Here's a recent headline in The Guardian: "Gaza Christians long for days before Hamas cancelled Christmas."
As a non-Christian, I'm curious about the reaction.
Or when the media reports on attacks on Coptic Christians, an estimated ten percent of the Egyptian population.
One such piece appeared in the Wall Street Journal on December 24. It focused on deadly assaults on Christians and their churches, while authoritative sources, including the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, document patterns of discrimination against Coptic Christians. A result has been the steady flow of emigrants from Egypt.
I'm also curious about the reaction when the media notes the Christian population of Iraq has dropped precipitously, as people leave the country in droves for fear of their future.
Or when Saudi Arabia shows zero tolerance for public worship or other activity by non-Muslim communities.
Remember during the 1990-91 Gulf War, when America sent its troops to the kingdom to protect it against possible attack from Saddam Hussein's Iraq? Our men and women in uniform were asked to risk their lives to defend the Saudis, but were told to keep any cherished religious symbols, such as a cross or Star of David, out of sight, lest they "offend" the host nation. Not much has changed since then for non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia.
Or when, for the second year in a row, a Muslim terrorist group in Nigeria proudly claims responsibility for deadly attacks on Christian worshipers attending Christmas services. This year, the death toll was at least 39, with many more wounded.
Looking for reaction, what I find is mostly deafening silence.
Sure, there are perfunctory statements issued here and there, but that's about it. What's missing is the outrage. Targeting any religious community writ large, be it Sufi or Ismaili Muslim, Baha'i, Chaldean or Coptic Christian, Jewish, or whomever, should trigger a thunderous global response.
I come from a community where there was a daily vigil in front of the Soviet Embassy in Washington for 20 years - yes, 20 years - to protest the plight of Jews in the USSR. The goal was to let the Kremlin know the world wouldn't remain silent. By the way, many non-Jews laudably joined, understanding that such out-and-out bigotry towards any faith group demanded universal condemnation.
To be sure, there had been earlier discussions within the Jewish community about the respective merits of public activity versus private diplomacy. Advocates of the latter were fearful that drawing public attention might only exacerbate problems for beleaguered Jews behind the Iron Curtain.
That debate evoked for me the story of the two partisans about to be shot by a Nazi firing squad. The officer in charge asked if they had anything to say before being executed. One said he didn't. By contrast, the other began cursing at the Nazis, which prompted a caution from his comrade, "Shh, we don't want to get them still angrier at us!"
Clearly, private diplomacy, without the thunder of the streets, was not going to get far, so long as Soviet oppression persisted. Moscow had to know it couldn't rely on a somnolent or snookered public in the West. And those Western governments, which might have been content to issue an occasional statement of concern while in reality conducting business as usual, were also put on notice.
Every situation is in some way unique. But there are commonalities as well in how to respond.
What should be abundantly clear, above all, is that indifference or inaction is not a strategy in the face of religious bigotry, nor should it be a prescription for a good night's sleep.
First, countries have obligations under international agreements and covenants they have signed and ratified, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Allowing them, or groups within their borders, to trample with impunity on such bedrock rights as freedom of worship and equal protection under the law makes a mockery of their commitments. They should be named, blamed, and shamed if they don't change.
By not ensuring that those responsible for the intolerance and violence are held accountable, governments, old and new, in these countries, are actually encouraging further violence against religious minorities.
When the Soviet Union endorsed the Helsinki Final Act in 1975, it never for a moment thought anyone would actually hold it to the human rights standards set forth. But Helsinki monitoring groups sprouted up in the Soviet bloc and, to support them, in the West as well. The impact was quite profound.
Second, Coptic Christians, to take one example, are not "guests" in Egypt, nor should they be allowed to be depicted in this way.
They happen to predate Islam's arrival in Egypt by many centuries. They are not there by sufferance of the majority. Cairo cannot claim to be on the path to democracy, or invoke high-minded principles in lofty documents, if, in the real world, minorities live in fear.
Third, complicit countries must be made to understand that they cannot get away with countenancing such behavior without paying a price in their relations with the West - and many do care about their ties with the U.S. If we fail to make this clear, or if we simply give lip service in the belief there are higher "interests" at stake, we only make matters worse, both for the vulnerable groups and for any prospect of democracy and the rule of law.
If now is not the time to stand up, speak out, and be counted, when is?
How many more Christian churches have to be attacked, how many more Christian worshipers have to be killed, how many more Christians have to pray in fear of harassment, and how many more Christian families have to emigrate before the silence is truly broken?
*An earlier blog on this subject, "Christians at Risk: A Jew's Concern," can be read here.
For more information, visit ajc.org.
TEL AVIV—Vigilante groups associated with radical Israeli settlers mounted separate marauding assaults against Israeli army and Palestinian targets early Tuesday, an effort largely aimed at pressuring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel the evacuation of outpost settlements.
what say you about Israel not allowing Palestinian Christians access to their holy sites?
What say you about millions of people rendered stateless and rightness as the result of an illegal settlements campaign that is reviled the world over and banned by the Geneva Convention?
It is the settlers who are the enemies of Peace, and when their illegal and immoral enterprise is finally ended, there will be the beginning of peace.
The result is mindless attacks, burning churches, attacking and murdering those attempting to practice their faith and the fascinating silence by those who hold themselves out as "progressive"
About 40% of the voters nominated Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, president of the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS), to be “scholar of the year”.
http://www.onislam.net/english/shariah/shariah-and-humanity/shariah-and-life/455228-qaradawi-and-ghanoushi-scholars-of-the-year.html
Qaradawi believes "the Nazi holocaust was “divine punishment” for the Jews and a good example for “believers” to follow, regards suicide bombing as an act of martyrdom, treats apostasy and homosexuality as capital offenses, and supports the beating of wives by their husbands., dismisses democracy based on self-government and man-made laws as completely incompatible with Islam,
http://frontpagemag.com/2011/12/12/nazi-sheikh-youssef-al-qaradawi/
Is it surprising that the domestic population attacks and murders its minority population, when the sort of incitement Qaradawi articulates goes without a response of horror from anyone that it clearly deserves?
