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- dailycaller.com/
Gary
Bauer-President, American Values
As
the New Year approaches, it is heartbreaking to see what is happening to
Christians in Muslim-majority countries around the world. The barbarism of ISIS
is almost impossible to imagine. But the persecution is hardly limited to that
satanic death cult. It is a defining feature throughout much of the Middle East
and beyond. Sadly, too many of our political and cultural elites are in denial.
In
recent days there have been disturbing reports that ISIS has published a
list of churches in America and is urging its followers to “turn the
Christian New Year into a bloody horror movie.”
That
bloody movie premiered in December, when a terrorist bomb was detonated at St.
Peter and St. Paul Church in Cairo, Egypt, which are adjacent to the Coptic
Papal Seat of St. Mark’s Cathedral. The bomb blast left at least 25 people dead
and 65 injured, most of them women and children.
This
was not an isolated event. Recently, persecution watchdog group Aid to the
Church in Need released its 2016 “Religious Freedom in the World” report.
The report
revealed that 38 of 196 countries examined showed “unmistakable evidence” of
significant religious freedom violations. Twenty-three of those countries were
placed in the top-level “Persecution” category, while 15 others in the “Discrimination”
group.
Six
of the seven nations in which persecution was labeled so extreme that “it could
scarcely get any worse” have majority (or in Nigeria’s case, plurality) Muslim
populations: Afghanistan, Iraq (northern), Nigeria, North Korea, Saudi Arabia,
Somalia and Syria.
“A
virulent and extremist form of Islam emerged as the number one threat to
religious freedom,” the report noted, “and was revealed as the primary cause of
persecution in many of the worst cases.”
Another
recent report finds that 12 of the 17 worst violators of religious freedom are
Islamic nations.
Responding
to the recent terror attacks in Ankara and Berlin, President-elect Donald Trump
tweeted, “The civilized world must change thinking!” Trump may be asking too
much of Western elites. Many political and media elites deny that religion has
anything to do with the violence, or they engage in a grotesque false
equivalence.
After
the Berlin attack, in which the Jihadist used a truck to mow down dozens of
innocent people at a Christmas market, “Moring Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough
mocked Trump’s common sense suggestion. “Um, yeah. . . First of all, I don’t
know exactly what the civilized world is going to do about trucks, unless we’re
going to ban trucks,” Scarborough said. “But again, some of the deadliest
attacks have been with vehicles.”
Sweden
has more citizens traveling to the Middle East to engage in terrorism than any
other European country. But some of its elites seem ignorant about the true
cause of jihadiism. After she was named to a new post to fight violent
extremism in that country, Anna Carlstedt told
Swedish radio, “I think there are several different types of hotbeds of
extremism. What we see is that there is an interaction between them. It is true
that Islamic extremism is growing, but this also results from the extreme
right-wing white power movement.”
In
the US, Barack Obama has spent his entire presidency trying to reassure Americans
that Islamic jihadism has nothing to do with religion.
Meanwhile
the Justice Department is suing every local community for
discrimination any time a permit for a mosque is denied. Yet the Obama
administration is silent about the fact that very few churches are being built
in Muslim-majority nations.
Journalist Graeme
Wood recently spoke with NPR about his new book on the Islamic
State. Here are some excerpts of his remarks:
Western
elites can deny it all they want, but when the jihadists yell, “Allahu akbar!”
it has everything to do with religion. When ISIS instructs its followers
to attack churches, it has everything to with religion.
2016
was a bloody year worldwide, and particularly for Christians who live among
Muslims. This year has made it clear that major parts of Islam are at war with
Christendom, as has been the case for centuries. There is tremendous hate in
the hearts of Islamic supremacists. It is not discriminatory or hateful to
acknowledge these facts. In fact, unless we do, 2017 will hold a similar fate
for millions of Christians.
Former
Presidential candidate Gary Bauer is chairman of the Campaign for Working
Families, president of American Values, and co-host of the Bauer and Rose show on
SiriusXM Patriot.
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