{"id":6973,"date":"2014-02-04T10:22:09","date_gmt":"2014-02-04T18:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=6973"},"modified":"2014-02-04T10:22:09","modified_gmt":"2014-02-04T18:22:09","slug":"al-qaeda-the-defender-of-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/al-qaeda-the-defender-of-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"Al Qaeda: The Defender of Christians?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Muslim persecution of Christians is the \u201cAchilles Heel\u201d of the global Islamic movement\u2019s \"RTX6E0T\"image\u2014the surest way of exposing its supremacist and intolerant elements and one of the main reasons the major media and establishment rarely report or address it.<\/p>\n

The logic (fully explained here<\/a>) can be summarized as follows:<\/p>\n

Islamic and jihadi attacks targeting the West or Israel pose no problem to the image of Islam.\u00a0 No matter how violent or brutal, no matter how many Islamic slogans are shrieked\u2014\u201cAllah commands the subjugation of infidels!\u201d\u2014Muslim violence against the West and Israel will always be dismissed as desperate acts of disempowered, oppressed, and frustrated Muslims\u2014the \u201cunderdogs,\u201d which the West tends to romanticize.<\/p>\n

And so they will always get a free pass, without further reflection.<\/p>\n

But if jihadis get a free pass when their violence is directed against those stronger than them, how does one rationalize away their violence when it is directed against those weaker than them\u2014in this case, the\u00a0millions of Christians being persecuted today by Muslims across 41 nations<\/a>?<\/p>\n

This is the dilemma that none other than\u00a0Ayman al-Zawahiri<\/a>, chief of al-Qaeda, understands.<\/p>\n

A few days ago, the\u00a0Associated Press<\/a>\u00a0reported that:<\/p>\n

It was a rare call by Ayman al-Zawahri in defense of Christians, who largely supported the popularly backed coup against Mohammed Morsi and were subsequently targeted by a wave of violence.<\/p>\n

In an audio message posted on militant websites, al-Zawahri said it was not in the interest of Muslims to be engaged with the Christians because \u201cwe have to be busy confronting the Americanized coup of (Gen. Abdel-Fattah) el-Sissi and establish an Islamic government instead.\u201d<\/p>\n

El-Sissi is Egypt\u2019s defense minister who overthrew Morsi after millions of Egyptians protested to demand he step down. The head of the Coptic church supported the coup along with other groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must not seek war with the Christians and thus give the West an excuse to blame Muslims, as has happened before,\u201d al-Zawahiri said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Although Maamoun Youssef, the AP reporter who wrote this story, portrays it as \u201ca rare call<\/em>\u00a0by Ayman al-Zawahri\u00a0in defense<\/em>\u00a0of Christians,\u201d and although the report is titled \u201cAl-Qaida leader\u00a0opposes<\/em>\u00a0fighting Christians,\u201d in fact, Zawahiri\u2019s communique has nothing to do with \u201cdefending Christians\u201d or \u201copposing\u201d the overall jihad on them.<\/p>\n

Indeed,\u00a0Zawahiri himself<\/a>\u00a0played an important role in inciting mass violence against Coptic Christians following the anti-Islamist June 2013 Revolution\u2014leading to the destruction of some 80 churches, some with al-Qaeda flags planted atop them.<\/p>\n

Moreover, Zawahiri\u2019s like-minded brother and Salafi front-man, Muhammad,\u00a0allegedly called ousted president Morsi while he was still in office<\/a>, insisting that the latter take measures to force Christians to pay jizya and live in abject humiliation, according to Koran 9:29.<\/p>\n

Instead, Zawahiri\u2019s rationale for this communique \u201cin defense of Christians\u201d is that, in his own words, \u201cWe must not seek war with the Christians\u00a0and thus give the West an excuse to blame Muslims<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zawahiri knows that Islamic jihadis waging terrorist attacks on Egypt\u2019s military and state targets will be portrayed in the West as oppressed and frustrated \u201cfreedom fighters\u201d doing whatever is necessary to overthrow \u201ctyrannical\u201d powers.<\/p>\n

But such \u201cheroic\u201d depictions disappear once these same jihadis persecute the unarmed Christian minorities in their midst\u00a0simply for being Christian<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Zawahiri understands that, not only are such attacks strategically ineffective\u2014kill all the Copts you want, it won\u2019t bring Morsi back\u2014but they unequivocally expose the true face of the \u201cfreedom fighters,\u201d one that can only be seen as inherently fascistic and intolerant.<\/p>\n

And the fear that Zawahiri and others have is that some people in the West might actually begin to connect the dots and conclude that, if jihadis persecute Christian minorities simply because they are non-Muslim \u201cinfidels,\u201d perhaps that is also\u00a0the true reason they are at war with Israel, the West, and non-Muslims everywhere<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the jihad is less about political and territorial \u201cgrievances\u201d and more about religious intolerance and Islamic supremacism\u2014as unprovoked attacks on disenfranchised non-Muslim minorities clearly indicate; as al-Qaeda\u2019s\u00a0once clandestine writings to fellow Muslims indicate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hence, the true reason why the astute Zawahiri is trying to call off the jihad on Christians.<\/p>\n

For now, anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0RaymondIbrahim.com\u00a0 Muslim persecution of Christians is the \u201cAchilles Heel\u201d of the global Islamic movement\u2019s image\u2014the surest way of exposing its supremacist and intolerant elements and one of the main reasons the major media and establishment rarely report or address it. The logic (fully explained here) can be summarized as follows: Islamic and […]<\/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":[29,225,227],"tags":[366,507,192,1061,239,139,30,1060],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1Ot","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6338,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/walls-of-hate-anti-christian-graffiti-vandalizes-egypt\/","url_meta":{"origin":6973,"position":0},"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":3102,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/islams-christian-scapegoats\/","url_meta":{"origin":6973,"position":1},"title":"Islam’s Christian Scapegoats","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/religion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7989,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/book-review-crucified-again-exposing-islams-new-war-on-christians-by-raymond-ibrahim\/","url_meta":{"origin":6973,"position":2},"title":"Book Review: Crucified Again; Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians by Raymond Ibrahim","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Scambray \/\/ New Oxford Review\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Islam: Victors\u00a0Vanquishing Victims \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Crucified Again; Exposing Islam's New War on Christians by Raymond Ibrahim.\u00a0 Regnery, 2013.\u00a0 247 pp. Throughout\u00a0 the Muslim world from Morocco to Nigeria to Indonesia - and even occasionally in Western Europe and North America, Christians are being\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our Contributors"","block_context":{"text":"Our Contributors","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6219,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/crucified-again-venn-institute-interviews-raymond-ibrahim\/","url_meta":{"origin":6973,"position":3},"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. 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This incident, according to an\u00a0AINA report, \"turned into collective punishment of all Copts in the majority Christian village.\" Two Christians \"not party to the altercation\" were killed; others were stabbed and critically\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":6911,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/armenian-christians-pressured-to-convert-to-islam\/","url_meta":{"origin":6973,"position":5},"title":"Armenian Christians Pressured to Convert to Islam","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/ RaymondIbrahim.com\u00a0 Arabic language websites\u00a0reported\u00a0earlier this week that the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant\u2014which, throughout the course of the war against the Assad government has committed any number of atrocities, from decapitating \u201cinfidels\u201d to burning churches\u2014has successfully \u201cforced\u201d two Armenian Christian families to convert\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/religion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6973"}],"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=6973"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6975,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6973\/revisions\/6975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}