Why aren’t the most Brutalized (and Innocent) Refugees Receiving Sanctuary?

In 1998, the United States passed the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA), the legislation mandated that the protection of religious freedom abroad would be a “cornerstone of American foreign policy,” and that it would create the position of "ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom."

• Regrettably, the Obama administration has chosen to take a lackadaisical approach to religious freedom, and allowed IRFA to fade into the background. President Obama left the ambassador-at-large position vacant for almost a year and a half after taking office. That same position was left vacant later in his second term for nearly a year before recently being filled.

• Further, the House and Senate passed a bipartisan bill last summer creating the special envoy for religious freedom in the Middle East. A year later, Obama has yet to nominate someone to fill the position.

At the same time, this administration has directly or indirectly supported Middle East terror by undermining Presidents Khadafy, Mubarak, and arming the worst elements in the region in an attempt to remove President Assad from Syria.

Meanwhile, Obama has done next to nothing to shelter the region’s Christians from the most barbaric treatment. Instead of compassion, the Obama administration has imprisoned Assyrian Christians trying to enter the USA:

• “In Iraq, they only had three choices: convert to Islam, death by the sword or leave the country,” said Mark Arabo, head of the Minority Humanitarian Foundation. “They’ve refused to convert, escaped slavery and death – only to be imprisoned by our broken immigration system.

• “These aren’t people who woke up one day and said, ‘Let me walk to America.’ They were forced out of their homes because of our inaction in the region. Because of our troop withdrawal. These are people who were sentenced to death because of our involvement in the country.”

• They escaped near-certain death, but not the U.S. court system.

• “The disheartening thing is it seems that our border is open to anyone unless you’re a Christian fleeing genocide"

• Arabo said he’s met with President Obama and multiple officials in his administration, pleading for large-scale evacuations of the Christians that remain in Iraq. At the outset of the Iraq War in 2003, there were nearly 1.4 million Christians in the country. Estimates today peg the total at fewer than 250,000.

• “There’s been a genocide in slow motion since 2003, but since the troop withdrawal there’s been a systematic ethnic cleansing,” Arabo said. “We’ve tried all these diplomatic approaches, but in the absence of Washington’s leadership we’ve created an ‘underground railroad.’” 

While this administration wants to grant amnesty to the illegal aliens, those who have suffered most and have nowhere to go are turned away:

• The United States is the largest home to Assyrians, many of them driven out starting a century ago during the Armenian genocide. Yet the Obama administration has made clear it won’t shelter the Assyrian refugees forced from Syria or Iraq by ISIS.

• “This administration will not issue visas for Syrians based on Christian faith.”

• That was the word given to Anglican bishop Julian Dobbs by the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. As a board member of Barnabas Fund, one of the largest relief organizations working in Syria and Iraq, Bishop Dobbs appealed to the State Department earlier this summer on behalf of the Assyrian Christians. The State Department said no.

Raymond Ibrahim, a Coptic Christian, has extensively researched the plight of the persecuted Christians in the Middle East. He writes about the plight of the Iraqi Christians:

• Discussing the ongoing plight of these Iraqi Christians, San Diego's East County Magazine concluded: "Why the federal government has failed to take steps to expedite such reunification in cases where family and religious leaders are willing to vouch for and help those seeking asylum here, then, remains an unfathomable mystery."

• Such "unfathomable mysteries" are reminiscent of the U.S. State Department's habit of inviting Muslim representatives but denying visas to Christian representatives. Since the start of 2015, 4,205 Muslims have been admitted into the U.S. from Iraq, but only 727 Christians. For every one Christian the U.S. grants asylum, it grants asylum to five or six Muslims -- even though Christians, as persecuted "infidel" minorities, are in much greater need of sanctuary, not to mention more assimilating to American culture than Muslims.

Why this disparity, especially in light of the fact that Muslims want to turn this country into an Islamic State? Many have stated, “In the heart of every true Muslim is the desire for a worldwide Caliphate.” Even worse, a recent Al Jazeera poll found that 81% of Muslims are favorably disposed to ISIS. Ibrahim continues:

• Faith McDonnell, of the Institute on Religion & Democracy, said regarding the detainment of Iraqi Christians in San Diego:

• This follows the disturbing pattern that we have seen from the State Department of ignoring the particular targeting of Christians by ISIS while giving preferential treatment for asylum to other groups with expedited processing -- like Somalis, Iraqis, and Syrians, some of whom could very well be members of jihadist movements.

