"An Intensely Hostile Minority can Generate a Disproportionate Number of Incidents Against a Particular Community"

"[Hate crime counts show how] an intensely hostile minority can generate a disproportionate number of incidents against a particular community even when attitudes toward that community are less negative."

"[Half of Canadians express a negative opinion of Islam] but more than half of that group place themselves in the most negative category."

"[Suggesting attitudes are] not merely characterized by uncertainty or discomfort but are fairly entrenched for more than one in four."

"The biggest change is in views toward Judaism." 

Jack Jedwab, president, Association for Canadian Studies 

Statistics Canada recorded 788 hate crimes targeting Jewish people in 2025, down 16 per cent from 943 a year earlier, but still 71 per cent of all religion-motivated incidents. Photo by Ashley Fraser/Postmedia

 

The results of a new opinion poll, commissioned by the Association for Canadian Studies, in a Leger survey, leaves the message that Islam is the most negatively viewed faith in Canada. Even so, public opinion of Judaism was seen to have fallen furthest over a 15-month period, summed up by Jack Jedwab, president of the Association for Canadian Studies that "the biggest change is in views toward Judaism."

 

The opinion of twenty-six percent of Canadians was positive for Islam, while 50 percent gave their opinion as negative; more people were negatively disposed toward Islam which in the poll stood out as the only faith tested where  more people expressed negative opinions than positive.  A year earlier the same question saw the split at 30 percent positive, and 49 percent negative for Islam. 

 

On every survey measure, Judaism shifted, with forty percent saying they had a positive (down from 49 percent) and 32 percent claiming a negative opinion (increased from 25 percent). Nine percent noted their opinion of Judaism as very positive, a decrease from 15 percent, while 12 percent called their Judaism opinion very negative, increased from its former eight percent position. For Islam, on the other hand, 28 percent gave their opinion as very negative increased from 24 percent in March of 2025.

 

According to Leger’s latest survey on perceptions of Israel, only 22% of Canadians say they have a favourable impression of Israel. That is down from 33% in 2023. At the same time, unfavourable views have risen sharply, reaching 61%. The findings point to a major deterioration in public sentiment, even as Canadians continue to hold more balanced views on certain underlying principles tied to security, statehood, and coexistence.  Leger

 

788 hate crimes were recorded by Statistics Canada targeting Jewish people in 2025, a decrease of 15 percent from 943 a year earlier. Which still left the position of 71 percent of all religion-motivated incidents targeting people of Jewish extraction. While religion-motivated hate crime fell 18 percent overall to 1,115 incidents and Muslims were targets in 204, a decease of 11 percent. 

"Christianity] is more familiar and elicits a response from a larger share of Canadians."

"[It] consequently has the higher positive rating across the complete sample, but not among respondents who actually express a view."

Jack Jedwab  

In 2023, incidents targeting Jewish people peaked at 959, last year's 788 events being 60 percent above the 492 incidents recorded in 2021. The survey questions posed separately on Jews and Arabs as groups, resulted in 50 percent positive for Jews, 20 points higher than for Judaism, and 44 percent claimed positive for Arabs, as opposed to the 25 percent for Islam. Negative views of Arabs rose to 33 percent from 25 percent in 2025, with negative views of Jews rising two percentage points to 15 percent.

 

Fifty-seven percent of respondents were positive on Christianity, a reduction from the previous 58, while the portion calling for very positive fell six points to 20 percent. On the survey for the first time, Atheism was treated positive by fifty percent, and 29 percent had no opinion. Among Canadians aged 18 to 24, 41 percent were positive for Islam, as opposed to 22 to 25  percent in every other age group. 

 

Among francophone respondents, 15 percent were positive on Islam and 25 percent on Judaism. representing the lowest on both, of any language group. Francophones were the sole group to rate Atheism above Christianity. Judaism sat at 27 percent positive in Quebec, 13 percentage points below the national figure. The online survey reached 1,428 people from June 19 to 21 through an online panel. Sikhism,Hinduism and Buddhism were not among the tested categories. 

 

50% of Canadians Hold a Negative View of Islam. Muslim Network TV

 

"[Antisemitism is producing] an exceptionally high and disproportionate share of religion-motivated criminal incidents."

"[But that] shouldn't diminish the importance of addressing hostility toward all faith communities."

Jack Jedwab, President Association for Canadian Studies 

That Human Rights Dilemma : Pakistan's Blasphemy Law

A protester holds an image of Asia Bibi in Islamabad. Her husband and children are living at a secret address in fear of their lives. Photograph: Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images

"Britain was concerned about potential unrest in the country, attacks on embassies and civilians."
"They have not offered automatic asylum, whereas several countries have now come forward. The family [of Asia Bibi, Christian Pakistani released from a death warrant] will definitely not be coming to Britain."
"[While Britain was] being helpful [it was] an enduring shame that a country with such a lauded history of helping refugees and asylum seekers, that when the Asia Bibi case has come before them, they haven't been as generous as they have for many victims in the past."
"It does seem to me that Britain is now a country that is unsafe for those who may be tarred with an allegation of blasphemy."
"We are very aware that there are extremist elements in this country. Britain would have been one of their first choices. America, Britain and Canada, these would have been their first choices [for haven]."
Wilson Chowdhry, British Pakistani Christian Association

"The extremists are more emboldened today than at any other time since 9/11. They refuse to accept the possibility that someone can be acquitted after being charged with blasphemy, and feel executing Asia Bibi is the only option."
"Either this or someone kills her extrajudicially like the sixty other Pakistanis accused of blasphemy and murdered before trial in recent years. At the heart of this debate is paranoia among Pakistani extremists that Islam is under threat and the misperception that foreign pressure protects those who commit blasphemy."
"Interestingly, most Pakistanis and more than a billion Muslims worldwide don't share this paranoid extremist outlook. Pakistani extremists see the Bibi case as one of the grand decisive intellectual battles for Islam. However the truth is that it was a brawl between a group of low-educated house cleaners that morphed into a blasphemy case, likely because Bibi is Christian."
Ahmed Quraishi, Daily Pakistan

Asia Bibi at a prison in Sheikhupura near Lahore, Pakistan. Photograph: AP

Mr. Quraishi, while deploring the frenzied mob demands of Pakistan's vicious religious bigots is unwilling evidently to admit to himself along with his readership that there is rather more than the handful of extremists howling for blood among Muslims than he attributes. The plight of Christians in Muslim majority countries such as Egypt, Syria, Iraq and the Palestinian Territories among others, is such that their ancient Christian populations have steadily diminished in fear for their lives, seeking haven elsewhere than the geography where Christianity emerged.

The religious fervour and medieval passions that Pakistanis convinced that non-Muslims have nothing better to do than disparage the Prophet Mohammad drives them to demand the death penalty for all those suspected of impugning the honour of the historical figure. Making mention of parts of his autobiography to point out the unsavoury aspects of both his character and his pronouncements held in such esteem by his followers, is enough to ensure that some Muslim crazies will plan murder. And it is not the handful that Mr. Quraishi implies.

A national poll has revealed that at least ten million Pakistanis would be willing to take personal action to kill this woman whose death penalty for ostensibly disparaging the Prophet that the Pakistan Supreme Court had the decency to dismiss on appeal. They too have been threatened with death, as was the lawyer representing this Catholic woman desperate to leave her country of birth, leading him to flee the country for safe haven elsewhere. More influential people than he, coming to the support of this unfortunate woman paid for their courage with their lives.

