Imagine the unspeakable fury that would erupt across the Islamic world if a
Christian-led government in Khartoum had been responsible for the deaths of
hundreds of thousands of Sudanese Muslims over the past 30 years. Or if
Christian gunmen were firebombing mosques in Iraq during Friday prayers. Or
if Muslim girls in Indonesia had been abducted and beheaded on their way to
school, because of their faith.
Such horrors are barely thinkable, of course. But they have all occurred in
reverse, with Christians falling victim to Islamist aggression. Only two
days ago, a suicide bomber crashed a jeep laden with explosives into a
packed Catholic church in Kaduna, northern Nigeria, killing at least eight
people and injuring more than 100. The tragedy bore the imprint of numerous
similar attacks by Boko Haram (which roughly translates as “Western
education is sinful”), an exceptionally bloodthirsty militant group.
Abu Hamza, the 7/7 ringleader Mohammad Sidique Khan and other totemic figures were allowed to practise their religion openly in Britain, yet there is scarcely a single country from Morocco to Pakistan in which Christians are fully free to worship without restriction. Muslims who convert to Christianity or other faiths in most of these societies face harsh penalties. There is now a high risk that the Churches will all but vanish from their biblical heartlands in the Middle East.
Abu Hamza, the 7/7 ringleader Mohammad Sidique Khan and other totemic figures were allowed to practise their religion openly in Britain, yet there is scarcely a single country from Morocco to Pakistan in which Christians are fully free to worship without restriction. Muslims who convert to Christianity or other faiths in most of these societies face harsh penalties. There is now a high risk that the Churches will all but vanish from their biblical heartlands in the Middle East.
No comments:
Post a Comment