pope to call a crusade.Which shows the lack of knowledge in Western Europe about who or what they were actually fighting. The term Saracin originated with 6th century writings of St.John of Damascus (another great Christian city that somehow today has few to no Christians left) this is the source for the term in Christendom.His writings are still mighty interesting to read if you want to get a historical glimpse of early Islamic culture and religious practices. As St.John was a bit of a polemicist and Islam as a religion wasn't as theologically formed as we know it today in fact he saw it as a Christian heretical sect.
But I'm going off topic in a huge way, it wasn't just the slaughter at Antioch but the whole ethnic cleansing of Latin Christians from the Levant region the European presence basically ended after Baibars conquests.
Lawerenc – Can you enlighten us which religion initiated WW I and WW II which resulted in the death of over 105 million people – which religion was behind Stalin murderous goons which killed over 65 million Russian and Ukrainian Christians including three million Muslims?
It was western racism and nationalism which caused all those Holocausts.
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2011/03/20/poll-european-hatred-toward-israel-jews-and-muslims-is-up/
look at the group allegedly a non-for-profit organization called CAIR, that is in the process of stopping any sovereign state into submission when that sovereign state passes laws and or amendments to their state constitutions (as did Oklahoma) these states are trying to ban the use of sharia law in the State Criminal and Civil Courts.
Hell us Jews cannot even use the Jewish law of Talmud in the secular courts in the US so why does child molesting muslims get to use their sharia law
IT IS BECAUSE THE AMERICANS ARE RUNNING SCARED OF THE ISLAM CHILD MOLESTERS YEAH I SAID THAT, CHILD MOLESTERS
It was western racism and nationalism which caused all those Holocausts.
Hey Rehmat, where'd you get that "Talmudic" quote?
Was it from a neo-Nazi or Muslim supremacist site?
Come one, fess up.
Btw, some credit Japan's invasion of China as the start of WWII and I'm not sure how the Soviet Union's atrocities are linked to "racism" and "nationalism".
AbuBooBoo – Wake up and listen to a Jew who turned his gun against his fellow Jews and Israel after disgusted with their racism and nationalism.
â┚¬Ã…“Israel is not an occupation. It\'s the ethnic-cleansings of the native Palestinians,â┚¬Ã‚ Miko Peled, son of Israeli Gen. Matti Peled and brother of Professor Nurit Peled-Elhanan. Miko Peled is a former Israeli soldier. Last year Miko gave an interview to the Alternate Focus describing his experiences as a young soldier in the Jewish army. He also describes a confrontation with the same army on a recent visit to Israel and the West Bank. Watch the video below.
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/israel-as-seen-by-an-israeli-generals-son/
Sen. Dick Durbin has claimed there's a war against Muslims.
Where's the outrage from Leftist raps such as this one?
None?
Our war is with those who would distort it and turn it into terrorism. And I think that was a bright spot kind of a guiding principle. It was adopted by President Obama. Now, listen to these Republican candidates for president. They\'re at war with Islam.â┚¬Ã‚Â
So there's a war against Islam. Will Left wing smear merchants challenge Durbin on such a "serious charge"?
Hi all,
I am part of an international church, and our brothers and sisters who live in the Middle East verify that this, is in fact, the situation. Many have endured horrible things simply for their faith and virtually all fear for their lives daily. At first I don't understand why some people instantly assume it isn't true; but, then I realize why.
Wow, I can't believe all the hatred. All I can say is, I wish the entire world knew Jesus Christ. He is Lord. He died for our sins, and He rose from the dead. No one makes pilgrimages to his tomb because he's not buried there! He ascended into heaven and will one day return as triumphant Lord and King. He has not retired, He has not moved over for another prophet who happened to come along 600 years after Him. No, He declared Himself as reigning King forever and ever. All who claim to replace Him are blasphemously false. So grind your teeth all you want. He's not moving over, and He's not going away. Go ahead and kill Christians. They will be in heaven forever with their wonderful Jesus who loved them so much that He gave His life for them. Beautiful Jesus, always giving and sacrificing, never living by the sword and teaching hatred and inspiring murder. He's the perfect example for how humanity should treat each other — love, respect, sacrifice. He claims to be the only way to eternal life and the only dispenser of ultimate truth. Christians of the world, be encouraged. Soon Jesus will come back on the clouds of heaven and deliver you. And the rest of you — repent and turn to him before you die without salvation and land in hell for all eternity. God loves you very much and has provided faith in His Son as your way of escape from death and entrance into eternal life. Meanwhile, like I say, Christians will be murdered. That's true martydom, not people who blow up themselves so they can murder others. They aren't martyrs. They are dead killers. But true martyrs are mentioned in the Holy Bible:
"9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.