We might think that the Muslim refugees, after experiencing violence at the hands of fellow Muslims, might show compassion to their fellow refugees. Instead, there have been numerous reports that Muslim refugees have killed their fellow Christian refugees. Ibrahim continues:

• Meanwhile, many of those Christians who are granted asylum in Western countries arrive there only to be further persecuted by Muslim asylum seekers -- indicating, once again, who does and who does not really need asylum; who does and who does not assimilate in Western culture.

• Most recently in Sweden, two small families of Christian asylum seekers from Syria were recently harassed and abused by approximately 80 Muslim asylum seekers, also from Syria.

• The Christians and Muslims -- described by one Swedish newspaper as "fundamentalist Islamists" -- resided in the same asylum house. Among other humiliations, the Muslims ordered the Christians not to wear their crosses around their necks and not to use the communal areas when in use by Muslims.

• After continuous harassment and threats, these Christian refugees, who had managed to escape the Islamic State, left the Swedish asylum house "fearing for their own safety." A spokesman for the government migration agency responsible for the center they had been staying in said:

• "They dared not stay. The atmosphere became too intimidating. And they got no help... They chose themselves to organize new address and moved away without our participation because they felt a discomfort."

What motivates President Obama? In so many ways, he has promoted the radical Islamic agenda:

1. Undermining Muslim leaders in favor of more radical elements.
2. Supplying arms to the radicals while refusing to arm the victims, like the Kurds.
3. Appointing Muslims with radical ties to top positions in his government.
4. Betraying Israel, our only Middle East ally.
5. Forbidding the reference to “Islamic violence” in favor of “Workplace violence.”
6. Pushing “common core” and its promotion of Islam.
7. Not declaring war against ISIS and not going against Islamic training camps in the USA.
8. Always speaking highly of Islam while criticizing the Christian faith.

Robert Spencer, the director of Jihad Watch and author of the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and The Truth About Muhammad, is troubled by Obama’s actions:

• His fulsome praise of Islam, his refusal to call Islamic jihad terrorism by name, his statements such as “the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam,” his aiding the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and al-Qaeda in Syria; and so much more.

Twice, President Obama has been videoed calling himself a “Muslim.” Perhaps this might explain his behavior. But it certainly doesn’t explain why our Republican presidential candidates are not crying out about this.

Islam is Proving Western Multiculturalism Wrong

Scholar and writer, Raymond Ibrahim, has written persuasively about the degradation and slaughter of Christians under Islam:

·       From one end of the Muslim world to another, Christians are suffering under the return of Sharia…Whenever Muslims are in power or getting more power, churches are outlawed, burned or bombed, while Bibles and crucifixes are confiscated and destroyed. Freedom of speech – to speak positively of Christianity or critically of Islam – is denied, often on pain of death…Christian women and children are routinely abducted, raped, and forced to convert to Islam. (Crucified Again, 8)

Why is this happening? Ibrahim writes:

·       Islamic doctrines unequivocally create hostility toward Christians… Muslims around the world are quite deliberately enforcing the provisions of Sharia law against Christian worship, Christian evangelism, freedom of speech, and even freedom of conscience. But Christians also suffer violence at the hands of Muslims. (157)

Laws regarding apostasy from Islam are one example. Ibrahim cites Samuel M. Zwemer’s 1916 book Law of Apostasy in Islam:

·       The law of apostasy… is not a dead letter. It is known to all Muslims from their youth up, if not in its detail of legal penalties, yet in its power to producing an attitude bitterly hostile toward converts to Christianity. What else could such a law produce except a fanatic attitude toward all who are not Muslims? The more Muhammadan a country or a community, the more does it despise the Christian. (159)

This hatred has been embodied by Islamic rituals. Ibrahim cites Travels in Arabian Deserta by C.M. Doughty, a British writer:

·       Arabia’s Muslims would, circumambulating around the Ka’ba, supplicate Allah to “curse and destroy” the Jews and Christians.