Supporters of the Pakistani religious Islamist group Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) gather during a protest rally against the release of Asia Bib in early November.  CNN

Asia Bibi, a 54-year-old farm worker, has been on death row for nine long years. In 2009 she mortally offended fellow farm workers when she offered them water --  on a hot day picking berries -- from a communal bowl she had slaked her own thirst from. Two women refused her offer, considering the bowl to have been contaminated by a non-Muslim. They later denounced her to police claiming she had insulted Muhammad, leading her to be charged with blasphemy, a capital offence in Pakistan.

The verdict that freed her from death row convinced violent mobs to threaten her life as they embarked on a public, destructive rage, laying siege to major cities, blocking motorways, torching cars, buses and buildings, threatening the lives of the prime minister, the chief justice and the army chief. No mass arrests from the government. Instead Prime Minister Imran Khan appeared on national television to state that "This is not a service being done for Islam. This is enmity taking place against the country". However, he all too soon backed down.

The fanatic Islamist Tehreek-e-Labaik political party agreed it would call off protests as long as the government received their petition to the supreme court protesting the acquittal. At the same time they will not relent in calling for Asia Bibi's death, that the death penalty imposed upon her in 2010 be restored and her life forfeit. To this the craven Imran Khan agreed, so that though Asia Bibi was 'freed' by the Supreme Court, she is not 'free' to leave the country until the matter has been resolved to the satisfaction of the extremists.

Islamists burn a poster of Asia Bibi in protest at her acquittal for blasphemy. AP

A Free Woman Threatened With Death

"She is a free woman now. Her writ is being heard. When a decision is made, she will go wherever she wants to go. It is a free country; she is a free national."
"She can go wherever she wants to go. No one can object to that. If a free national of Pakistan wants to go somewhere, he/she has to get a visa and go."
"Nothing odd about that."
Mohammad Faisal, Pakistan Foreign Office

A Pakistani supporter of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), a hardline religious party, holds an image of Asia Bibi during a protest following her acquittal over blasphemy Credit: AAMIR QURESHI/AFP

"The lives of Asia Bibi and her family are in danger as long as she remains in Pakistan, as the protests following the verdict have shown."

"We ask that Mrs May takes swift action to help secure the safe exit of Asia Bibi and her family from Pakistan, as the situation is becoming increasingly perilous."
Nasir Saeed, director, CLAAS UK - a charity supporting persecuted Christians in Pakistan

Ashiq Masih and Eisham Ashiq, husband and daughter of Asia Bibi. Bibi, Credit: Teri Pengilley

The arrest on charges of blasphemy against The Prophet that Asia Bibi, a Christian Pakistani woman was convicted of which led to eight years in prison, mostly in solitary confinement, led to other victims in that fundamentalist Islamist society. Influential people in the governmental hierarchy came to her defense, one the Muslim governor of Punjab who petitioned for a pardon and campaigned for the blasphemy law to be discarded and for his efforts he was assassinated by his own bodyguard who riddled his body with 27 bullets from his assault rifle, in 2011.

Asia Bibi committed a dire offence against The Prophet which under Pakistani law merits the death penalty or life imprisonment. Her offence was to offer to her farm co-workers gathering berries on a hot summer day, water from a container she had slaked her thirst with, and which she had herself brought along on orders from their overseer. It is seen as an offence in Islam for non-Muslims to drink from a communal bowl meant for the use of Muslims. When her co-workers refused her offer, she lashed back at the insult, impugning the name of The Prophet.

A crowd was prepared to lynch her but police intervened and took her to prison where she was charged with blasphemy. The Pakistani Minister for Minority Affairs of the Pakistan national government, Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic, also came to her defence and he too was murdered by Islamist extremists. Although Salmaan Taseer, the Muslim governor of Punjab's assassin was brought to justice, not so with the murderers of Shahbaz Bhatti; he was a Christian, after all.

Asia Bibi's husband has pleaded for asylum from the West, for his wife and their family. He spoke directly of haven, mentioning Canada, the United States and Great Britain, imploring them to help move his wife out of Pakistan and to safety: "I am requesting the Prime Minister of the UK help us and as far as possible grant us freedom." Britain has a huge expatriate Pakistani population, but there is also a smaller Pakistani Christian demographic in Britain.

It doesn't appear likely at this point that Britain will respond affirmatively, obviously not wishing to roil the passions of its own Pakistani population to express their disfavour by riots similar to those that have broken out in Pakistan. Ashiq Masih then turned to the Netherlands, hoping for a visa and safety there, but the response was that Dutch law requires one to be present in the country to request a visa. The U.S. under President Trump is unlikely, given his [fairly accurate] resistance against the entrance to the U.S. of people from "shit countries", to offer haven.

Which leaves the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau which has unlimited patience for the unauthorized, illegal entry of economic migrants posing as refugees, from Africa, Haiti and the Middle East streaming across the border from the U.S. into Canada at illegal entry points, clearly posted as such. Asia Bibi has some strikes against her that would be attractive to the 'progressive' in Trudeau; she is a woman and a woman of colour, and she is persecuted. If only she was a member of the LGBTQ2 community he might be inspired to offer Canada's protection.

Pakistan has a population of 202-million, the vast majority of which are Muslim. A recent national poll revealed the presence of ten million Pakistanis willing to themselves kill Asia Bibi as a sacred Islamic duty in punishment for "blasphemy", or to do so because they are attracted to the reward that is offered. A large cash reward has been offered by one Pakistani mullah for anyone who kills the woman, whether while in detention or on the street.

On the street is sufficiently problematical for the government which winces at the reputation it has earned on the international stage for violent intolerance and national laws that victimize non-Muslims that she cannot be released, though freed by order of the Pakistani supreme court which acquitted her of the absurd charges. So there is no longer any fear the state will proceed with her execution, and no guarantees that vigilante mob action won't proceed to mete out their own version of justice to a blasphemer. It's the Pakistani way.

Bibi's lawyer, a man of exceptional courage, saw the expedience of making himself scarce. Saiful Malook fled the country in the wake of the acquittal of his client, because death threats were extended to him and to his family for his part in support of his client and subsequent outrage at the outcome of the supreme court's ruling, dismissing her previous conviction as "nothing short of concoction incarnate".

The streets of the capital and other cities have been rife with protests, screeching accusations against the supreme court, and insistent demands that Asia Bibi be executed. She must be allowed to leave the country and to live elsewhere, in peace and security. What better place than Canada? In 2011, Shahbaz Bhatti visited Canada and met with then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who offered him refuge in Canada, aware his life was in danger. The Pakistani Minister for Minority Affairs thanked the prime minister, but returned to Pakistan where several weeks later he was murdered.

A Christian woman in Pakistan is persecuted and threatened with death as punishment for uttering unguarded sentiments born of a lifetime of persecution. A Pakistani woman living in Canada insists she must insult Canadian mores and values by taking her oath of citizenship while wearing a niqab so no one officiating nor anyone else becoming a citizen of Canada is able to see her face; a clear rejection of the Canadian social contract and an expression of contempt for fellow Canadians. She is given legal clearance to do just that.

