by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n
FrontPageMagazine.com<\/p>\n
Days ago in Egypt,\u00a0throngs of Muslims<\/a>\u00a0(henceforth, “Islamists”), estimated at 3,000, fired guns and rifles and hurled Molotov cocktails at Coptic churches, homes, and businesses in the Imbaba region near Cairo: twelve Christians were killed \u2014 some shot by snipers atop rooftops \u2014 232 injured; three churches were\u00a0set aflame<\/a>\u00a0to cries of “Allahu Akbar,” while Coptic homes were looted and torched.<\/p>\n As\u00a0usual<\/a>, Egyptian leadership did little to stop this latest rampage. According to eyewitnesses, though the mob opened fire around 5:30 p.m., the military did not arrive until 10 p.m., providing ample time to terrorize the Copts. One priest said “I called everyone, but no one bothered to come. I mourn all those young people who died,” naively adding “We now must ask for international protection.” Noting that this attack is unprecedented in scope, Muslim liberal writer Nabil Sharaf el Din said “The army is either incapable [of stopping anti-Christian violence] or is an accomplice to the Salafis [Islamists].”<\/p>\n So what triggered this latest bit of Salafi savagery \u2014 or, as the\u00a0MSM<\/a>\u00a0calls it, “sectarian strife<\/a>“? Islamists claim that a Christian girl converted to Islam and the Coptic Church responded by abducting her and torturing her into renouncing Islam. Hence, the wild rampage was part of a “rescue” effort.<\/p>\n This issue of Christian women supposedly converting to Islam only to be kidnapped by the Coptic Church is the Islamists’ latest excuse to make Coptic life a living hell (especially ironic since the\u00a0well-documented reality<\/a>\u00a0in Egypt is the opposite: Islamists regularly kidnap and force Christian women to convert to Islam). Indeed, days before this rampage, thousands of Islamists marched in front of St. Mark Cathedral, Coptic Pope Shenouda’s residence, demanding the “release” of other Christian women \u2014 two wives of clergy, whom Muslims insist also converted to Islam only to be abducted and tormented by the Coptic Church to return to Christianity.<\/p>\n (The notion of torturing people into returning to their original religion obviously comports well with Muslim logic: aside from the other Sharia schools which recommend outright execution of apostates, the “liberal” Hanafi school, which is dominant in Egypt, maintains that apostate women should merely be imprisoned and beaten till they come to their senses and return to Islam.)<\/p>\n That these Coptic women have publicly insisted that they never converted to Islam does not seem to matter much; one of them,\u00a0Camelia Shehata<\/a>\u00a0appeared on video months ago proclaiming that she will “live and die as a Christian”; sheappeared again<\/a>\u00a0last week with her priest husband and young child, emphatically denying that she ever converted to Islam, imploring Muslims to leave them in peace.<\/p>\n This supposedly “chivalrous” behavior \u2014 rescuing” damsel converts to Islam even when they insist on never converting \u2014 highlights the Islamic world’s obsession with the issue of conversion: while it is known that those who convert out, the apostates, should be put to death, few people are aware that those who convert in \u2014 against their will or not, based on false rumors or not \u2014 are a great source of validation for Islam, and thus must be secured.<\/p>\n Even the West has been dragged into this obsession \u2014 such as the persistent rumor that the late\u00a0Jacque Cousteau<\/a>\u00a0embraced Islam, prompting the Cousteau foundation to issue a letter verifying its founder never converted, and lived and died as a Catholic Christian.<\/p>\n Indeed, a new Arabic book,\u00a0Al-Quran Yaqum Wahdu<\/em><\/a>\u00a0\u2014 which consists of 33 anecdotes of Western intellectuals converting to Islam after supposedly being bowled over by the truths of the Koran \u2014 lists Cousteau and Islam critic Henryk Broder as its very first two examples, despite the fact that, back in the real world, everyone knows they never converted. One is left wondering how many, if any, of the other 31 anecdotes are true.<\/p>\n In an insightful\u00a0Arabic op-ed<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 see my\u00a0complete translation here<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 Muslim intellectual Khaled Montaser elaborates on why Muslims are obsessed with converts:<\/p>\n We Muslims have an inferiority complex\u2026feeling that our Islamic religion needs constant, practically daily, confirmation by way of Europeans and Americans converting to Islam. What rapturous joy takes us when a European or American announces their [conversion to] Islam \u2014 proof that we are in a constant state of fear, alarm, and chronic anticipation for Western validation or American confirmation that our religion is “okay.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Discussing how the Arab world exulted when it erroneously thought that the German writer Henryk Broder had accepted Islam \u2014 based on sarcastic remarks he had made \u2014 Montaser wrote “but we are a people incapable of comprehending sarcasm, since it requires a bit of thinking and intellectualizing. And we read with great speed and a hopeful eye, not an eye for truth or reality. Some of us are struck with blindness when we read things that go against our hopes.” \u00a92011 Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Raymond Ibrahim FrontPageMagazine.com Days ago in Egypt,\u00a0throngs of Muslims\u00a0(henceforth, “Islamists”), estimated at 3,000, fired guns and rifles and hurled Molotov cocktails at Coptic churches, homes, and businesses in the Imbaba region near Cairo:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[225,227],"tags":[192,1035,1017,1044,30,1018],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-NR","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6357,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/in-egypt-media-sympathizes-with-muslim-brotherhood-persecution-of-christians-ignored\/","url_meta":{"origin":3091,"position":0},"title":"In