Ibrahim, citing a present-day chant, argues that this practice remains unchanged:

·       O Allah vanquish the unjust Christians and the criminal Jews, the unjust traitors; strike them with your wrath; drape them with endless despair, unrelenting pain and unremitting ailment; fill their lives with sorrow and pain and end their lives in humiliation and oppression; inflict your tortures and punishments upon the unjust Christians and criminal Jews. This is our supplication, Allah; grant us our request! (159)

It is not surprising that, all around the world, Muslims act in accordance with these sentiments. Ibrahim quotes Marco Polo (13^th century) to demonstrate that these same sentiments have always been part of Islam, pre-dating colonialism:

·       “The inhabitants [of the Arabian Peninsula] are all Saracens [Muslims], and utterly detest the Christians.”

These sentiments are also expressed in Islamic education. Ibrahim cites Arabist E.W. Lane who traveled Egypt in 1820:

·       “Children in Egypt are often taught, at school, a regular set of curses to denounce upon the persons and property of Christians, Jews, and all other unbelievers in the religion of Muhammad.” (161)

Ibrahim shows that, even today, these beliefs and practices are promoted in Islamic textbooks:

·       In October 2012, the Daily Beast reported how the Saudi education system continues to indoctrinate children with hatred and incitement, especially against Christians and Jews, despite Saudi promises to reform their textbooks. For example, a ninth-grade textbook published by the Ministry of Education states, “The Jews and the Christians are enemies of the believers, and they cannot approve of Muslims.” An eighth-grade textbook says, “The Apes are the people of the Sabbath, the Jews; and the Swine are the infidels of the communion of Jesus, the Christians.”… Islam’s clerics remind authorities that these are teachings of Islam and that to suppress them is to suppress Islam – and to be declared apostate rulers. (162)

No wonder Saudis have done nothing about these textbooks. However, the same phenomenon is occurring in this country among the “moderates.” Ibrahim writes:

·       Fox reported that “one such school outside Washington, D.C., uses textbooks teaching 11^th graders that ‘the day of Judgment can’t come until Jesus Christ returns to Earth, breaks the cross and converts everyone to Islam, and until Muslims start attacking Jews.’ … Americans generally assume Islamic hate teaching resided ‘out there’ – in Cairo or Riyadh. (162)

It is therefore no surprise that the level of violence against Jews is skyrocketing in the West, especially around sizable Islamic populations. It is also no surprise that even the educated Muslim promotes terrorism.

Several years ago, mainstream media portrayed local opposition to the building of a mosque in Tennessee as bigots. The media also presented hand-picked gentle peace-loving Muslims as representatives of the embattled Islamic community. However, in April, a very different side of this mosque was revealed:

·       Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi, a Memphis Imam based in Tennessee, preaches openly about what Islam truly is. He makes no bones about thinking that anyone other than a Muslim doesn’t deserve anything and are less than Muslims. In fact, part of Yasir Qadhi’s preaching includes rhetoric that says non-Muslims lives are forfeit and their property is legal for Muslims to take in jihad, (and this would include women as sex slaves) Recently Yasir Qadhi said that “Jews and Christians filthy, their lives and property can be taken in jihad by the Muslims.”  Yasir Qadhi is not only a Memphis Imam, but is also the Dean of Academic Affairs at the Al-Maghrib Institute. He is a hafiz (has memorized the Qur’an) and he has an M.A. in the Islamic Creed and a B.A. in Islamic Sciences from Islamic University of Medina, as well as a master’s and a doctorate in Islamic Studies from Yale. 

