{"id":6716,"date":"2013-11-06T10:09:31","date_gmt":"2013-11-06T18:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=6716"},"modified":"2013-11-06T10:09:31","modified_gmt":"2013-11-06T18:09:31","slug":"exploiting-christian-persecution-to-demonize-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/exploiting-christian-persecution-to-demonize-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploiting Christian Persecution to Demonize Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0RaymondIbrahim.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

What\u2019s worse than the silence of Western Christians concerning the Muslim persecution of their coreligionists in the Islamic world?\u00a0 Answer: Cynically exploiting that persecution for a political agenda\u2014in the case of a recent\u00a0Daily Beast<\/em>\u00a0article, to excoriate the state of Israel and its supporters.<\/p>\n

Titled \u201cWhy Won\u2019t the West Defend Middle Eastern Christians?<\/a>\u201d and written by Diarmaid MacCulloch, a Fellow of St. Cross College, the article touches on the persecution of Christians, but primarily as a springboard to attack American Christian support for Israel.\u00a0 Consider the following excerpt:<\/p>\n

\u2026 one of the silences which I find most frustrating is precisely the lack of noise from Western Christians about the fate of ancient Christianities in the Middle East. At the heart of the problems in the Middle East is seven decades of unresolved conflict between Israel and Palestine\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, Western silence vis-\u00e0-vis the plight of Mideast Christians is as real as it is frustrating, but exactly how is MacCulloch able to jump to the conclusion that the Arab-Israeli conflict is \u201cthe heart\u201d of the problem?<\/p>\n

What about the well-documented Islamic doctrines that codify the suppression and persecution of Christians and other non-Muslims?<\/p>\n

What about the documented fact that Christians under Islam have been persecuted for more than 1300 years\u00a0before<\/em>\u00a0the existence of the state of Israel, in complete accordance to said doctrines?<\/p>\n

What about the fact that Christians are currently being persecuted in every corner of the Islamic world, as documented in my monthly \u201cMuslim Persecution of Christians<\/a>\u201d series\u2014including\u00a0diverse countries<\/a>\u00a0such as Pakistan, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, and every corner of Africa\u2014and not just the Middle East?<\/p>\n

Surely this is the true \u201cheart of the problem\u201d\u2014and not the tiny and relatively new state of Israel.<\/p>\n

Of course, to thinkers like MacCulloch, all the above points concerning Islamic hostility for Christians are not open to consideration, for they portray Islam in a negative light and so must be false (see\u00a0Crucified Again: Exposing Islam\u2019s New War on Christians<\/em><\/a>\u00a0for abundant documentation otherwise.)<\/p>\n

Instead, MacCulloch offers politically correct boilerplate statements, such as: \u201cChristians are scapegoated for their faith by an extremist militant minority of Muslims, who betray their own religion by intolerance, and who make other Muslims ashamed of what is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, it is MacCulloch who betrays himself by characterizing Islam as a \u201ctolerant\u201d faith when any moderately objective reading of doctrine and history\u2014made manifest in daily headlines\u2014all prove the reverse.<\/p>\n

Likewise, instead of delving into and exposing the true \u201cheart of the problem,\u201d MacCulloch critiques Protestant eschatology and U.S. support for Israel, the consequences of which \u201chave been particularly dire for the traditional Christianities of the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n

It would have been more useful and sincere if he had addressed more glaring questions, for example:<\/p>\n