by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n
FrontPageMagazine.com<\/p>\n
After mentioning the sort of atrocities Christians in Pakistan suffer \u2014 including being killed by “blasphemy” laws, constantly “abused in public and harassed in the street by groups of Muslim youths,” ostracized and impoverished by the government \u2014 a recent\u00a0Fox News<\/em><\/a>\u00a0report reminds us that Christian persecution is further exacerbated by anti-Americanism:<\/p>\n Life on any given day for Pakistani Christians is difficult. But members of Pakistan’s Christian community say now they’re being persecuted for US drone attacks on Islamic militants hiding on the border with Afghanistan. The minority, which accounts for an estimated one percent of the country’s 170 million population, says because its faith is strongly associated with America, it is targeted by Muslims. When America does a drone strike, they come and blame us, Faisal Massi, a 25-year old student from Sau Quarter, a Christian colony in Islamabad. They think we belong to America. It’s a simple mentality.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Not only is it a “simple mentality” \u2014 indeed,\u00a0Muslim tradition<\/a>\u00a0holds that “All infidels are one religion” \u2014 it’s also a convenient one, whereby Muslims avenge themselves on the “strong infidel” (the “Christian” West) by attacking the “weak infidel” (Christian minorities living under Islam).<\/p>\n Examples of this approach are many: years ago, when Pope Benedict\u00a0quoted history<\/a>\u00a0deemed unflattering to Islam,\u00a0anti-Christian<\/a>\u00a0riots ensued, churches were burned, and a nun was murdered in Somalia; weeks ago, when a fringe American pastor\u00a0burned a Koran<\/a>, dozens of U.N. aid workers were killed by Muslims in Afghanistan, some beheaded.<\/p>\n Consider Iraq: its\u00a0persecuted Christians<\/a>\u00a0are being targeted in part “over theirreligious ties<\/a>\u00a0with the West.” Even last year’s\u00a0Baghdad church attack<\/a>, wherein over fifty Christians were butchered, was in “retaliation” to\u00a0absurd accusations<\/a>against the Coptic church; the al-Qaeda affiliated perpetrators went so far as tothreaten all Christians<\/a>\u00a0around the world as “legitimate targets for the mujahedeen (holy warriors) wherever they can reach them.” (Bold as that sounds, the clause “wherever they can reach them” is a reminder that it is the Islamic world’s accessible, vulnerable Christians who will continue to be targeted.)<\/p>\n This phenomenon \u2014 attacking one set of Christians in response to another \u2014 has roots in Islamic law. The\u00a0Pact of Omar<\/em><\/a>, a foundational text for Islam’s treatment of\u00a0dhimmis<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(i.e., non-Muslims who refused to convert after their lands were seized by Islam) makes this clear. The consequences of breaking any of the debilitating and humiliating conditions Christians were made to accept in order to be granted a degree of surety by the Muslim state were stark: “If we in any way violate these undertakings \u2026 we forfeit our covenant, and we become liable to the penalties for contumacy and sedition” \u2014 penalties that include enslavement, rape, and death. Moreover, the actions of the individual affect the entire group: everyone is under threat to ensure that everyone behaves. As Mark Durie points out,<\/p>\n Even a breach by a single individual\u00a0dhimmi<\/em>\u00a0could result in jihad being enacted against the whole community. Muslim jurists have made this principle explicit, for example, the Yemeni jurist al-Murtada wrote that “The agreement will be canceled if all or some of them break it” and the Moroccan al-Maghili taught “The fact that one individual (or one group) among them has broken the statute is enough to invalidate it for all of them” (The Third Choice<\/em><\/a>, p.160).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Accordingly, months ago, when a Christian man in Egypt was accused of dating a Muslim woman, twenty-two Christian homes\u00a0were set ablaze<\/a>\u00a0to cries of “Allahu Akbar.” Days ago, when Muslims made false accusations against a Copt, one Christian was killed and ten hospitalized, an old woman was thrown out of her second floor balcony, Christian homes, shops, fields, and livestock were plundered and torched \u2014 to cries of “Allahu Akbar,” per a\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0aptly titled “Collective Punishment of Egyptian Christians.”<\/p>\n Thus, as the world shrinks \u2014 and as Muslims continue to conflate the West with Christianity \u2014 the reasons to persecute Islam’s Christians grow: ethnicity and geography no longer matter; shared religion, even if nominal, makes all “Christians” liable for one another. A\u00a0dhimmi<\/em>\u00a0is a\u00a0dhimmi<\/em>\u00a0is a\u00a0dhimmi<\/em>. And if it’s more convenient to punish the Muslim world’s defenseless Christians in response to the West, so be it \u2014 even if the latter remains oblivious or indifferent.