According to Ibrahim, this is not an anomaly. Instead, he argues that the more a Muslim becomes trained in Islamic writings, the more radicalized they become. Pakistan is a country rich in Madrassas but poor in tolerance for non-Muslims:

·       A November 2011 report from the U.S. Commission of International Religious Freedom demonstrates that Pakistani school textbooks promote intolerance for Christians, Hindus, and all non-Muslims, and that most school teachers view non-Muslim minorities as “enemies of Islam”: “Religious minorities are often portrayed as inferior or second-class citizens who have been granted limited rights and privileges by generous Pakistani Muslims, for which they should be grateful.” (163)

This second-class status characterizes non-Muslims in the entire Islamic world, even in those countries that have secular constitutions. Ibrahim presents the case of Turkey:

·       In February 2012 the Turkish Association of Protestant academics Churchs’ annual Report on Human Rights Violations noted, “Christians in Turkey continue to suffer attacks from private citizens, discrimination by lower-level government officials and vilification in both school textbooks and news media.” … Despite promising to reform its school textbooks, Turkey’s [now Islamic] Ministry of Education made no changes… “In fact, the negative and slanderous portrayal of Assyrians [Christian] has increased.” (163)

This is not surprising. Not only are these negative characterizations endemic to Islam’s holy books, but Islam will tolerate no criticism or reform. Ibrahim cites the example of the Turkish genocide against their Armenian Christians, which they still refuse to admit:

·       Most objective historians agree that about 1.5 million Christian Armenians were systematically slaughtered during World War I in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered by the Ottoman government. (164)

If these horrors are merely anomalies in the distant past, and if Islam has genuinely confessed these as sins and has given evidence that they have moved beyond this, then there would be little reason to harp on these atrocities. However, denial reigns even in the West. Ibrahim writes:

·       While negative depictions of non-Muslims proliferate in Islamic school textbooks, a whitewashed image of Islam predominates in Western education, particularly in the United States. According to a 2009 American Textbook Council report citing a number of popular textbooks used by American junior and senior high school students, “key subjects like jihad, Islamic law, [and] the status of women are whitewashed” because of political correctness, or out of fear of Muslim activists. Discussing the strikes of 9/11, one textbook never mentions Islamic ideology, referring to the nineteen al-Qaeda hijackers simply as “teams of terrorists.”… One seventh-grade American textbook offers wishful thinking in place of facts: “Jihad represents the human struggle to overcome difficulties.” (165)

A Western faith in multi-culturalism – that we can all be friends if we just show respect to other cultures – has supplanted truth and any pride in or promotion of Western traditions. According to many American textbooks:

·       Islam ambiguously “spread” or was “brought” to those [other countries]. This is from the same textbooks that allot whole chapters to bemoaning the Crusades and portraying Christians as intolerant fanatics (ignoring the fact that the Crusades were in response to jihadi conquests of Christian lands and centuries-long persecution of Christians.) (165)

Islam has a long, proven, and ubiquitous history of violence and persecution. Ibrahim therefore concludes:

·       There is one urgent reason that the West in its entirety… should take note of and respond to Muslim persecution of Christians: it is a reflection of what Islam has in store for them. (245)

To a “Moderate” Islamic Apologist

If only these peaceful verses did govern Islam, I wouldn't be writing to you right now. There many religions with which I disagree with more than Islam, but I don't write against them - Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism.... This is because they are not murdering my people the way that Islam is throughout almost the entire Islamic world. Scholar and writer, Raymond Ibrahim, wrote about the extent of this slaughter:

• From one end of the Muslim world to another, Christians are suffering under the return of Sharia…Whenever Muslims are in power or getting more power, churches are outlawed, burned or bombed, while Bibles and crucifixes are confiscated and destroyed. Freedom of speech – to speak positively of Christianity or critically of Islam – is denied, often on pain of death…Christian women and children are routinely abducted, raped, and forced to convert to Islam. (Crucified Again, 8)

In addition to this, tens of thousands of Christians are routinely being slaughtered. Why is this so? Because justification for this is found in your holy books! And here’s what some of your own people say about the Koranic teachings:

• "If we follow the rules of interpretation developed from the classical “science of Koranic interpretation, it is not possible to condemn terrorism in religious terms. It remains completely true to the classical rules in its evolution of sanctity for its own justification. This is where the secret of its theological strength lies." -- Egyptian scholar Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd

• "Many thanks to God, for his kind gesture, and choosing us to perform the act of Jihad for his cause and to defend Islam and Muslims. Therefore, killing you and fighting you, destroying you and terrorizing you, responding back to your attacks, are all considered to be great legitimate duty in our religion." -- Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his fellow 9/11 defendants

