{"id":6495,"date":"2013-09-18T09:38:45","date_gmt":"2013-09-18T16:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=6495"},"modified":"2013-09-18T09:38:45","modified_gmt":"2013-09-18T16:38:45","slug":"vote-for-me-or-else-patterns-between-egypt-and-pakistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/vote-for-me-or-else-patterns-between-egypt-and-pakistan\/","title":{"rendered":"Vote for Me Or Else: Patterns between Egypt and Pakistan"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0Gatestone Institute<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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.\"\"<\/p>\n

Lesser known is that, even before the revolution back during the 2012 presidential elections, Christians were\u00a0often threatened<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0sometimes attacked<\/a>\u00a0simply for not voting for the Muslim Brotherhood\u2014an absurd expectation considering that it has long been the Brotherhood and its many Islamist\/jihadi offshoots that have terrorized Egypt\u2019s Christians for decades.<\/p>\n

Even popular columnist\u00a0Khaled Montasser<\/a>, an Egyptian Muslim, had scoffed at the idea that Copts could ever vote for Morsi in an article published around presidential elections. Among other things, Montasser documented how the Brotherhood had in years past issued fatwas calling for the destruction of churches and the prevention of burying unclean Christian \u201cinfidels\u201d anywhere near Muslim graves. Concluded Montasser, \u201cAfter such fatwas, Dr. Morsi and his Brotherhood colleagues can ask and wonder\u2014\u2018Why are the Copts afraid?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Even so, due to the good showing of presidential Ahmed Shafiq, Morsi\u2019s then opponent\u2014many insist he actually won the elections<\/a>\u2014the Islamists blamed the Copts.\u00a0 Tarek al-Zomor, a prominent figure of\u00a0al-Gama\u2019a al-Islamiyya<\/em>\u2014the notorious \u201cIslamic Group\u201d which earlier slaughtered some 60 European tourists during the Luxor Massacre\u2014even \u201cdemanded an apology from the Copts\u201d for voting for Shafiq, adding that \u201cthis was a fatal error.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now consider how this same paradigm\u2014threatening Christians to vote for or support the same Islamist leaders who persecute them, or else\u2014has manifested itself in other countries, for example, Pakistan.<\/p>\n

According to a May 20\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0by Morning Star News,<\/p>\n

A Muslim political candidate suspected of murdering a Christian has instigated calls from mosque loudspeakers for attacks on Christians,\u00a0whom he blames for his May 11 election loss<\/em>.\u00a0 Tensions were high in Punjab Province\u2019s Okara district after provincial assembly seat candidate Mehr Abdul Sattar, sought by police in connection with a 2008 murder, on May 13 arranged for mosque calls for violence against Christian villages.\u00a0 \u201cBurn their homes to the ground \u2026 Punish them such that they forget Gojra and Joseph Colony,\u201d was the cry from village mosques in the district [emphasis added].<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cGojra and Joseph Colony\u201d are references to two separate incidents when Pakistani Christians were especially persecuted: in 2009 in Gojra, eight Christians were burned alive, 100 houses looted and 50 homes set ablaze after a blasphemy accusation; and last March in Joseph Colony, Lahore, some 3,000 Muslims attacked Christians, destroying 175 homes and burning their churches, again, because a Christian was accused of insulting Islam.<\/p>\n

And the calls for violence against the Christians who did not vote for Mehr Abdul Sattar have been effective.\u00a0 Among other things, his supporters ambushed a convoy of about 100 Christians on their way to congratulate his opponent on his victory.<\/p>\n

Though notified, police failed to respond.\u00a0 This is unsurprising, considering that Sattar himself is connected to the murder of Javed Masih, a Christian who had opposed him in a 2008 election, according to the\u00a0Morning Star News<\/em>\u00a0report.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe late Javed Masih used to tell the peasants to vote according to their conscience and not get intimidated by gangsters like Mehr [Abdul Sattar],\u201d said Younas Iqbal, chairman of a peasant movement fighting for land rights: \u201cHis efforts bore fruit, and Mehr lost the general election in 2008. Unfortunately, Masih had to sacrifice his life for the cause, while several others were injured in an armed attack by Mehr\u2019s men.<\/p>\n

This latest \u201chumiliating defeat further stoked anger in Mehr, and he\u2019s now bent upon punishing us,\u201d added Iqbal, pointing out that Sattar has targeted no Muslims for opposing him.<\/p>\n

If modern systems of governance, such as voting, elections, and democracy are being utilized as new ways to persecute Christians and other minorities in countries such as Egypt and Pakistan\u2014which differ in many ways except for the practice of Islam\u2014intimidation by fundamentalists is alive and well across the Islamic world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 known is that, even before […]<\/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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[394,118,227],"tags":[366,192,1034,1043,30,890,1060],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1GL","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":6495,"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":675,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-evils-of-the-muslim-brotherhood\/","url_meta":{"origin":6495,"position":1},"title":"The Evils of the Muslim Brotherhood","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim Investigative Project on Terrorism Egypt's longtime banned Muslim Brotherhood \u2014 the parent organization of nearly every subsequent Islamist movement, including al Qaeda \u2014 has just won the nation's presidency, in the name of its candidate, Muhammad Morsi. That apathy reigns in the international community, when once such\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":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6664,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/murdered-christian-children-the-price-of-obamas-pro-brotherhood-jihad\/","url_meta":{"origin":6495,"position":2},"title":"Murdered Christian Children: The Price of Obama’s Pro-Brotherhood Jihad","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0RaymondIbrahim.com\u00a0 Who is more deserving of punishment by the United States?\u00a0 Millions of Egyptians, for ousting the Muslim Brotherhood?\u00a0 Or the Muslim Brotherhood, for habitually terrorizing and murdering Christians, among many other crimes? 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