Religious minorities in the Muslim world today, constitutionally entitled in many countries to equality of citizenship and religious freedom, increasingly fear the erosion of those rights -- and with good reason. Inter-religious and inter-communal tensions and conflicts from Nigeria and Egypt and Sudan, to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia have raised major concerns about deteriorating rights and security for religious minorities in Muslim countries. Conflicts have varied, from acts of discrimination, to forms of violence escalating to murder, and the destruction of villages, churches and mosques.
In the 21st century, Muslims are strongly challenged to move beyond older notions of "tolerance" or "co-existence" to a higher level of religious pluralism based on mutual understanding and respect. Regrettably, a significant number of Muslims, like many ultra conservative and fundamentalist Christians, Jews and Hindus are not pluralistic but rather strongly exclusivist in their attitudes toward other faiths and even co-believers with whom they disagree.
Reform will not, however, result from exaggerated claims and alarmist and incendiary language such as that of Ayan Hirsi Ali in in a recent a Newsweek cover story, reprinted in The Daily Beast.
Hirsi Ali warns of a "global war" and "rising genocide," "a spontaneous expression of anti-Christian animus by Muslims that transcends cultures, regions, and ethnicities" and thus "the fate of Christianity -- and ultimately of all religious minorities -- in the Islamic world is at stake."
Hirsi Ali's account, for surely it is not an analysis, mixes facts with fiction, distorting the nature and magnitude of the problem. It fails to distinguish between the acts of a dangerous and deadly minority of religious extremists or fanatics and mainstream society. The relevant data is readily available. Nigeria is not a "majority-Muslim" country of 160 million people with a 40 percent Christian minority" as she claims (and as do militant Islamists). Experts have long described the population as roughly equal and a recent Pew Forum study reports that Christians hold a slight majority with 50.8 percent of the population.
Boko Haram, is indeed a group of religious fanatics who have terrorized and slaughtered Christians and burned down their churches, but they remain an extremist minority and do not represent the majority of Nigerians who reject their actions and anti-Western rhetoric. Gallup data finds that a majority of Nigerians (60 percent) "reject the anti-Western rhetoric" of Boko Haram.
Curiously, Hirsi Ali chooses not to mention that in the Jos Central plateau area both Christian and Muslim militias have attacked each other and destroyed mosques and churches.
Another example of failing to provide the full facts and context is the Maspero massacre. Coptic Christians have a real set of grievances that have to be addressed: attacks on churches, resulting in church destruction and death and injuries, the failure of police to respond to attacks, and a history of discrimination when it comes to building new churches and in employment.
Hirsi Ali rightly attributes the genesis for the assault against Christians to the Egyptian security forces. Although some militant Egyptian Muslims did in fact join the violence against Christians, she overlooks the fact that increasingly Christians have been joined by many Muslim Egyptians in calling for this discrimination and backlash to be addressed. Thus, she fails to mention the many Muslims marched in solidarity with the Christians against the security forces and were also injured as a Reuters article dated Oct. 14, 2011 reported: "At least 2,000 people rallied in Cairo on Friday in a show of unity between Muslims and Christians and to express anger at the ruling military council after 25 people died when a protest by Coptic Christians led to clashes with the army."
She also fails to recognize the continuing state violence in Egypt against activists and protestors regardless of their faith.
Thousands of Muslims turned up in droves outside churches around the country for the Coptic Christmas Eve mass, in solidarity with a beleaguered Coptic community offering their bodies, and lives, as "human shields," making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and build an Egypt free from sectarian strife: "Egypt's Muslims attend Coptic Christmas mass, serving as "human shields."
Ali also points to the "flight" of Christians from the Middle East as proof of widespread persecution. According to Gallup surveys in Lebanon, however, Muslims are slightly more likely than their Christian counterparts to want to flee the country permanently and for Muslim and Christian alike the reason they give is primarily economic.
More problematic and deceptive is Hirsi Ali's charge that: "What has often been described as a civil war is in practice the Sudanese government's sustained persecution of religious minorities. This persecution culminated in the infamous genocide in Darfur that began in 2003." Sudan has certainly been a battleground for decades, but to say that Darfur is an example of the Muslim-Christian genocide is flat out wrong. The black African victims in Darfur were almost exclusively Muslim. The killers were Arab Sudanese Muslims (janjaweed) who murdered black Sudanese Muslims.
Addressing the issue of religious freedom requires greater global awareness and a concerted effort by governments, religious leaders, academics and human rights organizations, as well as curricula reform in many seminary and university religion courses (particularly comparative religion courses), to counter religious exclusivism by instilling more pluralistic and tolerant visions and values in the next generation of imams, priests, scholars and the general public. However, when lives are at stake and the safety and security of all citizens threatened, accurate and data driven analysis is crucial. Inflammatory statements and unsubstantiated generalizations exacerbate the problem, risk more strife or even violence and do little to contribute to finding a solution.
Follow John L. Esposito on Twitter: www.twitter.com/johnlesposito
"The black African victims in Darfur were almost exclusively Muslim. The killers were Arab Sudanese Muslims (janjaweed) who murdered black Sudanese Muslims."
