Our Silence in the Face of Decapitated Heads

Why does the church remain silent in the face of genocide perpetrated against Christians in Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Nigeria, Pakistan, and other Islamic nations? Such silence violates many biblical admonitions:

• Amos 5:14-15 Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts…

• Isaiah 1:16-17 …Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.

• Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. Ephes. 5:11

• "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'” (Matthew 25:40-43)

However, we find many excuses, even “biblical” ones, to justify our inactivity. We’ve all have heard it said,

• Well, I’m not going to look for a job. Instead, I’m trusting that God will find me one. After all, we do the works He has ordained for us to do (Eph. 2:10).

Dr. Joel McDormun presents several reasons why the Evangelical church has been silent in the face of this present genocide. Here’s one of those reasons:

• Believe the world will inevitably come under the grips of tyrannical one-world government, and the Middle East in fire and blood, and this is the God-ordained way it should be.

Well, this genocide might certainly be ordained by God, but everything that happens has also been ordained by Him (Eph. 1:11). This doesn’t mean that He has caused everything. But certainly, at the least, He has allowed them! This is an unavoidable conclusion in view of God’s attributes. If He is all-knowing, then He knew beforehand what would happen. If He is all-powerful – and He is – then He could have stopped it.

To illustrate this principle, God knew all about Hitler before He came to power, even before he was born. Also, He had the power to stop him, but He didn’t. However, troubling this conclusion might be, it is an unavoidable conclusion. Although we can’t understand this in its entirety, God has His reasons.

However, there are things that we do understand! Simply because God allowed (ordained) Hitler, it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t resist him and other forms of evil. Even though God allows injustice, genocide, and other horrors, our role remains clear – to challenge and expose these evils!

What does it mean to trust God? To trust in His Word and to do what He tells us to do! Therefore, trusting isn’t a matter of sitting back and waiting for a job to magically come to us. Instead, trusting involves doing and taking full responsibility for the things we are instructed to do, trusting that our Lord will work through our efforts and intentions.

Trusting doesn’t mean giving up on the world because it is evil or because we are nearing the end. Instead, even more, it means shining the light of His wisdom and mercy through our lives.

Some pastors are afraid that taking “political” stances detracts from the presentation of the Gospel. Columnist Cal Thomas had wrongly taken issue with the late Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship regarding his activism:

• Real power doesn’t reside in Washington. Real power is Christ within you. Surely the Gospel is a more effective tool than the Republican or the Democratic Party. Just one example: More babies are being saved through pregnancy help centers than through anything Washington has done.

Yes, I agree that our main priority should be Gospel and saving souls. However, demonstrating our love for our brethren is central to the Gospel and evangelism:

• "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:34-35)

If we are concerned about transforming lives, we have to show the world our love for our brethren. How else can they take us seriously! Such love is not expressed through neglect:

• "My prayer is…that all of them may be one [in love], Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:20-21)

By failing to speak up for our persecuted brethren, the world will wonder about our love and doubt the Gospel message.  

Let us therefore pray that the Lord will use us accordingly. Also, we cannot close our ears to the cries of the brethren. We might want to familiarize ourselves with the issues. Raymond Ibrahim writes extensively on this subject.

You might also want to share these links and talk to your church leadership about promoting this issue.

Human Rights, Hypocrisy and Genocide

Do we have the right priorities? Is the USA spending its money in the right places? One place it’s not spending it is to combat worldwide violence against religious minorities. Islamic violence against Christians in the northern states of Nigeria has been an ongoing problem:

• A suicide bomber detonated explosives on April 8 in a busy street in Kaduna state, killing 38 people in a massive blast apparently meant for nearby churches…Northern Nigeria’s Christians have been the target of multiple Sunday attacks this year, and the terrorist group Boko Haram has announced its intent to bomb churches and Western targets. But U.S. Assistant Secretary of State of Africa Johnnie Carson in a speech April 9 said, “Religion is not driving extremist violence” and dismissed calls that the State Department designate Boko Haram a terrorist group. (Worldmagazine, May, 2012, 12)

Not only is the State Department refusing to hear the actual assertions of Boko Haram, it is also refusing to hear the many eyewitness accounts that affirm that Islam and the imposition of Shariah are at issue. Meanwhile, Iran continues to hold 12 Iranian Christians as they continue to await their verdict:

• Though the specific allegations were unclear, authorities arrested the group in connection with their church meetings and practice of Christianity, according to Jason DeMars of Present Truth Ministries.

In North Korea, it is estimated that 40,000-60,000 Christians are dying in prison, while our country screams and threatens about one failed missile and neglecting to utter one whisper against North Korea’s gross human rights violations.

Meanwhile, the USA is distributing worldwide the most viral forms of pornography and twisting arms in order to push condoms, abortion, and our secular version of “human rights” upon an uncomprehending world. These will do little to enhance our moral authority.

Genocide, Moderate Islam and Western Silence

The gunman, with reported ties to al Qaeda, and suspected of killing seven people, including three children at a Jewish school, has seemingly confessed to the shootings. Understandably,

·        Dalil Boubakeur at the main mosque in Paris told Europe 1 radio that no one should link the Toulouse events and the Muslim religion, which is "99 percent peaceful, responsible, non-violent and well-integrated into the country".

This assertion raises several questions:

1. Are "99 percent peaceful, responsible, non-violent?”
2. If this is so, why are religious minorities in all Islamic nations either persecuted and/or diminished by Shariah law?
3. If Islam is a peaceful religion, why is the Islamic world so prone to violence and coercive attempts to impose Shariah?
4. Why aren’t there any examples of Islam coexisting as equals with religious minorities?

