Islamophobia and the Reality of Jihad and Intolerance

Thanks to our support of the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic persecution of Christians in Egypt has accelerated. According to Open doors USA:

• Since the revolution of January 2011, levels of violence against Christians have increased. Salafi Muslim attacks on churches led to the massacre at Maspero where the military did nothing to protect Christians and even participated in the killings. In rural areas, Copts are constantly terrorized, while security forces turn a blind eye; Coptic girls are abducted and forced into Islamic marriages. Support for the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists is growing, but the army still retains power. 

We shouldn’t be surprised by this. The Brotherhood’s motto reads this way:

• Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Quran is our law; Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.

This motto might help to explain the Islam-inspired violence found throughout the world. After all, warfare is holy - the means to force the infidel to submit to Islam. It also helps to explain Islam’s widespread intolerance towards other religions. Here is just a representative sampling culled from Open Doors USA:

• Isolated from the rest of the world because of its mainly desert landscape and because it is ruled by an oppressive regime, Mauritania is very proud to officially be a pure Muslim country. The constitution does not include any provisions for religious freedom and its laws prohibit conversion to Christianity. The sentence for apostasy is death. Pressure on Muslim-background believers from family, tribe members and leaders of local mosques is very high. There is some freedom for expat churches, but Mauritanian Christians must meet in secret.

Although Mauritania represents an extreme expression of Islam, it is not usual. Saudi Arabia, America’s “friend” is similar:

• There is no freedom of religion here. The legal system is based on Islamic law and conversion to another religion is punishable by death if the accused does not recant. Non-Muslim public worship is prohibited, and although the government recognizes the right of non-Muslims to worship privately, the religious police often do not. Worshippers risk imprisonment, deportation and torture. Most Christians are poorly paid foreign workers who are vulnerable to violence because of their faith. Two Indian believers were imprisoned in January 2011 for ‘converting Muslims to Christianity’.

This is just a very small sampling. Ironically, when we talk negatively about Islam, we are termed “Islamophobes” in the West. (In the Muslim world, where no criticism of Islam is tolerated, we might simply be beheaded.) Tragically, the question of whether or not Islam represents a significant threat is suppressed.

Here’s a good rule-of-thumb. If you want to know what your fiancée might be like in the future, just look at his father. The same advice might also pertain to Islam. If you want to gauge what Islam might look like in the West in a few more years, just look at Islam in the East!