No s*** Sherlock, the savages butcher their own as well. The leading cause of violent death for Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan is other Muslims. These savages now strap bombs to children and the mentally challenged. They just hate the people of the book a little more. Oh, and whatever you do in a Muslim majority country, do not convert from Islam to any other faith. That would be a bad thing. This POS professor appears as a witness for the defense in federal trials of Islamist terrorists... you figure it out. Peace be upon you. Hmm, how much does Saudi Arabia endow to Georgetown University's Middle East studies program.
Christians have always declared war on Hindus and Buddhists and other Asian religion and they are trying to destroy Asian culture like they are doing in South Korea, India, Sri Lanka etc.
“Christianity was not content with erecting an altar of its own. It had first to destroy the pagan altars. It was only in virtue of this passionate intolerance that an apodictic faith could grow up. And intolerance is an indispensable condition for the growth of such a faith.”
SANTA ANA, Calif. (Jan. 4, 2012) – The Open Doors 2012 World Watch List has a familiar look to it. North Korea tops the list for the 10th straight time as the country where Christians face the most severe persecution, while Islamic-majority countries represent nine of the top 10 and 38 of the 50 countries on the annual ranking.
You point out that Muslims are "challenged to move beyond older notions of "tolerance" or "co-existence" to a higher level of religious pluralism based on mutual understanding and respect".
Honestly, who do you think we are ? and who do you think you are ?
You are the good and we are the bad, is that what you mean ?
Your article is very biased and not worth much at all to me. Please up the level.
When it comes to tolerance we had to put up with so much, so please do not add more because with this article, it is exactly what you are doing. This article is actually the last thing we need.
"In the submission to the 26-member committee, Mark Burby, a businessman based in the Channel Islands, claimed that he had been gagged by the “ex-spouse of an Asian head of state” in 2009.
He said the “Asian head of state” — who he does not identify — was a “substantial” backer of al-Qaeda, and had advance warning of the suicide bombings on London’s transport system in 2005.
The ex-wife “and her solicitors have boasted to me and others that she 'owns’ the courts in England and Wales and the Government”, he said. "
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/9104424/Head-of-state-funded-al-Qaeda-and-knew-of-77-terror-attacks.html
Human rights in Islamic countries
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Islamic_countries
The human rights situation in Saudi Arabia is considered to be very poor.
The human rights situation in Pakistan is generally regarded as poor
Turkey has been harshly criticized for its human rights record
The human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran is considered to be poor.
Tolerance towards intolerance is the wrong way. The Islamic world needs enlightenment, rational thinking, not more excuses for Islam.
austroamericanfriendship.wordpress.com
The Islamic world does not need enlightenment. What we need is for the western world to stop contributing to export of extremism by supporting radical gulf states. All of those states are US backed dictatorships. Without US support those governments would have been long deposed. They use their oil wealth to fund construction of mosques and export their extremist ideology. We don't need their imams preaching in our mosques. Saudis, Qataris, Bahraini, and Kuwaiti, among others, imams are incredibly ignorant men. They preach nothing but hatred and insularism.
I agree that countries like Saudi Arabia are a main problem, but not because of the US, they have had a radical ideology long before the US were even founded and as long as we have cars who run on oil they will have the money to export their ideology.
So what lie exactly did Ayaan Hirsi Ali tell about Islam?
The zeal to get Ayaan to shut up is not matched by a zeal to highlight the problem of religious persecution in the Muslim World, and that is worrying.
One can only hope. I'd hate for our planet to be listed in Galactic Who's Who as
Earth: once harbored life, now uninhabitable due to massive battles perpetrated by the dominant species, some of whom held different superstitious beliefs than others.
Apparently the superstitions were more important than the well-being of the planet they occupied.
Extinct.
It begins to look like a war of civilizations led by extremists on both sides.
The majority of people on both sides want peace but they are not going to get it.
It is about people like me, who bear no responsibility whatsoever for the crimes the West has committed against the Islamic World. Our only crime, in the eyes of a minority of Muslims (Islamic fundamentalists), is that we happen to be Christians living among Muslims.
Can we forget about the West for moment?
you want to play this game? nobody is asking muslims to turn the other cheek. we're asking muslims to stop slaughtering nonmuslims and denying freedom of speech, religion, and expression.
and it's funny you bring up algeria (a civil war where 150,000 muslims were killed by other muslims), libya (a muslim man oppressed other muslims), syria (muslims killing thousands of other muslims). what does christianity have to do with any of that?
muslims need to start doing some self-criticism. and stop playing the victim.
"Boko Haram, is indeed a group of religious fanatics who have terrorized and slaughtered Christians and burned down their churches, but they remain an extremist minority and do not represent the majority of Nigerians who reject their actions and anti-Western rhetoric. Gallup data finds that a majority of Nigerians (60 percent) "reject the anti-Western rhetoric" of Boko Haram."
Turning the numbers around, if 50% are Christian and not anti-Western, that means that 80% of the Muslims do indeed support the anti-Western rhetoric. Do the math and you'll see that only 20% of the Muslims "reject the anti-Western rhetoric". To have a stable and just society, you need a vast majority of the entire population rejecting religious fanatics to dry up the ocean that fanatics swim in. You don't need a vast majority of one half the population and a mere fifth of the remaining half. Contrary to your intent, you have proven by your own words that Hirsi Ali beliefs are valid.