{"id":1224,"date":"2015-01-23T21:29:57","date_gmt":"2015-01-24T02:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=1224"},"modified":"2015-01-23T21:29:57","modified_gmt":"2015-01-24T02:29:57","slug":"muslim-on-christian-persecution-around-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/01\/muslim-on-christian-persecution-around-the-world.html","title":{"rendered":"Muslim-on-Christian Persecution Around the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since at least the time of the outset of the Iraq War\u2014and quite possibly well before then\u2014there has been much debate among those to the right over why <\/em>Islamic militants have set their sights upon America and the West.<\/p>\n

George W. Bush expressed the consensus among most Republican politicians and commentators when he remarked that they hate us because of our values. <\/em><\/p>\n

Ron Paul, in contrast, represents most libertarians when he attributes to America\u2019s enemies a hatred of, not American liberties, but American foreign policy.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

Both groups are both right and wrong.\u00a0 For failing to see this, they argue past one another.<\/p>\n

Paul, Pat Buchanan, and others are indeed correct when they note that jihadists in places like Iraq and other Middle Eastern lands despise America because of what has been called an \u201cinterventionist\u201d foreign policy.\u00a0 Yet they are mistaken\u2014sorely mistaken\u2014insofar as they assume that if only<\/em> America disappeared<\/em> from the Islamic world, so too would our problems with Islamic violence disappear<\/em>.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Republicans too are correct in charging jihadists with despising American and Western values<\/em>.\u00a0 But they are incorrect inasmuch as they imply that Islamic militants have a problem with liberty, equality, etc. as such.\u00a0 <\/em>\u00a0In other words, they are incorrect insofar as they imply that it is the specific content <\/em>of these value that elicit the homicidal ire of jihadists.<\/p>\n

The latter certainly do hate our values.\u00a0 But that\u2019s only because they are our <\/em>values\u2014and not theirs.<\/em><\/p>\n

In short, they hate our values because they are not Islamic<\/em> values.<\/p>\n

And this gets to the heart of the matter: the \u201cBush\u201d and \u201cPaul\u201d camps argue past one another because both fail to reckon with the role played by Islam\u2014<\/em>not \u201cIslamism,\u201d \u201cIslamo-Fascism,\u201d \u201cIslamo-Nazism,\u201d \u201cradical Islam,\u201d \u201cIslamic extremism,\u201d or some other politically acceptable fiction, but Islam\u2014in these violent clashes with Muslims.<\/p>\n

Muslims around the world routinely engage in unspeakable acts of cruelty toward their neighbors in contexts that obviously have nothing whatsoever to do <\/em>with American values, American foreign policy, or, for that matter, America.<\/em><\/p>\n

The fierce persecution of Christians courtesy of their Muslim neighbors is an epidemic\u2014and yet it is among the least talked about forms of contemporary oppression.\u00a0 In Nigeria, for instance, the persecution is \u201cextreme,\u201d according to Open Doors, an organization dedicated to combating anti-Christian persecution.\u00a0 There are 183 million Nigerians, of which 89 million are Christian.\u00a0 Yet Boko Haram\u2014an Islamic militant outfit\u2014has rendered peaceful co-existence impossible. In northeastern Nigeria, Muslims have declared a caliphate.\u00a0 Hundreds of children, boys and girls, as well as women have been abducted, and thousands more have been rendered homeless upon the destruction of their homes.\u00a0 In the twelve northern Sharia <\/em>states, Christians have been all but squeezed out.<\/p>\n

Oliver Dashe Doeme of Maiduguri, a bishop and the head of a diocese in northeastern Nigeria, gave an interview with Catholic On-Line.\u00a0 <\/em>He relays how over the last five years, Muslims have all but reduced his diocese to ashes. Over 50 churches and chapel have been ruined, and hundreds have been abandoned.\u00a0 Worse of all, more than 1,000<\/em> Catholics have been murdered.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

The Bishop reports that Catholics are forced at gun-point or knife-point to convert to Islam.\u00a0 If they fail to do so, they are slaughtered.<\/p>\n

For the sake of saving the lives of Christians, not just in Nigeria, but in the region, he pleads with \u201cWestern powers\u201d to intervene.\u00a0 Only something of a military onslaught against Boko Haram can stop it, he believes.<\/p>\n

But it isn\u2019t just the Christians of Nigeria that agonize at the hands of Muslims.\u00a0 Nigerians have it bad: according to Open Doors, out of 50 countries worldwide, Nigeria is the tenth worse place for Christians.\u00a0 And it\u2019s true that Muslims aren\u2019t the only <\/em>persecutors of Christians.\u00a0 But in 40 of the Earth\u2019s 50 countries where Christians are made to suffer because of their faith, Muslims are the culprits.<\/p>\n

Open Doors evaluates global persecution of Christians in terms of degrees.\u00a0 The worst is \u201cextreme persecution.\u201d Eleven countries are named here.\u00a0 In 10 of these, the persecutors are Islamic.\u00a0 The second worst type of Christian persecution is \u201csevere persecution.\u201d\u00a0 In 11 of 14 countries, the culprits are Islamic.\u00a0 Next there is \u201cmoderate persecution.\u201d In 10 of 14 countries, those responsible for the persecution are largely Islamic.\u00a0 Finally, there is \u201csparse persecution.\u201d\u00a0 In nine of 11 countries, Muslims engage in the persecution of Christians.<\/p>\n

In none of these instances of Islamic violence and oppression does \u201cAmerican values\u201d or American foreign policy play a role.<\/p>\n

Islam, however, most certainly does.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since at least the time of the outset of the Iraq War\u2014and quite possibly well before then\u2014there has been much debate among those to the right over why Islamic militants have set their sights upon America and the West. George W. Bush expressed the consensus among most Republican politicians and commentators when he remarked that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMuslim-on-Christian Persecution Around the World<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/01\/muslim-on-christian-persecution-around-the-world.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Muslim-on-Christian Persecution Around the World\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Since at least the time of the outset of the Iraq War\u2014and quite possibly well before then\u2014there has been much debate among those to the right over why Islamic militants have set their sights upon America and the West. 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