{"id":6843,"date":"2013-12-16T11:12:22","date_gmt":"2013-12-16T19:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=6843"},"modified":"2013-12-16T11:12:22","modified_gmt":"2013-12-16T19:12:22","slug":"three-american-teacher-slaughtered-for-christian-faith-in-muslim-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/three-american-teacher-slaughtered-for-christian-faith-in-muslim-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Three American Teacher Slaughtered for Christian Faith in Muslim World"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0CBN News<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Why was Ronald Thomas Smith II, an American teaching at Benghazi\u2019s International School, shot to death last Thursday in Libya, even as he \u201cwas looking forward to his first Christmas in<\/p>\n

\"Ronald
Ronald Smith with wife and child<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

the United States with his wife and toddler son\u201d?<\/p>\n

Most Western media and analysts dismiss the killing as a random act of violence incited by a recent al-Qaeda video.<\/p>\n

However, by connecting the dots and looking at precedence, it appears that Smith\u2019s Christianity, specifically his talking about it among Muslims, was the motive behind the slaying.<\/p>\n

First consider two facts gleaned from the AP\u00a0report<\/a>, \u201cAmerican killed in Benghazi remembered as \u2018much loved teacher\u2019\u201d: 1) Smith once had plans to attend seminary, a place devoted to preparing Christians to share the Gospel\u2014a crime according to Islamic law (recall the\u00a0Coptic Christians tortured and killed on the accusation that they were proselytizing in Libya<\/a>); 2) according to his home church in Texas, \u201cRonnie\u2019s [Smith\u2019s] greatest desire was for peace and prosperity in Libya and for the people of Libya to have the joy of knowing God\u00a0through Christ\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(emphasis added).<\/p>\n

Then there is the fact that Smith was a \u201cmuch loved teacher\u201d\u2014a phrase that immediately, if not eerily, brings to mind another very similar story of another \u201cmuch beloved\u201d American teacher who was killed in the Islamic world for talking about Christianity.<\/p>\n

On March 1, 2012 in Iraq, Jeremiah Small\u2014described as \u201cbeloved teacher and friend<\/a>\u201d\u2014was\u00a0shot to death\u00a0by a student, even \u201cas he [Small] bent his head to pray at the start of a morning class. The 33-year-old teacher from Washington State took bullets to the head and chest and died at the scene.\u201d\u00a0According to students, \u201cMr. Jeremiah\u2019s hands were still folded in prayer when he fell.\u201d A day before the shooting \u201ca heated discussion<\/a>\u201d broke out \u201cduring which the pupil threatened to kill the teacher because of conflicting religious views.\u201d<\/p>\n

As with Smith, Small was described as a very devoted teacher and friend to his students; and as with Smith, the official story as reported by mainstream media, such as the\u00a0Wall Street Journal, is that the motive for his murder was a \u201cmystery<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, according to interviews with family and friends, Small \u201cwas a devout Christian who frequently praised Christianity and prayed in the classroom, and his friends in Washington said his evangelism is what motivated him to teach in Iraq\u2026 but he wasn\u2019t pushy.\u201d Moreover, the father of the student who killed Small, before killing himself, said that Small was trying to convert his son to Christianity and described Christians like the slain American teacher as \u201cmore dangerous than al-Qaeda<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fact is, Americans attacked and\/or murdered for merely talking\u2014or being suspected of talking\u2014about Christianity is not an uncommon phenomenon in the Islamic world.<\/p>\n

Thus, a few days after the killing of Jeremiah Small in Iraq, on March 18, 2012, yet another American teacher, Joel Shrum, 29, living in Yemen with his wife and two children, was shot eight times and killed by gunmen and members of \u00a0the Supporters of Sharia (which operates a wing in the\u00a0new Libya created by the U.S<\/a>.). The group later issued a message saying, \u201cThis operation comes as a response to the campaign of Christian proselytizing that the West has launched against Muslims,\u201d calling Shrum \u201cone of the biggest American proselytizers<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lest there is still any doubt concerning the violence that often sparks up when Christians, in this case, Americans, \u00a0are seen as sharing the Gospel with Muslims, consider the following anecdotes, both from Muslim countries regularly touted for being \u201cmoderate\u201d:<\/p>\n

In Indonesia, October 2011<\/a>, after they were accused of proselytizing to Muslims, an American family was attacked by \u201can enraged mob spurred by a local religious leader\u201d; the Muslim mob set fire to Americans\u2019 property and vehicle: \u201cOnly the intervention of police saved the[ir] lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Bangladesh, February 2012<\/a>, three American Christians were injured by broken glass after their car was attacked by another Muslim mob that suspected they were converting Muslims: at least 200 angry locals chased their car, throwing stones at it.<\/p>\n

As for the Obama administration\u2019s response to the murder of Smith, it asked the Libyan government to \u201cthoroughly investigate<\/a>\u201d the killing\u2014a somewhat pointless request, considering the U.S.-supported Libyan government openly arrests Westerners accused of \u201cproselytizing,\u201d\u00a0threatening them with the death penalty<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the point: while Western media and their talking heads habitually dismiss such coldblooded murders as \u201crandom\u201d and \u201cmysterious,\u201d incited by al-Qaeda\u2014that one blame-all \u201cterrorist\u201d organization that everything can be heaped upon\u2014the unspoken fact is that these attacks are products of Islamic teachings; in this case, that openly challenging the truths of Islam with another set of truths\u2014such as the Gospel\u2014is strictly forbidden, often on pain of death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0CBN News\u00a0 Why was Ronald Thomas Smith II, an American teaching at Benghazi\u2019s International School, shot to death last Thursday in Libya, even as he \u201cwas looking forward to his first Christmas in the United States with his wife and toddler son\u201d? Most Western media and analysts dismiss the killing as a […]<\/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":[225,227],"tags":[233,1045,192,1017,1048,1044,478],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1Mn","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7048,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/seven-christians-executed-in-libya\/","url_meta":{"origin":6843,"position":0},"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. 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