<\/p>\n \u00a92011 Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Raymond Ibrahim FrontPageMagazine.com After mentioning the sort of atrocities Christians in Pakistan suffer \u2014 including being killed by “blasphemy” laws, constantly “abused in public and harassed in the street by groups of Muslim youths,” ostracized and impoverished by the government \u2014 a recent\u00a0Fox News\u00a0report reminds us that Christian persecution is further exacerbated by anti-Americanism:<\/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":[366,192,30,1076,1018],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-O2","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6495,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/vote-for-me-or-else-patterns-between-egypt-and-pakistan\/","url_meta":{"origin":3102,"position":0},"title":"Vote for Me Or Else: Patterns between Egypt and Pakistan","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0Gatestone Institute\u00a0 In what seems to be a pattern in many Muslim nations of finding new pretexts to justify anti-Christian\u2014and \u201canti-Other\u201d\u2014behavior, Egypt\u2019s Christians and their churches are under attack, ostensibly because Christians joined the June 30 Revolution, which led to the ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood. Lesser\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Pakistan"","block_context":{"text":"Pakistan","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/pakistan\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Pakistan-Christians-Protest-300x213.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6219,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/crucified-again-venn-institute-interviews-raymond-ibrahim\/","url_meta":{"origin":3102,"position":1},"title":"Crucified Again — Venn Institute Interviews Raymond Ibrahim","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Raymond Ibrahim [Note: The following interview was conducted by the\u00a0Venn Institute\u00a0with Raymond Ibrahim] Raymond Ibrahim is a widely published author, public speaker, and Middle East and Islam expert, and author most recently of\u00a0Crucified Again: Exposing Islam\u2019s New War on Christians. Follow him on Twitter\u00a0@RaymondIbrahim5 Venn Institute: Most Americans see persecution\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":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Crucified-Again-Cover.jpg?fit=797%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Crucified-Again-Cover.jpg?fit=797%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Crucified-Again-Cover.jpg?fit=797%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Crucified-Again-Cover.jpg?fit=797%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6212,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/how-dare-you-the-supremacist-nature-of-muslim-grievances\/","url_meta":{"origin":3102,"position":2},"title":"How Dare You?! The Supremacist Nature of Muslim ‘Grievances’","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/ Jerusalem Post In 2012 in Pakistan, as Christian children were\u00a0singing carols inside their church, Muslim men from a nearby mosque barged in with an axe, destroyed the furniture, desecrated the altar, and beat the children.\u00a0 Their justification for such violence?\u00a0 \u201cYou are disturbing our prayers\u2026.\u00a0How dare\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Islam"","block_context":{"text":"Islam","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/islam\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/islamic_rage_boy.jpg?fit=400%2C219&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6338,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/walls-of-hate-anti-christian-graffiti-vandalizes-egypt\/","url_meta":{"origin":3102,"position":3},"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":[]},{"id":7048,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/seven-christians-executed-in-libya\/","url_meta":{"origin":3102,"position":4},"title":"Seven Christians Executed in Libya","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0RaymondIbrahim.com\u00a0 Libyan authorities came across the slain bodies of seven Christian Copts in the region of Garutha, less than 20 miles west of Benghazi, on Monday afternoon. According to Libyan authorities, \u201cThe slain were killed by gunshots all over their bodies.\u201d Pictures (reproduced above and below) confirm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Libya"","block_context":{"text":"Libya","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/libya\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1978,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/islams-uninterrupted-history-of-forced-conversions\/","url_meta":{"origin":3102,"position":5},"title":"Islam’s Uninterrupted History of Forced Conversions","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 5, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim PJ Media Finding and connecting similar patterns of behavior throughout Islamic history is one of the most objective ways of determining whether something is or is not part of Muslim civilization. Consider the issue of forced conversion in Islam, a phenomenon that has a long history with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Islam"","block_context":{"text":"Islam","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/islam\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3102"}],"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=3102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3103,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3102\/revisions\/3103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}