The War on Christians: The Rising Genocide—Newsweek Powerfully Weighs In
“I rarely find myself praising NEWSWEEK these days. But on this occasion, I will not only praise the magazine, but encourage readers to buy this issue and spread the news.”
The grim news has been unrelenting. Every week I read stories on the persecuted church around the world. But most of us never hear these stories because they rarely make it into the mainstream media.
If they do they are usually recast as stories of “ethnic violence.” I suspect this is because so many in the media are so committed to religious pluralism that, while it’s okay to criticize Christianity, criticizing other religions is off limits.
For example, since the beginning of the month of February there have been stories of church arrests in China, a Christian convert beheaded in Somalia, the government destroying Armenian places of worship in Turkey, Christian women assaulted after arrests in Saudi Arabia, a Muslim council in Egypt evicting eight Christian families and seizing their property, a pastor killed by drug traffickers in Guatemala, churches raided and ransacked in Algeria, two Texas missionaries murdered in North Mexico, Christians fleeing Nigeria to evade Islamist attacks, Hindu radicals attacking a pastor in India for showing a film about Jesus, and Islamists bombing Samaritan’s Purse Bible College in Sudan (For more seewww.persecution.org )
But in the February 13th issue of NEWSWEEK, Ayaan Hirsi Ali gives us an unusual expose of the rise of “Christophobia” from one end of the Muslim world to the others. This is not your standard NEWSWEEK fare (which of recent has been extremely PC). This story certainly bucks that trend!
The article speaks about “an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives” where Christians are being killed especially in the Islamic world because of their religion. NEWSWEEK calls it “a rising genocide” and says it ought to provoke global alarm.
Also amazing is NEWSWEEK’S admission that this is “a major unreported problem.” The article questions the media’s reticence to highlight this issue, yet obsess on Islamophobia. It says, “the scale and severity of Islamophobia pales in comparison with the bloody Christophobia currently coursing through Muslim-majority nations from one end of the globe to the other.” Then the author bluntly says that “The conspiracy of silence surrounding this violent expression of religious intolerance has to stop.”
Ayaan Hirsi Ali offers a catalog of atrocities which highlights Nigeria, (where last year over 350 churches were destroyed), to Egypt (where last year some 200,000 Coptic Christians fled fearing a rising Islamic oppression), to Sudan (where Christians are subject to aerial bombardment, targeted killings and the kidnapping of children), to Pakistan (where Christians live in perpetual fear of not just terrorists, but of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws which are applied to anyone who contradicts Islamic doctrine). In many majority Muslim nations, Christian minorities have lost the protection of their societies.
To gain a little historical perspective on this, I suggest interested readers buy and read, The Lost History of Christianity: The thousand-year golden age of the Church in the Middle east, Africa, and Asia and how it died, by Philip Jenkins. (HarperOne, 2008.)
There, Jenkins tells the story of the church in the East and its gradual extermination over the centuries. He writes about the long story of Islamic conquest, dhimitude (with its overwhelming pressure to conform), and the “ratcheting up” of coercion to the point where all the ancient Christian communities in the Eastern world are all but annihilated. Tracing the story right up to the present, Jenkins says, “For all practical purposes, Middle Eastern Christianity has, within living memory, all but disappeared as a living force.” Jenkins ends this fascinating book with reflections on how we cope with the death of the church. It does not fit our usual storyline of inevitable Christian expansion or the idea that the blood of the martyrs is inevitably the seed of the church.
NEWSWEEK’S article affirms the importance of protecting Muslim minorities. But it says that this problem is miniscule compared to the growing Islamic persecution of Christians all over the world. We have, says NEWSWEEK, overblown the emphasis on Islamophobia, when the real problem is Christophobia which is infecting the Muslim world. NEWSWEEK is silent about the Christophobia coming from the secular West, but it does encourage people to speak up about the persecution of Christians. And it does call our government to use foreign aid, trade, investment, and diplomatic pressure to penalize those nations which continue this repression.
I rarely find myself praising NEWSWEEK these days. But on this occasion, I will not only praise the magazine, but encourage readers to buy this issue and spread the news.
What else would you expect from the son of a liberal half-Catholic, half-Jewish Yale dropout cocaine addict?
–Loki Whitewood
He takes the name Ali, and claims he’s not abandoning Christianity or Judaism
BY ETHAN SACKS / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, February 14, 2012, 1:51 PM
Oliver Stone‘s son has converted to Islam in Iran — in what’s sure to spark all sort of conspiracy theories on the Internet.
Sean Stone, 27, himself a budding director, underwent the conversion while in the country attending the 30th Fajr International Film Festival that ended Sunday, Iran’s Tehran Times reported. The younger Stone told the paper he had become a Shia Muslim and will use the name Ali.
“The conversion to Islam is not abandoning Christianity or Judaism, which I was born with,” the younger Stone told Agence France-Presse by phone from the Iranian city of Isfahan. “It means I have accepted Mohammad and other prophets.”
He had been in Tehran last September to start an untitled documentary.
There has yet to be any public reaction from Stone’s famous father, who is half Jewish by birth and currently a Buddhist. Sean Stone’s mother is Christian.
Sean (Ali) Stone has already shown a penchant for angering conservatives just like his father. In an interview with The Wrap last September, he drew criticism for remarks defending despot Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran’s right to build nuclear missiles.
“[Ahmadinejad\] did come to America to extend a hand. And there’s a lot of mistranslation, literally, I’ve seen it. Ahmadinejad will say something and it will be mistranslated,” he told The Wrap. “A lot of this is bull—, mistranslation. It’s an aggressive attitude on both parts, mostly on the American side.”
Israel’s Economy Strong as Europe Shakes from Debt
“A LESSON FOR ALL AMERICAN SOCIALISTS, PROGRESSIVES, DEMOCRATS,
OBAMABOTS AND THE LIKE… ”
– LOKI WHITEWOOD
Jerusalem, Feb. 14 – Israel’s economy “remains strong” despite the international downward trend, according to the International Monetary Fund.
The IMF findings came as major financial services companies Moody’sand Standard & Poor’s both cut their credit ratings of several European countries this week and warned that the United Kingdom and France might lose their top triple-A ratings amid Europe’s growing debt crisis.
The IMF’s annual inspection of Israel’s national accounts concluded that Israel has not only weathered the global economic crisis well, but its economy continues to grow at acceptable rates, while inflation is down and unemployment is at its lowest level ever, the report noted.
“Policies have responded well to the immediate challenges,” the IMF said, saying the good news also means that a severe economic downturn in 2012 is unlikely and growth should return to 3.75 percent in 2013 led by exports. If Israel can keep public debt on a downward track it “will maintain confidence in Israel despite strained international markets.”
The IMF report wasn’t all rosy, with the inspectors calling on Israel to take steps to further reduce the deficit, lower housing prices and boost employment in the Arab and Haredi (Jewish ultra-orthodox) sectors – both of which have become the main focus of poverty in Israeli society. The IMF noted the need for some spending increases, notably in education and public investment.
Israel’s economy was “led by strong exports and consumption, with investment rising more recently,” the report said, noting that “in part, this reflects Israel’s strong policy frameworks.”
The report said the government and the central Bank of Israel have taken actions that “have helped to underpin continued investor confidence in the Israeli sovereign in a difficult global environment.”
“The annual visit with IMF economists in Israel is highly important for Israel’s economic decision makers and the economy,” said central bank governor Stanley Fischer. “The members of the mission are experienced, professional economists, and every year we derive great benefit from the report they compile.”