• "Allah on 480 occasions in the Holy Koran extols Muslims to wage jihad. We only fulfil God's orders. Only jihad can bring peace to the world." -- Taliban terrorist Baitullah Mehsud

• "Jihad, holy fighting in Allah's course, with full force of numbers and weaponry, is given the utmost importance in Islam....By jihad, Islam is established....By abandoning jihad, may Allah protect us from that, Islam is destroyed, and Muslims go into inferior position, their honor is lost, their lands are stolen, their rule and authority vanish. Jihad is an obligation and duty in Islam on every Muslim." -- Times Square car bomb terrorist Faisal Shahzad

I wish more Muslims would live according to the peaceable verses. However, there seems to be a general consensus among Islamic Scholars that the verses preaching Jihad and the subjugation of all other peoples now take precedence over the earlier peaceful verses, which have been abrogated. Here’s the commentary of Khan’s Noble Koran on the subject of abrogation:

• Then Allah revealed the order to discard the obligations and commanded Muslims to fight against all the Mushrikun [Polytheist and Trinitarians] as well as against the people of the Scriptures if they do not embrace Islam, till they pay the Jizya (tax) with willing submission and feel themselves subdued. At first the fighting was forbidden, then it was permitted and after that it was made obligatory against them that start the fighting against you and against all those who worship others along with Allah [Trinitarians]. (From the index on “Jihad.”)

I wish it were otherwise!

Pope Francis and his Failure to Expose Islamic Atrocities

For most politicians, truth is a commodity – twisted and manipulated for personal benefit. However, it shouldn’t be this way for a Christian. A recent Papal Proclamation brings this to mind:

• "Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium of the Holy Father Francis to the Bishops, Clergy, Consecrated Persons and the Lay Faithful On the Proclamation of the Gospel In Today's World," from Vatican.va, November 24:

• 253. In order to sustain dialogue with Islam, suitable training is essential for all involved, not only so that they can be solidly and joyfully grounded in their own identity, but so that they can also acknowledge the values of others, appreciate the concerns underlying their demands and shed light on shared beliefs. We Christians should embrace with affection and respect Muslim immigrants to our countries in the same way that we hope and ask to be received and respected in countries of Islamic tradition. I ask and I humbly entreat those countries to grant Christians freedom to worship and to practice their faith, in light of the freedom which followers of Islam enjoy in Western countries! Faced with disconcerting episodes of violent fundamentalism, our respect for true followers of Islam should lead us to avoid hateful generalisations, for authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence.

While there isn’t anything controversial about extending Christian love to those who hate us, it is another thing to claim that “for authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence” and that those who deny this are spreading “hateful generalizations.”

This is blatantly untrue. Here are just a few Koranic verses that should easily dispel this claim:

• Then kill the Mushrikun [Polytheists and Trinitarians] wherever you find them, and capture them and besiege them, and prepare for then each and every ambush. But if they repent and offer prayers perfectly and give Zakat, then leave their way free. (9:5)

• Fight against those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the Last Day, nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (Islam) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued (9:29)

• They desire that you should disbelieve as they have disbelieved, so that you might be (all) alike; therefore take not from among them friends until they fly (their homes) in Allah's way; but if they turn back [from Islam], then seize them and kill them wherever you find them, and take not from among them a friend or a helper. (4.89)

And here’s what Muslims say about the Koranic teachings:

• "If we follow the rules of interpretation developed from the classical “science of Koranic interpretation, it is not possible to condemn terrorism in religious terms. It remains completely true to the classical rules in its evolution of sanctity for its own justification. This is where the secret of its theological strength lies." -- Egyptian scholar Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd

• "Many thanks to God, for his kind gesture, and choosing us to perform the act of Jihad for his cause and to defend Islam and Muslims. Therefore, killing you and fighting you, destroying you and terrorizing you, responding back to your attacks, are all considered to be great legitimate duty in our religion." -- Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his fellow 9/11 defendants

• "Allah on 480 occasions in the Holy Koran extols Muslims to wage jihad. We only fulfil God's orders. Only jihad can bring peace to the world." -- Taliban terrorist Baitullah Mehsud