Christianity in the Middle East

"Despite all your suffering, stay! Be patient! Don’t emigrate! Stay for the church, your homeland, for Syria and its future!"
"[Europe, forbear and do not] encourage Syrian Christians to emigrate."
Syrian Catholic leader Melkite Patriarch Gregory III

"There will be lights, parties, Christmas trees and Nativity scenes."
"It’s all a charade."
 "We should ask for the grace to weep for this world, which does not recognize the path to peace."
Pope Francis

"In Iraq, when Saddam Hussein was removed, we lost a million Christians."
"Why? Not because the regime fell, but because there was no more authority, there was a vacuum. In Syria, it’s the same thing, Christians do not back the regime [of Bashar al-Assad], but they are afraid of what may come next."
Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, Lebanon’s Maronite Christian Patriarch

In Bethlehem, fondly rgarded as the birthplace of Christ, there are few Christians left; they have migrated elsewhere, victims of persecution by their Arab Muslim brethren. But the quaint, colourful customs of Christmas continue in Bethlehem. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas makes it a point to attend Christmas church service as a gesture of solidarity with the Christians who are no longer there.

Bethlehem aspires toward attracting tourism as a world heritage site. But Christians are also wary of the lack of esteem in which they are held. They fail to appreciate the decorations faithful to the season meant to attract foreign visitors wishing to visit the site and are willing to act the temporary part of Christians. Less the violence where young Palestinians throw rocks at Israeli soldiers at the wall separating the West Bank from Israel.



The tear gas that the soldiers lob back at the Palestinians creates a fog of indifference by Muslims to the the hypocrisy of venerating one version of god while denigrating the other, earlier version as false. The despicable disregard for the minority religions around them which holds Christianity to be an insult to Islam and the violence that accompanies that venomous disrespect sees churches burned, Christians threatened and their right to the sanctity of life in abeyance.

In the very cradle of Christianity, there is a scant 4% existence of Christians remaining among the vast sea of Muslim detractors. The low-grade persecution throughout the Middle East of the indigenous Arab Christians has more recently witnessed the horrific spectacle of Islamic State jihadists inflicting atrocities on the despised Christians. In one incident whose vile butchery enervated Christians, a video showed three Assyrian Christians forced to kneel, then shot in the head by ISIL jihadists.

There is a variance in the birth rate between Christians and Muslims; Coptic Christians in Egypt have a fertility rate of 1.9, while that of Muslims is 2.7. In northern Iraq, Mosul was home to tens of thousands of Christians when a wave of killings took place in 2008, which included the murder of the Chaldean archbishop. When ISIL arrived in 2014 Christian homes had an "N" (for "Nazarene") placed on the exterior, their occupants given the choice to convert, pay the jizya or face death. The Christians fled.

The snow-covered golden Dome of the Rock Islamic shrine in the Old City is seen behind a detail from the glass-and-lead window of Dominus Flavit, a Catholic chapel on the Mt. of Olives, on January 31, 2008 in Jerusalem, Israel  Getty Images

A century ago, Christian Arabs represented 20 percent of the region's population, quite a downgrade to the current 4 percent and dwindling. Christians continue their migration in the face of persecution, threats that have drained the region of its diversity. The ancient presence of Jews living among their Arab neighbours in Muslim nations such as Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Algeria and Iran among others, predated the exodus of Arab Christians.

Arab Christians found protection when strong dictators ruled the land. Keeping the peace and maintaining order, although the situation was always tenuous and they suffered minor indignities, violence was kept at bay when Christians gave their support to the dictators. In Egypt, the late Pope Shenouda III, of the Coptic church, the largest in the Middle East, gave his trust to former dictator Hosni Mubarak, discouraging Copts from joining protests that succeeded in toppling his rule. When Tawadros II succeeded, he supported Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi who maintains a level of order protecting Copts.

In the most piquant of ironies it is in the Gulf States where there was always a paucity of Christians that their number has accelerated. They come from the Asia-Pacific as labourers. As migrants they will never be anything but migrant labourers, citizenship will always be denied them. They have no roots in the Gulf, where the most conservative Islam is practised. By no means do these migrants lead a particularly pleasant life; they have few workers' human rights, but the allure of steady work, sending their wages back home keeps them there.

Christians now live in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, though their Christianity must be maintained at a low, inconspicuous level. While Saudi Arabia bans Christian practise, leaving the Asian Christians to worship in private, the UAE permits churches to be erected. Nonetheless, states Father Paul Karam, president of a Catholic charity in Lebanon, once a majority-Christian country, now in the minority: "Christians are not guests in the Middle East.We are the original owners of the land."

Much good that will do them. (Guess he forgot Judaism, predating Christianity.)

Christians -- Increasingly Endangered

"I call it a 'drip drip genocide'. It's a wiping out of religious communities. It doesn't happen in one day. It doesn't happen over a few months."
"Little by little by little, laws and institutions and bureaucracies and penal codes, textbooks that malign other communities, until you come to the point of having this sort of jihadi culture that is running rampant."
Farahnaz Ispahani, Pakistani writer

"There are many places on Earth where being a Christian is the most dangerous thing you can be."
"Those who think of Christianity as a religion of the powerful need to see that in many places it's a religion of the powerless."
Robert Nicholson, Philos Project

"This is one of those issues that really are about life and death."
"It is time we took a stand and said that we will not allow this to happen anymore."
"[Our research reveals] the worst levels of [Christian] persecution in modern times."
David Curry, president, Open Doors

"In Mosul, Iraq and nearby towns, shortly after the takeover of the area by militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Christians who had been given the choice to convert, pay a ruinous tax, or die, gathered their families and what few possessions they could carry, and sought all possible means to escape,."
"It has forcibly displaced hundreds of thousands of people, conducted mass executions, and kidnapped, sold, enslaved, raped and/or forcibly converted thousands of women and children—all on the grounds that these people stand in opposition to ISIL’s religious dogma."
U.S. State Department released its annual International Religious Liberty report, October 2015

Men in orange jumpsuits purported to be Egyptian Christians held captive by the Islamic State kneel in front of armed men along a beach said to be near Tripoli, and beheaded -- February 2015.  Still from ISIL video

Christianity worldwide appears to be undergoing a massive attack on its reputation and its ability to withstand the violence increasingly directed toward it by forces committed to its destruction. And while it is certainly true that Christianity and those who represent the faithful in Christianity are under siege in many parts of the world, while elsewhere anti-Christian propaganda and persecution of Christians of a less violent nature is taking place, dire prognoses of the future of Christianity are somewhat overblown.

What is not over-emphasized, is the plight of Christians wherever they are slighted, diminished and exposed to violence. This is not a minority religion, after all. Christianity still represents the world's dominant monotheistic religion. Lest warning of its future demise be taken seriously, those who fear that outcome might take some solace in the fact that it is Christianity's predecessor monotheistic religion, Judaism, that has suffered extreme prejudice and vicious predation beyond endurance.

Jews have been hounded and despised, attacked and slaughtered for much of the history of the past four thousand years; almost from its beginnings. Unending violence has been directed against Jews and a general refusal to accept them as equals almost everywhere in the world has characterized the Jewish condition through its thousands of years of diaspora existence. And nor has that hounding and the threats diminished, post-Holocaust and with the comfort of the re-established State of Israel.

