Raymond Ibrahim is
author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians.
By Raymond Ibrahim, CP Op-Ed Contributor January 21, 2014
Prominent indicators confirm that the U.S. is the chief
facilitator of the persecution of Christians around the world today.
According to the recently released 2014 World Watch List,
which ranks the 50 nations where Christians are most persecuted, Syria is the
third worst nation in the world in which to be Christian, Iraq is fourth,
Afghanistan fifth, and Libya 13th. All four countries receive the strongest
designation, "extreme persecution" (other designations are "severe,"
"moderate," and "sparse" persecution).
Aside from being so closely and harshly ranked, these four
nations have something else in common: heavy U.S. involvement. Three-Iraq,
Afghanistan, and Libya-were "liberated" thanks to U.S. forces, while
in the fourth, Syria, the U.S. is actively sponsoring "freedom
fighters" against the regime, many of whom would be better labeled
"terrorists."
The Syrian situation alone indicts U.S. foreign policy.
According to Reuters:
"Open Doors, a non-denominational group supporting persecuted
Christians worldwide, said on Wednesday it had documented 2,123
"martyr" killings, compared with 1,201 in 2012. There were 1,213 such
deaths in Syria alone last year, it said. "This is a very minimal count
based on what has been reported in the media and we can confirm," said
Frans Veerman, head of research for Open Doors. Estimates by other Christian
groups put the annual figure as high as 8,000."
While most Americans are shielded from the true nature of
the war by the U.S. media's reluctance to report on it, Arabic media, websites,
and activists daily report and document atrocity after atrocity-beheadings and
bombed churches, Christians slaughtered for refusing to convert to Islam, and
countless abducted for ransom or rape-at the hands of those whom the U.S.
supports.
It's enough to point out that "the largest massacre of
Christians in Syria," to quote a top religious leader, was left wholly
unreported by any major U.S. news network.
At any rate, the statistics speak for themselves: Syria,
which used to be religiously tolerant, is now, in the context of the United
States' trying to bring "democracy" to it, the third worst country in
the world in terms of "extreme persecution" of Christians.
The Blaze reports that Dr. David Curry, president of Open
Doors,
charged that the Obama administration has essentially
declined to make the protection of religious minorities a priority . . .
"There are many instances where the vacuum of leadership and spokesmanship
has created a real problem," said the human rights leader. "I would
say that every significant data point on this year's '2014 Watch List' is
worse-and I think a factor in it is a lack of leadership from Western
governments including . . . the U.S. in terms of religious freedom."
But it's worse than that. Far from taking any action or
providing leadership-or simply ceasing to support the terrorists
responsible-the Obama administration recently tried to go to war with Syria on
behalf of the "freedom fighters," amazingly, in the name of
"human rights" (Apparently the unsubstantiated rumor that Assad
massacred people is enough for the U.S. to go to war, but the ongoing and
well-documented massacres of Christians and other civilians at the hands of the
opposition is not enough for the U.S. to stop supporting them.)
What's worse, even the most misinformed
mainstream-media-watching American today knows that the so-called "Arab
Spring," which was hailed to justify U.S. support for "rebels"
of all stripes-in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood (which months ago destroyed
some 80 churches); in Libya, al-Qaeda, which has turned Benghazi into a terror
zone; and now the "freedom fighters" in Syria-is not what it was
touted to be.
In other words, at this point, whenever the U.S. intervenes
in an Islamic nation, Islamists come to power. This is well demonstrated by the
other three nations to which the U.S. brought "democracy" and where
Christian minorities suffer "extreme persecution":
Afghanistan: The supposedly "moderate" Karzai
government installed by the U.S. upholds many of the draconian laws enforced by
the Taliban-including the apostasy law, fiercely persecuting those who seek to
convert to Christianity-and, in 2011, under U.S. auspices, it destroyed
Afghanistan's last Christian church.
Iraq: After the U.S. toppled Saddam Hussein, Christian
minorities were savagely attacked and slaughtered, and dozens of their churches
were bombed (see here for graphic images). Christians have been terrorized into
near-extinction, with well over half of them fleeing Iraq.
Libya: Ever since U.S.-backed, al-Qaeda-linked terrorists
overthrew Qaddafi, Christians-including Americans-have indeed suffered extreme
persecution. Churches have been bombed; Christians have been tortured and
killed (including for refusing to convert); and nuns have been threatened.
Surely a common theme emerges here: Where the U.S. works to
oust secular autocrats, the quality of life for Christians and other minorities
takes a major nosedive. Under Saddam, Qaddafi, and Assad, Christians and their
churches were largely protected.
Moreover, while George W. Bush was responsible for
Afghanistan and Iraq, the argument can be made that, back then (2001 and 2003),
this pattern of Islamic radicalization that erupts once autocrats are gone was
less well known than it is today. There weren't many precedents.
Conversely, the Obama administration has had both
Afghanistan and Iraq to learn from-and yet still it supports Islamists and
jihadis. But by now, what happens once they assume power-religious persecution,
terror, oppression-is no longer a secret.
Incidentally, those who care little for the fate of
Christians or other minorities in the Islamic world would do well to remember a
simple truism: Wherever anti-Christian elements come to power, anti-American
forces come to power. The two are synonymous.
Put differently, Muslim persecution of Christians is the
litmus test of how radical an Islamic society has become. In all those Muslim
nations that the U.S. has interfered in-Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Egypt (till
the Egyptians revolted, to the chastisement of the U.S.), and now Syria-the
increase of religious intolerance is a reflection of the empowerment of forces
hostile to Western civilization.
I am often asked, "How can we help persecuted
Christians?" At this point, one must respond: "How about starting
with getting the U.S. government to stop being the chief facilitator of
Christian persecution?" Altruism aside, it would be in the interests of
all who value freedom, religious or otherwise-and especially their descendants.
Raymond Ibrahim, a Middle East and Islam specialist, is
author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians (2013) and
The Al Qaeda Reader (2007). Ibrahim's dual-background—born and raised in the
U.S. by Coptic Egyptian parents born and raised in the Middle East—has provided
him with unique advantages, from equal fluency in English and Arabic, to an
equal understanding of the Western and Middle Eastern mindsets, positioning him
to explain the latter to the former and making him a much sought after expert.