It seems completely disingenuous, as you suggest.
The teaching, preaching,publishing and broadcasting of vitriolic hate and a belief in Islamic supremacy that Muslims have been indoctrinated with for generations with the result being an irrational hatred and violence and murder
Ask Lara Logan
Apartment complexes are "brutal" ??
More brutal then throwing political adversaries off roof tops as Hamas did to Fatah?
How so?
And "Millions of innocents may have had their lives ruined but primarily as a result of their own doing.
Wars have consequences whether you conveniently forget to include them in your conclusions or not, they still occurred, they were still initiated by those you defend and they all have had consequences. AND .... they all began because those you defend do not regard those who were prepared to coexist with them as fully human.
Can you condemn the institutionalized hate
Anyone who has read the novels and novellas of Naguib Mahfouz knows that this is not a new phenomena nor is it new in many other places where Islam holds sway. The Turkish government imprisoned Orhan Pamuk, their only Nobel Prize winner in Literature (2005), for writing in his excellent novel "Snow", that the Islamic religious element then coming into political power in the country, had no regard for religious or ethnic minorities, particularly the Kurds.
The bottom line is that Islamic states have never treated any minority population with any degree of respect with the possible exception of Azerbaijan, which has had experienced democratic institutions for more than 140 years, interrupted by the Nazis and the Communists.
One are partisans trying to turn one religion against the other- somewhat in the fashion of the author. They preach fear and hatred of the other. A few of them are even funded by the military-industrial complex- but we can't go into that on the Huff...
And the other theme is those who are trying to bring people together and actually solve the conflicts.I happen to think that ending the occupation of the West Bank will begin the healing and is in the interest of all parties concerned. For the past 40 years my primary mentors towards this POV have been Jewish. My heart goes out to people of all faiths. Why I am I so stridently attacked by an endless barrage of non sequiturs and one sided memes? Anyone with reason should see that all sides of the conflict have some common ground and in the final analysis, a need for peace?
Which side are you on? Those few who profit from conflict or those many who profit from peace?
You have the cart before the horse
Israels want security before they withdraw from anywhere again - as they did from Gaza.
But they can't get it when the people they want security from are those same people who have been indoctrinated for generations with the message that Jews aren't much more then demons or animals ...
Unless people like you FIRST start to condemn the hatred and source of the continued propagation of the hatred and supremacy - the mosques, schools and media in ALL the Muslim countries, don't expect occupation to end.
Stop the PC, the equivocating, the prevaricating and in clear non weasel words condemn the vile hate and intolerance being promoted in the Muslim countries.
You have governments of large countries where enormous rallies are held with TV Imams who have huge audiences calling for the death of the Jews ... where have we heard that before?
And yet ... there's barely a peep made from those who should know better or maybe I'm wrong and the silence comes from those who agree with the hate,
As long as the world stands silently by while Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi rants about Jews to hundreds of thousands, don't ever expect the Jews to put their guns aside. Why would anyone when the message is crystal clear?
Y
Right now in syria, Assad is saying "I need to ensure the security of Syria against these thugs and anarchists before I stop Killing them.
Saddam and Gadaffi went to their Graves uttering the same sort of BS.
The settlements are not a security measure. They are a crime against Humanity, illegal under the Geneva Convention, and reviled by virtually every single other nation on earth. They must be stopped regardless of anything else because they, in and of themselves, inspire terror and discord, as such actions would anywhere in the world.
The same will happen to the Christian communities of the Arab world and keeping quiet about it or parroting the Arab world's attack lines against Israel won't buy the Christian world any time. Hamas is a subsidiary of the Muslim Brotherhood. The MB is in the process of taking over Egypt. Once that happens, there will be no more Christmas in Egypt either.
Muslim Brotherhood to protect churches on Coptic Christmas
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/30427/Egypt/Politics-/Muslim-Brotherhood-to-protect-churches-on-Coptic-C.aspx
http://www.raymondibrahim.com/2011/11/muslim-brotherhood-only-drunks-druggies
The MB public relations arm may be protecting a few churches during the holiday season, but the political arm has other plans.
As for the peace treaty, I hope it holds. Egypt got a lot out of the agreement, including 100% of the Sinai which they lost in a war they started. But "Dr. Salah Sultan, a lecturer on Islamic law in Cairo University and head of the Al Quds Committee in the World Federation of Islamic Scholars, declared Friday that an Egyptian citizen who encounters a "Zionist" should kill him."
http://www.israelifrontline.com/2011/08/islamist-cleric-meet-israeli-kill-him.html
A few PR flacks might say nice things to gullible westerners like yourself, I doubt that they mean it.
Hi,
Holy Bible says:
1."Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves".
- Matthew 10:16.
2."Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution he will come to save you". - Isaiah 35:4
Holy Quran says:
28:59. Nor was thy Lord the one
To destroy a population until
He had sent to its Centre
An apostle, rehearsing to them
Our Signs; nor are We
Going to destroy a population
Except when its members
Practise iniquity.
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on the order hand you are right we'll go figure as we're all very naive here.But untill you stop crying with your hands out for western money and moral support then we will keep checking your progress to get on with your neighbour in ME..... shit you do over there ,does distabilize here ,until you figure that one out just lay low for now. rumi's way will be the future.