Perhaps the difference is that throughout its history of continuous persecution and violence directed against Jews, other Jews in less tenuous situations have attempted to give aid and support to the threatened communities. In the instance of increased and mounting persecution of Christians worldwide, there is hand-wringing, but little cohesion in supporting the endangered populations of Christians by other, organized Christians.

The growing tide of Islamist jihad targeting minority religions, Jews, infidels and the 'crusader' Christians comes at a time when Islam, the second most followed religion in the world, is growing even while a hard core of its fundamentalist faithful is roiling the world community with its barbaric violence directed to kill in the name of Allah, for to exist without embracing Islam, is to insult Islam, the penalty for which is death.

The cult of Islamic death-delivery is a reflection of the most basic tenet of faith in Islam, the compulsion that the faithful take upon themselves through their covenant with Islam, to martyr themselves through proselytism. Which is to convince non-Muslims to submit to Islam and by any means possible. So when Coptic Christians in Egypt, "infidels who are empowering the West against Muslim nations" are given the choice of conversion because "God gave orders to kill every infidel", and they refuse, they sign their death warrants.

When confronted by Islamic jihadists these "worshippers of the cross" are given the option of repeating the Shahada: "There is no God but Allah and Mohammad is his Messenger"; that statement which represents conversion. Yet the Christians refuse to recite the phrase that will allow them to live. According to a report from the Center for Studies on New Religions, 90,000 Christians died last year because their faith is considered abhorrent to non-Christians.

Intimidation, forced conversion, bodily harm and death has kept  up to 600 million Christians worldwide from freely worshipping their faith. David Curry of Open Doors says there has been increased persecution of Christians throughout Asia where nationalist religious movements -- Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist -- have threatened Christians in India, Myanmar and Pakistan where Christianity is seen as a foreign belief meant to usher into their countries Western beliefs.

From the Middle East to North Africa, Europe to North America and Asia, Christians are denigrated, mocked, threatened, for their religious devotion. Yet the countries where Christianity represents the majority religion reflecting heritage and culture, restrain themselves from reacting. Instead, the authorities and their populations practise the Christian virtues of patience and forgiveness, and continue to address the growing incidence of violence impacting their communities with forbearance and understanding.

The graves on Lesbos of a Syrian Christian Orthodox family who drowned attempting to cross the Aegean. Christians are being ‘driven out of ancient biblical heartland’, says report. Photograph: Dimitris Michalakis/Reuters

"Reports by groups that track such incidents corroborate the plethora of online documentation. The May 2011 report by the Congressional Commission on International Religious Freedom describes in detail many of the gruesome anti-Christian crimes that can be seen on Internet videos, and then puts them into political and cultural context. The Christian organization Open Doors, which issues an annual listing of the worst-offender countries when it comes to the deprivation of religious freedom, puts North Korea as number one. Closely following are Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, the Maldives, Yemen, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Laos, and Pakistan. Also in the top 50 are Muslim-majority lands such as Libya, Syria, Oman, Egypt, Kuwait, and the Palestinian Authority and the dwindling handful of Communist states such as Vietnam, Cuba, and of course China."
Commentary, David Aikman

Christian Copts in ISIL's Crosshairs

"I was at the altar when I heard the explosion. I fell to the ground."
"I kept looking at the human remains, but I didn't recognize who was who because their faces were so damaged, even though I knew them."
Victor Foad, church steward, Tanta, Egypt

"When the police officer tried to stop him [suicide bomber] by force, he exploded the explosive belt, killing the police officer and himself."
Kameel Sadiq Sawiras, secretary general, church council, Alexandria, Egypt

ahramonline  Al Ahram

"I believe the goal of the first attack in Mar Girgis Church in Tanta was to be a diversion from the main target of the attack which is St.Mark's Church in Alexandria where Pope Tawadros II himself was leading the Palm Sunday service."
"These attacks can be a message to show how the group is expanding in Egypt with different targets from Cairo to Sinai and Alexandria to Tanta."
Ali Bakr, researcher in terrorist organisations, Al-Ahram strategic centre

Egypt's Christian Copts are the most ancient of Christian groups and the largest in the Middle East, comprising ten to fifteen percent of Egypt's 92-million population. They have been a target of hatred and resentment from among fundamentalist Muslims and particularly so as Islamism has proliferated in the past decades in the Middle East. Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El Sisi has stated his intention to give the community full protection, a relief from their more vulnerable status under his predecessor Mohammad Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

In the two Palm Sunday attacks that took place in the Nile Delta city of Tanta and at St.Mark's Cathedral in coastal Alexandria, a total of 44 people were killed, including four police officers at the cathedral. "There were bodies and body parts everywhere, outside and inside the gate. I saw a man put together what was left of his son in a bag", explained Fadi Sami who had been inside the cathedral when a guard stopped a suicide bomber at the gate who then exploded his vest, killing both, along with three other police guards.

In these deadly attacks, 126 innocent worshippers were wounded. In the aftermath of the worst such attacks against Copts in years, President El-Sisi ordered military special forces to assist police in securing vital state facilities all over the country, declaring a three-month state of emergency. Egypt's local affiliate of Islamic State, Ansar Bait Al-Maqdis, had claimed both church attacks and has threatened more to come. The ISIL-linked group has attacked Christians in North Sinai, resulting in families fleeing to other governorates for safety.

 

Worshippers at the Holy Week morning service at St. George's Church in Tanta were shown on television footage singing traditional Easter hymns. The bomb was exploded, the screen turned black, while screams and cries could be heard reflecting the anguish and agony of the people wounded in the attack. The bomb was exploded close to the church alter, exposing priests and the church choir most directly, and it was from among them that the greater casualties ensued.

"Everything is destroyed inside the church", stated parishioner Peter Kamel. "I ran to the church to find my lifelong friend shattered to pieces by the bomb", Mona Faiez, 61, who lives close to the church explained, of what greeted  her eyes when she ran to the church after hearing the detonation. The church deacon, Soliman Shaker, was killed, and this was her lifelong friend. "What kind of human could do this and why?" she cried.

The entrance to the church had a weapons and explosives detector installed. So the issue of security in most peoples' minds was set aside, conscious of the danger they lived as Christians in a majority Muslim country where attacks are known to occur, albeit not of the savage intensity and death count of these two. The explosion that took 27 lives at St. George's was followed several hours later by the second suicide bomber succeeding in his martyrdom at St.Mark's Cathedral where another 16 were left dead.

Blood stains pews inside the St. George Church after a suicide bombing, in the Nile Delta town of Tanta, Egypt, Sunday, April 9, 2017 AP

Pope Tawadros II, who had led Palm Sunday services at the cathedral, was no longer there at the time of the attack. Grand Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb the renowned head cleric of Egypt's Al-Azhar centre of Sunni Islam, recognized as the world's leading authority and clerical educational academy of ancient lineage and global respect, condemned the attacks, characterizing them as "despicable terrorist bombing that targeted the lives of innocents".

Yet this is also the respected Islamic authority who has refused to condemn Islamic State and their jihadist ethos, pointing out that the only way Al Azhar could condemn a hypothetical Muslim (for the purpose of debate over condemning Islamic State) would be if the fundamental principles of Islam, such as the shahada (There is no god but Allah and Mohammad is his messenger), and Islamic scriptures were rejected by them, could that person (or entity in the case of Islamic State) be condemned.