Sadly, the French assassin seems to be just one of many instances of Islamic terror. Muslim-turned-atheist, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, reports:

• Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm…In recent years the violent oppression of Christian minorities has become the norm in Muslim-majority nations stretching from West Africa and the Middle East to South Asia and Oceania. In some countries it is governments and their agents that have burned churches and imprisoned parishioners. In others, rebel groups and vigilantes have taken matters into their own hands, murdering Christians and driving them from regions where their roots go back centuries.

• But a fair-minded assessment of recent events and trends leads to the conclusion that 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. The conspiracy of silence surrounding this violent expression of religious intolerance has to stop. Nothing less than the fate of Christianity—and ultimately of all religious minorities—in the Islamic world is at stake.

• As Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, pointed out in an interview with Newsweek, Christian minorities in many majority-Muslim nations have “lost the protection of their societies.” This is especially so in countries with growing radical Islamist (Salafist) movements. In those nations, vigilantes often feel they can act with impunity—and government inaction often proves them right. The old idea of the Ottoman Turks—that non-Muslims in Muslim societies deserve protection (albeit as second-class citizens)—has all but vanished from wide swaths of the Islamic world, and increasingly the result is bloodshed and oppression.

As an example of what Christians are facing in Islamic territories, the latest issue of World Magazine (March 10) cites the 12 northern provinces of Nigeria, under Sharia law since 2000. Boko Haram, the terror organization, meaning “Western Education is Sinful,” intends to drive Christians out of the north and to impose Sharia on all of Nigeria:

• Christians throughout the Sharia states in the north faced post-election [April 2011] violence. In the Kaduna state [alone], Muslims destroyed 409 churches and pover 2,000 homes, killing 137. In Gombe state, they destroyed 39 churches and 74 homes, killing 20. (54)

• In a Jan. 25 video on YouTube, Boko Haram leader Imam Abubakar Shekau took responsibility for the Jan. 20 attacks and said: “I am not against anyone, but if Allah asks me to kill someone, I will kill him and I will enjoy killing him like I am killing a chicken”…A Boko Haram posting from late last year says…nine…Christian denominations in the north, “must be bombed and leveled.” It also cites eight pastors, most Muslim converts to Christianity, as targets “to be eliminated.” (52)

In light of the fact that the 12 northern districts are already under Sharia and Christians have been made to submit to Sharia, it is hard to understand why the terror would continue. Already:

• In those 12 states authorities prohibit Christians from holding office, discriminate against them in property and business activities, and subject them to Islamic law. Some districts in Kano state have Christian majorities, but district governments are run under the state’s Sharia system. That makes Christians subject to the Islamic court system and requires students to take Islamic courses.

Nevertheless, since the imposition of Sharia in 2000,

• Over 13,000 mostly Christian Nigerians have been killed in religious-related violence, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom…”Boko Haram is not doing anything new,” said Peter Akinola, the retired archbishop of the Anglican Church of Nigeria. “More than terror attacks, this is part of an ongoing attempt to Islamize Nigeria. This country began as a democracy, but now in my own country I cannot live freely.” (52-53)

If world domination is the goal of Islam, perhaps we will soon be saying the same in the West. Even now, those who are doing ministry among the Muslims are facing intimidation and threats of violence. Consequently, if there are peace-loving Muslims who believe in a world where all religions can live at peace in equality, they need to speak up in a meaningful way. It is not enough to merely say, “Well, these terrorists aren’t really Muslim,” especially in light of the Islamic doctrine of “Taquiyya” which authorizes Muslims to lie to the non-believer on behalf of Islam. (See www.koranqa.com, fatwa 59879, where the Muslim can only have contempt for the non-believer). Therefore, we can’t help wondering if the claim to be peace-loving is merely a ploy.

We have not seen where peace-loving Muslims confront the extremists to insist that Sharia should allow religious freedom. Nor have we seen the Mainstream Western Media

confront those committing the atrocities done in the name of Islam. Mark Lipdo, director of the Stefanos Foundation, claims that,

• “They have misrepresented violence as a clash when it was an outright attack from the Muslim minority.” Lipdo himself was on hand in 2010 when Muslim gangs raided three predominantly Christian villages near Jos on March 7, slaughtering hundreds of mostly women, children, and the elderly.

Lipdo claims that the Western media – they derived their information from Muslim sources - has wrongly reported that the various attacks were in reprisal for the killing of 150 Muslims. However, none of the media outlets were “able to provide eyewitness accounts of the attacks that killed 150 Muslims.” Instead, Lipdo reports:

• “We were there when the whole conflict started. We saw the Muslim military commander release people caught carrying out the attacks with their weapons”…Local media reported police on the scene who did nothing to stop the Muslim attackers.” (56)

One victim had commented to the Daily Champion, “As they were killing and burning our homes, they were chanting, ‘Allahu Akbar,’ meaning ‘God is great.’” If this isn’t the real Islam, then the moderates have to publicly reclaim their religion, especially if we are to take them seriously. Likewise, the media, as well as the Western nations, have a responsibility to bring genocide to light. However:

• The reporting slant shows up in the U.S. policy, as well. The 2011 report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom describes “sectarian violence” in Nigeria driven by “religiously motivated actions” without ever saying that the overwhelming number of deaths involve Christians. (56)

If we are really concerned about peace and deeply troubled by genocide, then we have to speak up and shed light on the evil. If we fail to do this, then our silence speaks in favor of approval.