Egypt, Media Sympathizes with Muslim Brotherhood, Persecution of Christians Ignored","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0NRO's The Corner While Western media, following the lead of pro-Brotherhood Al Jazeera, continue demonizing the Egyptian military\u2019s attempts to neutralize the Muslim Brotherhood terror bases \u2013\u00a0where people have been tortured, raped, and killed, all according to Islamist fatwas (yes, including the rape, more on this later)\u00a0the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Muslim Brotherhood"","block_context":{"text":"Muslim Brotherhood","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/muslim-brotherhood\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6324,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/al-qaeda-flag-flies-high-above-christian-churches\/","url_meta":{"origin":3091,"position":1},"title":"Al Qaeda Flag Flies High Above Christian Churches","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0Gatestone Institute \u00a0 Days ago, al-Qaeda\u2019s Egyptian leader, Ayman Zawahiri,\u00a0portrayed\u00a0\u00a0the overthrow of Muhammad Morsi and the Brotherhood as a \u201cCrusader\u201d campaign led by Coptic Pope Tawadros II who, according to Zawahiri and other terrorists, is trying to create a Coptic state in Egypt. Since then, not only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egypt"","block_context":{"text":"Egypt","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/egypt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/screenshot_2353.jpg?fit=484%2C312&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1954,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/destroying-churches-one-at-a-time-muslim-brotherhood-wants-no-more-churches\/","url_meta":{"origin":3091,"position":2},"title":"Destroying Churches, One at a Time: Muslim Brotherhood Wants “No More Churches”","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim Hudson New York What clearer sign that Egypt is turning rabidly Islamist than the fact that hardly a week goes by without a church being destroyed, or without protesting Christians being attacked and slaughtered by the military? The\u00a0latest chaos\u00a0in Egypt \u2014 where the military opened fire on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Muslim Brotherhood"","block_context":{"text":"Muslim Brotherhood","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/muslim-brotherhood\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6194,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/muslim-brotherhood-out-killing-christians-in\/","url_meta":{"origin":3091,"position":3},"title":"Muslim Brotherhood Out, Killing Christians In","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/ Gatestone Institute \"I tell the Christians one word: We will set you on fire!\" \u2014 Egyptian Muslim lady \"In scattered locations across Egypt, mobs of hard-line Muslims,\" according to\u00a0Morning Star News, \"enraged over the deposing of the country's Islamist president [Muhammad Morsi] this week attacked Christian\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egypt"","block_context":{"text":"Egypt","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/egypt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/The_Great_Umayyed_Mosque_of_Damascus_Syria_-_9.jpg?fit=947%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/The_Great_Umayyed_Mosque_of_Damascus_Syria_-_9.jpg?fit=947%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/The_Great_Umayyed_Mosque_of_Damascus_Syria_-_9.jpg?fit=947%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/The_Great_Umayyed_Mosque_of_Damascus_Syria_-_9.jpg?fit=947%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1132,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/christians-behaving-like-islamists\/","url_meta":{"origin":3091,"position":4},"title":"Christians Behaving Like Islamists?","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Egyptian Islamists project their own means and methods. by Raymond Ibrahim Hudson New York \u00a0 The\u00a0persecution of Egypt's Coptic minority\u00a0is taking an ironic, and dangerous, turn: Islamist leaders are now projecting the worst traits of radical Islam onto Egypt's Christians. A psychological phenomenon first described by Sigmund Freud, \"projection\" is\u00a0defined\u00a0as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6338,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/walls-of-hate-anti-christian-graffiti-vandalizes-egypt\/","url_meta":{"origin":3091,"position":5},"title":"Walls of Hate: Anti-Christian Graffiti Vandalizes Egypt","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/ RaymondIbrahim.com With the ousting of Muhammad Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood, the homes and churches of Egypt\u2019s Christians are seeing an unprecedented rise in anti-Christian graffiti. \u00a0The following are some of the pictures that were recently disseminated, captioned with translation of graffiti and location information. \u00a0The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egypt"","block_context":{"text":"Egypt","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/egypt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.raymondibrahim.com\/_admin\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3092,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091\/revisions\/3092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAnd there it is: just as Islamists refuse to face reality concerning so-called Western converts, so do they refuse to face reality concerning so-called Coptic converts to Islam. The only difference, of course, is that Copts live under Islamic authority \u2014 hence, all the death and destruction visited upon Egypt’s indigenous Christians whenever Islam’s inferiority complex flares up.<\/p>\n