This is where Egypt's President El-Sisi and the Al Azhar institute's globally influential scholar-cleric part company; the Egyptian President condemns all violent jihad and deplores the Islamist fundamentalism that has led to violence in the Middle East and abroad, attempting to persuade Al Azhar and its principals to adapt Islam to a softer and more pluralistic egalitarianism accepting of other religions -- to no avail.

Tracing the Presence and Instructions of Christ

"He was one of more than a million people living here then, an ordinary Jew who had original ideas and attracted some followers."
"His fame only really started after his death."
Gideon Avni, head of archaeology, Israeli Antiquity Authority

"We have not found any evidence of the person of Jesus, but we have found lots of things about what happened at the time he lived, such as the population and the material culture that grew because of him."
Eugenio Alliata, professor of Christian archaeology, Franciscan biblical school, Jerusalem

"These coins give us a rare look into this Christian ancient world."
"The hoard was found amongst large stones that had collapsed alongside the building. It seems that during a time of danger the owner placed the coins in a cloth purse that he concealed inside a hidden niche in the wall."
Annette Landes-Nagar, archaeologist, Beit Shemesh, Israel

Photo by Lehava Center – Beit Shemesh Pikiwiki Israel under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license.

There are ancient artifacts awaiting discovery everywhere in the Holy Land of ancient Judea. More than anywhere else on Earth when construction projects are under way, archaeologists are on the lookout for the presence of antiquities to give additional clues to those who lived there thousands of years earlier, how they lived, what their lives were like. And when a highway was being rebuilt fairly recently, it was revealed that there was evidence of an ancient Christian village having sat there that welcomed pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem, a millennium and a half earlier.

A cache of rare Byzantium-era coins was discovered, hidden by their owner for the previous 1,400 years within the walls of a stone building in the village so recently unearthed. The village, archaeologists believe, was named Einbikumakube. Within Israel, approximately 40,000 objects of antiquity are discovered annually, and many represent the existence of Christianity in the region, proof if any was needed, of the important place of Christianity in the Middle East.

Enquiring and curious journalist were invited to take part in an informative tour of the Israel Antiquities Authority's central warehouse in Beit Shemesh, 40 minutes west of Jerusalem. There, they had a glimpse of the tens of thousands of relics of the distant past that have been discovered across Israel since 1948, maintained at the warehouse from where they are placed on display in museums, for the public to view as objects testifying to the region's heritage.

Although the latest objects that were discovered cannot be interpreted as evidence of the existence of Jesus, they do give some clues about the time that he lived and the manner in which residents of the area at the time lived. Archaeologists feel fairly confident that, with the assistance of hundreds of finds from archaeological digs, they can reconstruct Jesus's life with a fair degree of accuracy from the Church of the Nativity, revered as  his birthplace, forward to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre..

As far as Professor Alliata of the Franciscan biblical school in Jerusalem is concerned, the most recent artifacts corroborate biblical narratives of Jesus's life, placing his existence and its times into a context of reality. The artifacts also are useful to the trained scientist of ancient history for the insight they provide respecting Christians following Jesus's teachings after his Crucifixion; evidence of the Christian movement from the end of the first century.


On March 19, archaeologist Annette Landes-Nagar of the Israel Antiquities Authority displays ancient coins from the Byzantine era, which were found last summer during excavations near the Arab Israeli village of Abu Ghosh near Jerusalem. (Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images)

Christian pilgrims travelled to Nazareth, Bethlehem and Jerusalem, throughout the Byzantine period and during the period of the Crusades. The vulgar, day-to-day items being unearthed from those times of antiquity enable archaeologists to study the life of Jesus and his instructions. The coins are estimated to have been placed within the building wall around the year 614, matching the period when Persian armies invaded the Holy Land and in their passage, destroyed churches and Christian communities.

Behind them, but not associated with them until much later in its history, came the rise of Islam.

Historical Asymmetry: Mesopotamia's Assyrians

"An autonomous region. A safe haven. That's what the people want -- a homeland. We want to be able to protect ourselves."
"We hoped the Americans would help us regain our land, the way the Zionists did. But that didn't happen."
"We don't trust the Arabs, and we don't trust the Kurds. We don't want Iraq to fall apart. We want Iraq to stay together."
"But the Assyrians are not just a religious group. We are an ethnic minority, and we are losing our language and our culture. The world has to begin to see the Assyrian people not just as Christians, but as a distinct people. And we are being wiped out."
Juliana Taimoorazy, Iraqi Christian Relief Council

An Assyrian woman attends a mass in solidarity with Assyrians abducted by Islamic State fighters in Syria, March 1, 2015. Islamic State militants have taken hundreds of Assyrian prisoners in Iraq and Syria. Photo by Omar Sanadiki/Reuters

The Assyrians are an ancient, warfaring tribe from Mesopotamia, originally intent on gaining territorial advantage and engaging the indigenous tribes in the areas of the Middle East where their warring hordes challenged the commanding presence of others, to retreat and scatter elsewhere, leaving the Assyrian conquerors to have dominion over the lands they conquered.

They had a dominating, warring presence in Syria, Turkey, Iran and Iraq and grew their empire by removing all challengers and ultimately through successes on the battlefield created great waves of migrants, among them the ancient Jewish tribes. Interestingly, the Assyrians adopted the worship of Judaic tradition as their own, to the chagrin of the Israelites, affronted that non-Jews would usurp Judaism. Since Christianity was born of Judaism, it seems that Christianity supplanted Judaism for the Assyrians eventually.

They still speak a kind of Aramaic. During the Ottoman Empire the Assyrians, as Christians, were horribly persecuted by Muslim Turkey, but they managed to survive despite mass slaughter. Ethnic cleansing that Saddam Hussein later imposed on them, and even later, during the Iranian Revolution the persecution suffered from that source was horrendous. Clearly, they had abandoned their feared warrior status that once identified them as brutal conquerors of the Middle East.

At the end of the 10th Century there were held to be one and a half million Assyrians in the Middle East. Since then, Minority Rights Group International has put their numbers in Iraq at 350,000, and fewer yet in Syria. Their existential concerns remain vibrantly fearful, targeted by both the Syrian regime and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, influencing the Assyrians to migrate or remain and become victims of genocidal intent against the region's Christians.

Ultimately, the Assyrians who choose to remain in their historical geography yearn for a country of their own where their homeland heritage would be recognized, and where they would be safe from the malign intentions of others. And they view Israel's establishment as a template for their own future. When  the world's attention was drawn to the plight of Yazidis victimized by ISIL on Iraq's Mount Sinjar, Assyrians hoped that their own plight would move the world to support their need for security, as well.

The support by the west of the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq presented as yet another symbol of hope for the Assyrians. And even though the secularist KRG pledges to support the Assyrian minority, they remain wary and mistrustful, unwilling to be dependent on the Kurds. "At any moment, some mullah can declare a fatwa against us", said Taimoorazy dismissively.

The descent into jihadism in Syria and Iraq with its mass murder and sectarian conflict, exists as a threat to the Assyrians as a minority ethnic and religious group.