10 They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?"
11 Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.
12 I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red,
13 and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.
14 The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
15 Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.
16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!
17 For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" . . .
A promise for the Christian victims of this world:
16 Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." (Book of Revelation 6:9-17, 7:16-17).
And the final words of the Bible:
12 "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.
13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
14 "Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.
15 Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
16 "I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star."
17 The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.
18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book.
19 And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
20 He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God\'s people. Amen.
(Book of Revelation 22:12-21).
Jesus wrote this hundreds of years before the supposed "prophet" was born. He will never abdicate his authority to another. He will have the final say in history. He is the judge, before whom all will be raised and give account. But today He extends a loving invitation for all who want eternal life in heaven to come. It's up to you. The end is very soon. Accept salvation today. Christ will change your heart, and you will no longer be filled with hatred and contempt but the love of God.
Most will be enraged by this message, but does anyone have the guts and the integrity to listen and at least go to the Bible and search for truth. The Bible promises concerning the truth, "Seek and you shall find." The truth remains hidden only to those who refuse it.
Gerry, if all that you say is true about your own history, you must be what, 80ish years old? Hmm… I don't know many folks that age who are reading blogs, let alone writing lengthy diatribes in response. I'm not saying that you're not 80ish and writing to bloggers, but I'd love to get some more info. on that from you.
You who want to talk about red herrings, please also acknowledge that you are committing a fallacy yourself:
Ad hominem and tu quoque
Definitions: Like the appeal to authority and ad populum fallacies, the ad hominem ("against the person") and tu quoque ("you, too!") fallacies focus our attention on people rather than on arguments or evidence. In both of these arguments, the conclusion is usually "You shouldn't believe So-and-So's argument." The reason for not believing So-and-So is that So-and-So is either a bad person (ad hominem) or a hypocrite (tu quoque). In an ad hominem argument, the arguer attacks his or her opponent instead of the opponent's argument.
(from UNC's http://writingcenter.unc.edu/resources/handouts-demos/writing-the-paper/fallacies#section-11)
But if you want additional resources documenting the persecution of Christians in Muslim countries, go to the ACLJ's website: http://aclj.org/ or to the Voice of the Martyrs website: http://www.persecution.com/
Peace to you.
The pertinent thing is whether people are being killed BECAUSE they are Christians or Muslims or secularists. That is genocide: an attempt to remove a group from society or from the gene pool through homicide.
I don't know about Christians in Muslim world being targeted because they are Christians, but its certainly clear that women are being targeted because they are women. (Oh here we go, the predictable chorus cries, women's lib, groan).
This level of misogyny, open, severe, unapologetic; legally, socially, religiously supported, cannot be equated with the deep-seated but largely suppressed misogyny occurring in the West. I know there are many of you who think racism is somehow worse than misogyny, but you are ignorant of the subject. Misogyny is compounded by racism, but it is no less destructive. A woman like Hirsi Ali, with her dark skin, knows far more about the prejudices involved than those criticising her. She is angry, and she has every right to be. Why aren't you angry too? Because you haven't suffered like she has.
I am a leftist, and I will judge everyone who can't see fit to speak truthfully about the abuses of women under Islam: either because they don't want to be called 'racist' or more likely because they just don't care. I will also judge you if you criticize the abuse of women under Islam but not the misogyny legitimized by the foul tenets of the Christian church.
Hirsi Ali is a voice that comes from that world. You'd do better to listen to her without your arrogant presumptions that she's coming from an anti-muslim agenda rather than a desire to reform terrible abuses SHE HAS SEEN that so many others have deemed somehow socially-acceptable because they fit the pre-ordained narrative of callous & ignorant men.
[...] The new Newsweek cover: "Muslim Rage." Back in February, cover story by same author: Islam's "War on Christians."http://www.fair.org/blog/2012/02/15/newsweek-and-the-war-on-christians/ [...]
[...] Influential People in the World," nevertheless backhanded her with a profile from Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who wrote that Joya "must use her notoriety, her demonstrated wit and her resilience to get [...]
[...] People in the World," nevertheless backhanded her with a profile from Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who wrote that Joya "must use her notoriety, her demonstrated wit and her resilience to get [...]
[...] People in the World," nevertheless backhanded her with a profile from Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who wrote that Joya "must use her notoriety, her demonstrated wit and her resilience to get [...]
Well it's sad to know that killing a human being now a days is not a big deal. That's why terrorists are terrifying people. And also due to the lack of provision of justice, the terrorism is spreading in the world day by day.