• "Jihad, holy fighting in Allah's course, with full force of numbers and weaponry, is given the utmost importance in Islam....By jihad, Islam is established....By abandoning jihad, may Allah protect us from that, Islam is destroyed, and Muslims go into inferior position, their honor is lost, their lands are stolen, their rule and authority vanish. Jihad is an obligation and duty in Islam on every Muslim." -- Times Square car bomb terrorist Faisal Shahzad

Evidently, Pope Francis feels that he is justified in making such a blatantly incorrect statement in hope that he can secure better treatment for Catholics from their Muslim persecutors. It is almost like telling a rape victim not to scream out, lest her rapist might treat her even worse. It is like Pope Pius XII, who refused to speak out against the Holocaust. In both cases, a naïve, baseless hope was substituted for the needful - exposing the evil, enforcing justice, and direct intervention.

However, even if by some chance the Pope’s over-the-top flattery does offer some immediate relief for persecuted Catholics, is flattery at all justified before God? Not according the Bible:

• Whoever rebukes a person will in the end gain favor rather than one who has a flattering tongue. (Proverbs 28:23)

• A lying tongue hates those it hurts, and a flattering mouth works ruin. (Proverbs 26:28)

“A flattering mouth works ruin” to the many millions who have lived under Islamic oppression for centuries and also the Muslims who hope for reform with the help of the Western powers, which might highlight this oppression. Besides, this is a question of justice – something central to God’s heart:

• Whoever says to the guilty, “You are innocent,” will be cursed by peoples and denounced by nations. (Proverbs 24:24)

Although deception might be a useful and even justified war-time strategy – think of Rehab or lying to Nazis about hiding Jews – it is not justified in other circumstances:

·         Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body…Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Eph. 4:25, 29)

One might argue that this passage doesn’t apply, since Pope Francis is merely talking to Islam. However, his words are heard by the entire Christian world! Instead of alerting people to the very obvious dangers of Islam, even for Muslims, he has made a monumental contribution to the conspiracy of silence. Rather, the Christian must be entirely committed to truth:

·         Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. (2 Cor. 4:2)

If a Christian leader distorts the truth in one circumstance, how can he be trusted to not distort it in other circumstances? Paul understood that if they resorted to deception in one instance, they could not “commend [themselves] to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.” When trust is broken, so too is influence! Even the Muslim can see through the Pope’s pitiful ruse. In their eyes, he has become just another politician, however likeable.

We are not free to convert truth into a tool. It is central to our lives of worship and to the heart of our God. Jesus explained what is central to His Father in a conversation with a Samaritan woman:

• “True worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24)

What we do with our mouths is also worship and is of over-riding concern to God. When Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Apostles, Peter insisted that they had also lied to God (Acts 5:4, 9). Our lies are not merely private or even interpersonal matters. They are transacted before God Himself.

Instead, now is time to cry out against Islam and to expose the genocide that they are conducting against Christians in so many of their countries. Scholar and writer, Raymond Ibrahim, is helping to expose the extent of this carnage:

• From one end of the Muslim world to another, Christians are suffering under the return of Sharia…Whenever Muslims are in power or getting more power, churches are outlawed, burned or bombed, while Bibles and crucifixes are confiscated and destroyed. Freedom of speech – to speak positively of Christianity or critically of Islam – is denied, often on pain of death…Christian women and children are routinely abducted, raped, and forced to convert to Islam. (Crucified Again, 8)

Now is the time for all of us to cry out, not only in prayer, but also in words and deeds. It is a time for our leaders to prick the conscience of the world for their complicity, through silence, to the genocide. It is a time to shame Islam in the United Nations, in the media and in the universities by exposing their deeds, refusing them a voice at the table until they address the atrocities of their nations. It is a time for people of conscience to speak up and to not enable the horrors that the persecuted are silently enduring.

The Pope is the most influential voice in all Christendom. If he refuses to strenuously raise his voice for the persecuted, why then should any Catholic! If instead, his judgment prevails – that those who do speak up are making “hateful generalizations” – then what hope do we have of any change? And what hope do the persecuted have under this mantel of denial? The same hope that the Jews had after the silence of Pius XII!