The Pope In The Pot-and-Kettle Adage

"There's no public figure in the world today with an image defined by a more misleading sound bite than Pope Francis, whose signature line from almost three years ago remains, 'Who am I to judge?"
"Reality couldn't be more different, in truth. Francis is one of the most 'judgemental' figures around, in the sense of never pulling punches when he thinks something is wrong."
John Allan, Vatican reporter

"Harsh and divisive language does not befit the tongue of a pastor. It has no place in his heart."
Pope Francis

Pope Francis, Donald Trump --- pulse.ng

The good Pope castigated American bishops when he stood before them last September. There is little doubt that they must have wilted recognizably under the weight of their good Shepherd's admonitions that they would do better to open their hearts than to engage in speech that their parishioners felt attacked them personally for their values and lifestyles, invoking in them guilt and remorse for their ill-done ways.

No doubt the American bishops felt they were expressing the opinions of the Church. And for their troubles instead of support, they were harshly lectured.

This is a Pope who is different, who thinks of himself as a man of the people, and whose heart is with those whose worn and battered hearts are weary with sorrow and care, poverty and neglect. No other Pope followed Christ's example as deeply as this one did, in washing the feet of a dozen convicts, several of them women, one a Muslim. He truly became their servant, as he was the unadorned, passionate servant of God, bestowing blessings upon them because of their vulnerability and misery in society.

Clearly this is a man who will have no problem passing through the eye of a needle.

Pope Francis kissing the feet of a young offender -[- The Telegraph

No mention whether those so blessed felt uplifted and compelled to surrender their lives of crime to lives of compassion for others, of moving in society as trusted and helpful members, leaving their time of sociopathy behind, for this good man showed them the passage to contentment and fulfillment. He has given hope and care to many, from homosexual outcasts to divorcees, to women carrying disease-distorted foetuses, for he is a man of merciful compassion.

This man with the soft touch reaching out to the world's unfortunates and outcasts, a man who eschews rank and privilege, ostentation and reeking hypocrisy, demanding of his priests and his bishops that they too look inwardly to find within their hearts a reflection of the man whom god sacrificed to save the world, and act accordingly. He has looked outward as well, toward the world of politics and bombastic discrimination and has found it wanting, little surprise.

The surprise, however, lay in his passing judgement on the character and pronouncements of a man whose own simplicity of statement and charisma has attracted the counter-element to the Pope's own popularity, and whom he characterized as 'un-Christian', thus mortally stinging the pride of a man who considers himself a Christian above all, though not of the denomination that the Catholic Church represents.

And, for the first time, the Pope has been publicly rebuked, chastised, by the unabashed target of his criticism, for entering political waters in frank dismissal of a potential candidate for the American presidency.

Now he who has calumniated another by his ad hominem observation is himself being censored for careless smearing of someone as wildly popular as is the Pope. If there is hypocrisy here it lies perhaps in the choices this good man makes. His predecessor made an offhand comment on the violence within Islam, and lived to rue it, and recant it in favour of restoring warmth between Islam and the Church. It seems that Pope Frances is of that same school.

Absent is his obligation to defend Christianity under siege around the world. As the shepherd and pastor and confidante of 1.7-billion Christians worldwide, he errs by not singling out the plight of Christianity in its ancient birthplace; by not identifying their attackers, by refraining from pleading for Islam to cease and desist, by carefully avoiding directly confronting the vileness of jihad, central to Islam, and central to the destruction of ancient Christian cathedrals and churches, and the faithful who once prayed in them.

Christian Slaughter

"My family and friends very much feel under threat. People from the area have said that extremists have gone through the streets shouting 'Alawites to the grave, Christians to Beirut'. They want to kick us out. They say that if Christians refuse to leave they will end up in the grave like the Alawites. (a Shia sect)
Nobody seems to care what is happening to us Christians in Syria. The government we had in the past was bad but at least we were safe. At least we could walk the streets. You'd never think you might be bombed by extremists. Not anymore. Now it's very scary. Now they are bombing churches. Look at what has happened to our churches in places like Aleppo and Homs. The extremists threaten us Christians when we want to celebrate major feasts like Christmas and Easter. They don't want us in the area at all."

There have been more Christians slaughtered in the last century than in all previous nineteen centuries before. The killers of Christians are today in various countries of the world but they have one thing in common, they practise the teachings of Islam. Islamic jihadists have been outdoing themselves in their zeal to rid Muslim countries of the polluting presence of non-Muslims. Christians in those countries long predated Islam, but their presence in the countries that Islam conquered have finally been reduced and are destined to come to an end.

Students mourn the 147 students killed in the Garissa school attack on April 3, Kenya

They can still, should they wish to, find a place of haven in a country which has welcomed and given full haven to Jews who also once flourished throughout the Middle East, as an even more ancient religious devotion to a monotheistic faith whose origins gave birth to its successors. In the saga of successive religions deriving from a common source declaring themselves the finished product, Christians once dominated and persecuted the Jews.

Now the third faith stream emanating from Judaism rampages against both Jews and Christians which Islam itself calls 'the People of the Book', those of the Abrahamic theocratic dynasty. A viciously lethal strain of 'pure' Islam erupted in the past century and it has grown progressively throughout Africa and the Middle East and Asia, to represent a strain of Islam inimical to the presence of other religions, and dangerous to those who have not surrendered to Islam.

Fourteen of the world's leading scholars representing a multi-year research project documenting the extent of Christian suffering appeared at a conference -- Under Caesar's Sword, that took place in Rome recently. Two Catholic patriarchs, Ignatius Yousef III Younan of the Syriac Church and Raphael Sako of the Chaldean Church in Iraq addressed the conference about what it is like to live in an area where the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant wreak havoc.

They speak of religious genocide, hurtling the Christians of the Middle East away from their ancient lands of origin to escape untimely death. Cardinal John Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria, spoke of burned churches, his flock slaughtered by Boko Haram. Yet he spoke of forgiveness and reconciliation, eschewing revenge.

Clasp Friends Wherever You Find them

"We feel that their support is genuine and not deriving from any ulterior motive."
"The number of Jewish communities is limited. When there are large numbers of Christians who are interested in visiting Israel and understanding Israel -- that, of course, is very, very helpful toward improving our international standing."
Akiva Tor, Israeli Foreign Ministry

Thousands of Christian Evangelists among marchers in a parade in the center of Jerusalem, marking the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. October 01, 2015. (Photo by Nati Shohat/Flash90)

 

An unusual collection of people representing delegates from 80 different countries gathered in Jerusalem to show their care and support for the Jewish State. An event that stands out as hugely at variance with the judgemental lack of esteem with which Israel is viewed in many countries of the world, as an 'occupying power', one that seeks to oppress the Palestinians, held to be victimized by the very creation of the State of Israel on lands Palestinian Arabs claim as their own.

 

As public relations goes, Israel's is not as fervently advanced and manipulative as that of the Palestinians whose original reliance on violence alone catapulted them to world notice through the hijackings and murders of the Palestine Liberation Organization led by Yasser Arafat. In its more modern manifestation the Fatah branch of the PLO, its leadership inherited by Mahmoud Abbas who styles himself as its democratic president, makes full use of 'diplomacy' at the United Nations and incitement to violence in the West Bank and within Israel.

The Palestinians may threaten and terrorize, indulge in suicide bombings and abductions, but the world looks upon them with compassion, for they are recognized as victims, since this is what they claim to be, and the United Nations long ago initiated a refugee program specifically for the Palestinians, maintaining the fiction that they require the financial and organizational support of the world body through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.

 

The many 'refugee camps' where they are domiciled and financially supported by the UN and the EU and others are in fact, sprawling towns and cities, indistinguishable from any other towns and cities, but they refer to themselves as victims and refugees and that old adage that if you repeat something often enough it will recognized as reality, holds true in this instance. The Palestinians live a grievance culture of victimhood, wallowing in it, lamenting the existence of Israel, pining for the state they refused at the UN's offer of Partition in 1948.

 

So while much of the world which has never had to live contiguous to an implacable violent enemy determined to continue destabilizing their society, their nation, their people, condemns Israel on the basis of fabricated domination of another people, violently denying them their aspirations, heeding calls by the Palestinians to boycott Israeli academic institutions and manufacturing it comes as a huge relief to Israelis when a substantial contingent of people hailing from a diversity of nations claim to respect and admire them.

 

And so it is with the Christian Zionist movement exemplified in the world's Evangelical Christian movement with its pro-Israel International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. An organization which arranged a summit meeting in Jerusalem to coincide with the Judaic festival of Sukkot. Where a stadium was packed full of cheering pilgrims waving flags from Angola, Brazil China, Germany, Italy and the United States; even Egypt had its delegates.

 

ICEJ International

Recognized as one of the world's fastest-expanding religious movements, Evangelical Christianity is in full support of Israel's existence and its expansion as a Zionist-inspired homeland for Jews returning to the geography of their Biblical heritage. Roughly 700 million of the world's two billion Christians are evangelicals. Theirs is a movement in expansion in Latin America, Africa and Asia representing regions which "hold great potential for the nation of Israel in political, diplomatic and economic terms", according to a position paper presented by the group to Israel's Foreign Ministry last year.

Using the Jewish holiday of Sukkot to highlight their annual summit, the Evangelicals term their week-long gathering of celebration, as the Feast of Tabernacles. In the Biblical era the holiday of Sukkot was characterized through a pilgrimage to the ancient Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. At this year's summit there were prayer rallies and concerts where believers sang Hebrew songs. An annual flag-waving parade marched through the streets of Jerusalem.

Although Israel is hugely condemned throughout the world for the establishment of settlements by Orthodox Jews reclaiming Judea and Samaria as their traditional homelands, now situated in what is called the West Bank which Palestinians claim for their future state, some evangelicals, in particular those from the United States, volunteer as workers on Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

In parliaments worldwide, 32 pro-Israeli caucuses exist, according to the Israel Allies Foundation, a Jewish-Christian political group responsible for bringing two dozen lawmakers from 18 countries to Jerusalem for the summit, to meet with Israeli lawmakers and officials. The purpose of the Israeli parliament's Christian Allies Caucus, initiated in 2004 was to link Christian leaders and Israeli lawmakers; re-launched at this year's summit.

International Christian Embassy Jerusalem director Jurgen Buhler introduced 20 lawmakers from the Ivory Coast who flew to the summit at the Ivory Coast parliament's own expense. They were greeted by a 12-ram's-horn recognition from Taiwanese evangelicals using shofars, the traditional Jewish instrument used at sacred occasions. Nigeria was represented by Rev.Mosy Maduga, head of a network of Christian ministers.

An evangelical South African lawmaker, head of the African Christian Democratic Party, explained his usefulness in blocking anti-Israel motions in South Africa's parliament, one of which represented an effort to label Israeli products produced in the West Bank as "settlement" products. Where once such robust Christian support of Jews and the Jewish homeland would have been regarded with suspicion, the situation now calls for celebration.

What the evangelical Christians are doing is recognizing the historical fount from which the religion they worship emanated from. As the crucible of Christianity, Jerusalem, Judaism and a Jew who has been recognized by Christianity as the Messiah, are simply being given credit where credit is due. And, in the process, redeeming Christianity itself by acknowledging its debt to Judaism, to the Jewish tribe, to the support of the state dedicated to Jewish perseverance in a hostile world.

Is the Pope Ending Catholic Anti-Semitism? by Susan Warner September 29, 2015 at 4:00 am http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6596/pope-francis-antisemitism "Nostre Aetate," released in 1965, called for friendship and dialogue between Catholics and Jews, instead of the centuries-long repudiation of Jews by Catholics; St Joseph's University became the first to respond by establishing the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations. Is Pope Francis picking up where Pope Paul VI left off? Can Pope Francis' hopes and dreams for reconciliation of Catholics and Jews override some unfortunate but pressing realities, such the Church's desire to placate the Palestinians? If Pope Francis is serious about a "journey of friendship" with the Jewish people, perhaps he would not be so quick to approve President Obama's Iran nuclear deal in the name of a hoped-for peace that will most certainly ignite an unhoped-for war between Iran and Israel. By assisting the UN in establishing the "sustainable development platform," the Pope is offering his permission to the UN -- one of the most anti-Semitic, anti-Israel bodies on the face of the earth -- to usurp power on behalf of a shared utopian agenda. Sustainable development notwithstanding, the UN should be encouraged to clean up its own house before it tries to clean up the world. A lot of water as passed under the bridge between Catholics and Jews in the past 1800 years or so. Most of it has been polluted by the evils of anti-Semitism perpetrated by the Catholic Church against the Jews of Europe, starting with the earliest published Christian writings by the early ante-Nicene Church Fathers, such as Tertullian. His document "Judeos Adversos" has stood for centuries as one of the key church position papers against the Jews. During those seemingly endless centuries, the Catholic Church continuously demonized the Jews, stripped them of their livelihoods, and frequently their lives. In the Catholic mindset, the Covenant that God made with the Jews had been replaced by the Church as God's new "chosen people."[1] God no longer had any use for the Jews, and the Church vowed never to let them forget it. Then in 1965, under the leadership of Pope Paul VI, the document "Nostre Aetate" was presented to the world as part of an overhaul of the Catholic Church known as the Second Vatican Council, or more popularly, Vatican II. "Nostre Aetate" was one of the most significant documents to emerge from the period. Designed to heal the relationship between the Catholics and the Jews, it was to be a total reset of the Catholic-Jewish relationship -- at least on paper. "Nostra Aetate, the 1965 Declaration on the Church's Relationship to Non-Christian Religions was one of the most influential and celebrated documents issued by the Second Vatican Council, a gathering of the world's Catholic bishops. In particular it made possible a new and positive relationship between Jews and Catholics."[2] Since the thirteenth century, one prominent symbol pointing to the Catholic animus against the Jews was a sculpture entitled "Ecclesia et Synagoga." The original version of this allegorical stone sculpture was carved for the Gothic Cathedral in Strasbourg, France. It consists of two elegant female figures, one representing a victorious Church, "Ecclesia," and the other representing the defeated Jew, "Synagoga." Replicated hundreds of times in the famed Gothic cathedrals of Europe, the sculpture presented the figure of Synagoga sometimes blindfolded, representing the Jews as "spiritually blind." Some sculptures and murals depicted Synagoga with a fallen crown and a broken scepter, with a severed goat's head or with a demon -- all allegorically representing the vanquished Jews. In all of its sordid variations, the image was revered as an honored visual symbol of the understanding of the relationship between triumphant Christianity and defeated Judaism. The two figures symbolized the Catholic Church's theological position, often called "supersessionism" or "replacement theology." According to this theology, the Church has replaced the Jews in God's view and is now to be celebrated as "the New Israel." The same theology exists in the Catholic Church today.[3] After 1965, "Nostre Aetate" provided Catholics with a new opportunity to rethink the worthiness of an ancient theology that bolstered animosity between the two groups. At last, the Catholic Church acknowledged the biblical role of Jewish thought in human history: "The Church, therefore, cannot forget that she received the revelation of the Old Testament through the people with whom God in His inexpressible mercy concluded the Ancient Covenant. Nor can she forget that she draws sustenance from the root of that well-cultivated olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild shoots, the Gentiles. Indeed, the Church believes that by His cross Christ, Our Peace, reconciled Jews and Gentiles. making both one in Himself. [4] Pope Francis this week dedicated a new version of this ancient sculpture, which now installed at St. Joseph's University, in the plaza near the University Chapel. "Ecclesia et Synagoga": The original 13th century sculptures from the Strasbourg Cathedral (left), and a recent example from St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia (right) that Pope Francis blessed this week. According to Phillip A. Cunningham, Director of the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations at St. Joseph's University: The new sculpture employs Synagoga and Ecclesia rendered with nobility and grace, to bring to life the words of Pope Francis: "Dialogue and friendship with the Jewish people are part of the life of Jesus' disciples. There exists between us a rich complementarity that allows us to read the texts of the Hebrew Scriptures together and to help one another mine the riches of God's word." The work will depict the figures enjoying studying each other's sacred texts together. When "Nostre Aetate" was released in 1965, it called for friendship and dialogue between Catholics and Jews, instead of the centuries-long repudiation of Jews by Catholics; St Joseph's University became the first to respond by establishing the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations and now, five decades later, commissioning the memorial sculpture by Philadelphia artist Joshua Koffman, and hosting the Pope for this remarkable event. Hundreds of Jews and Catholics from around the region assembled to hear the Pope speak. Rabbi Abraham Skorka, Pope Francis' close friend, came from Argentina to speak at the dedication ceremony. Event co-sponsors gathered from Philadelphia's Catholic and Jewish organizations: The archdiocese of Philadelphia; the World Meeting of Families; American Jewish Committee; The Greater Philadelphia Board of Rabbis; Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and the Anti-Defamation League. The new sculpture "will vividly convey what Pope Francis has called the 'journey of friendship' that Jews and Catholics have experienced in the past five decades," says professor and Institute Assistant Director Adam Gregerman. "We are looking forward to area Jews and Catholics coming together to celebrate the remarkable rapprochement that is occurring." Are we actually realizing the moment when the end of Catholic anti-Semitism shall finally be realized? Is this reality in line with Pope Paul VI's dream of "Nostre Aetate?" Is Pope Francis picking up where Pope Paul VI left off? The question lingers: Can Pope Francis' hopes and dreams for reconciliation of Catholics and Jews override some unfortunate but pressing realities, such the Church's desire to placate the Palestinians? At least four trouble spots need to be addressed before the Pope can complete his sought-after "journey of friendship" between Jews and Catholics: 1. The first squeamish issue is the universality of the current Catholic teaching of supersessionism or "replacement theology." If the Catholic Church is still claiming to be "The New Israel," there is no room on the planet for a Jewish Israel. Under this unfortunate and false teaching, the Jewish people, the Jewish religion and the Jewish nation are only valid if the Jews convert to Catholicism.[5] 2. If Pope Francis is serious about a "journey of friendship" with the Jewish people, perhaps he would not be so quick to approve President Obama's Iran nuclear deal in the name of a hoped-for peace that will most certainly ignite an unhoped-for war between Iranian proxies, Iran and Israel. 3. By prematurely, preemptively and unilaterally recognizing Palestine as a state, he selected some very unfortunate timing -- on the anniversary of Israel's declaration of independence, called Nakba Day ["Catastrophe Day"] by Palestinians -- for his attempt to destroy and supplant the Jewish state. This was a theft of Israel's hopes for a legitimate negotiated peace settlement and an insult to Israel in the international arena. The Pope robbed Israel of a vital negotiating position. He robbed them of their international standing, and gave the Palestinians another legitimate pathway to act on their vow to destroy Israel. As one of the most prestigious leaders in the world, the Pope's unilateral action was a kick in the teeth for Israel and hardly the "journey of friendship" he claims to desire. 4. By collaborating with -- and even assisting -- the United Nations in establishing the "sustainable development platform," the Pope is freely offering his permission to the UN -- one of the most anti-Semitic, anti-Israel bodies on the face of the earth -- to usurp power on behalf of a shared utopian agenda. "Sustainable development" notwithstanding, the United Nations should be encouraged to clean up its own house before it tries to clean up the world. Pope Francis has been in his office only since 2013. During this short time, he has managed to straddle both sides of a very dangerous divide -- between the Jews and Israel on one side and on the other, their Islamist neighbor nations that daily vow to annihilate all Jews along with their state. For an average person, this might seem less like a "journey of friendship" and more like a pathway to war. Susan Warner is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of Gatestone Institute and co-founder of a Christian group, Olive Tree Ministries in Wilmington, DE, USA. She has been writing and teaching about Israel and the Middle East for over 15 years. Contact her at israelolivetree@yahoo.com. [1] The actual quote from the conclusion of a teaching from "The Church = The New Israel": "So to sum up, the Catholic Church is the Kingdom of God on earth, the new Israel (Jesus said in Matthew 21:43 that he was taking the Kingdom away from Israel, and giving it to a nation that will produce the fruits of it - namely, the Catholic Church), and is modeled after David's Kingdom, with a huge temple (the Vatican), a prime minister (our Pope), a sacred tabernacle containing the Ark of the Covenant (our tabernacle containing the Eucharist), officers who take care of the kingdom (our Cardinals and bishops), high priests (our priests), a Passover Meal (our Eucharist), and a Queen Mother (The Blessed Virgin Mary)." [2] This document was published expressly as an education device to the study of the 50th Anniversary of Nostre Aetate by the Council of Centers on Jewish Christian Relations. [3] This quote is from a current teaching from "The Catholic Knight" but is available from many other sources. "Where does this put the Church in relation to the rest of the Jewish people? Simply put, we (the Church) are Zion! We are Israel! That is what it explicitly says in the New Testament and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. To become complete as a Jew is no different than what it takes to become complete as a Gentile. We all must be "grafted in" to Israel - which is The Catholic Church!" [4] From the original Nostre Aetate document section 4. [5] Nostre Aetate was intended to soften the harsh reality of supersessionism or replacement theology in the Catholic Church, which was the cornerstone of Catholic anti-Semitism. However, a simple internet search of today's Catholic teachings brings up numerous resources that perpetuate this false idea that was generated by the early Church fathers and became part of the founding documents under the Emperor Constantine in 325 CE. Sometimes the concept is quite blatant and sometimes it is subtle, but the idea of the Catholic Church as the "New Israel" is ubiquitous.