Repeat After Me: Canada is NOT a Racist Country

"It is a time to pull people together. But it is the time to listen, it is a time to learn what injustices continue despite progress over years and decades. But it is the time for us as Canadians to recognize that we have our challenges, that Black Canadians and racialized Canadians face discrimination as a lived reality every single day."
"When it comes to being an ally, I have made serious mistakes in the past, mistakes which I deeply regret and continue to learn from… I'm not perfect, but not being perfect is not a free pass to not do the right thing."
"I know that for so many people listening right now, the last thing you want to hear is another speech on racism from a white politician."
"We will work with the black community across this country as we have to respond to their priorities. There is a lot to do in Canada and we will do it in partnership with them."
"Over the past few days, we’ve seen horrific reports of police violence against Black men and women south of the border, but these are not isolated incidents and elsewhere problems. Prejudice, discrimination and violence is a lived reality for far too many people."
"My job as a Canadian prime minister is to stand up for Canadians, to stand up for our interests to stand up for our values.That is what I have done from the very beginning."
Prime Minister JustinTrudeau  

"We have to recognize that our system is not perfect in Canada. Yes, there's a few idiot racists hanging around but Canada is not a racist country and most Canadians are not racist. And our system, that always needs to be improved, is not systemically racist."
"Should I have gone through school and been mocked because I had glasses and was called four-eyes and because of the occupation of my parents?" 
"Should I have been mocked for all that? No, of course not. But are Canadians largely and in majority racist? No, we are not."
"We celebrate our diversity around the world and for the prime minister to insinuate — and it is an insinuation — that our system is systemically racist is wrong."
Stockwell Day, former Conservative Cabinet Minister

Former Conservative cabinet minister Stockwell Day has stepped away from two high profile business positions and as a commentator for CBC News Network's Power & Politics after denying that systemic racism exists in Canada during an appearance on Tuesday's show. (Michelle Bellefontaine/CBC)

Stockwell Day, long a fixture on the Canadian political scene, an Albertan, and a former Cabinet Minister in Conservative-led governments, is not naive and he is honest, but he tripped himself up when he spoke on a CBC Power & Politics panel, equating his experience as a child outside the mainstream who was bullied and mocked because he was different, to the experience of racism. His 'difference' was not that of a visible minority, or someone of an ethnic group that had always suffered prejudice, but the trauma experienced as a child remained with him as an adult, of being rejected by others because in some ways he was not like others.

In that sense, his comparison was accurate; he was mocked and rejected for being an 'outsider' from the mainstream. And those are the feelings that a Jewish child or a Black child lives with when they've encountered racist attitudes from others around them in the larger society. This man was responding to the prime minister's assertion the day before that systemic racism is institutionalized in Canada. Stockwell Day was quite correct in rejecting that contentious assertion and the prime minister was absolutely wrong in stating that Canada is a racist country.

There is present and there will always be present, those in any society who subscribe to the idea that some members of society are inferior to the mainstream society -- anywhere on the globe. Bias and prejudice permeates society, some societies far more than others, but it is always there. It is part and parcel of the human condition that some are viewed as less worthy than others and presumed unsavoury character traits linked to ethnicity, culture, race are held to a negative context to support a bigot's view of those considered to be a poorer version of humanity than they are.

Most Canadians wouldn't dream of demeaning someone of Asian, Black, or Jewish ancestry. We are, after all, and always have been a nation comprised largely of immigrant stock, joining the indigenous First Nations on this land. Human nature ordains that we look upon others unlike us with suspicion, but our intelligence informs us that we are not different than anyone else, and familiarity ensures by and large that we become comfortable with that reality. Yes, there will always be those whose social nurturing has been averse to the presence of those of exotic origin in North America; anywhere but Western Europe.

Justin Trudeau, the great lecturer on justice, equality and opportunity for all is the scion of position, wealth and celebrity, yet with all his privileges he wasn't above mocking people of colour when on a number of occasions as an adult, he painstakingly posed as Black, to gain a few cheap laughs. He most certainly has an ingrained, perhaps inbred problem with racism personally, and he has erred in ascribing his attitude to the great general population of a country of 37 million people, a huge percentage of whom are of varied ethnic stock. 

Canadians have elected people of colour to represent them at various levels of government, from municipal, to provincial to federal. There are elected Members of Parliament to reflect most ethnic groups that have emigrated from their home countries to become Canadian citizens and they represent all Canadians. Canadians with names that clearly reflect cultures far from those of European origin fill every walk of life, of profession in academia, science, medicine and art in this country. 

But the outcry from some segments of the Canadian public -- particularly from Black Canadians at this time of protest -- over Mr.Day's clumsy but heartfelt effort to defend Canada as a non-racist country, while at the same time commiserating with the Black community over overt incidents of anti-Black racism has gone a step too far. He has been involuntarily released from professional associations which, intimidated, wish to distance themselves from someone tainted with the accusation of, at best, lack of sympathy for the plight of visible minorities, to the worst interpretation; racism himself. And he is neither.

The lashback has forced him to apologize humbly for an offense he may have given to those who believe, and want to believe, and insist that we all believe, that Canada is a racist country whose population needs to indulge in meek introspection, committing to turn ourselves inside out and upside down asking for forgiveness from those who believe their presence is under-appreciated. A nudge in that direction is not entirely wasted, but the degree to which condemnation rests on 'white privilege' is in itself racist.

And when Stockwell Day was asked by the show's host, Vassy Kapelos: "It's difficult to be able to assert that there isn't racism as a white person, right?", Day responded in complete honesty that among his Canadian friends, relatives and adversaries most people are not racist, though he also said that Canadians would do well to develop more sensitivity about "hurting or insulting people", for he was hurt and insulted and that hurt and insult remained with him his entire life. Like the tender skin a Jew is born with that becomes increasingly thicker. 

 

Enabling Hateful Incitement

"The three most targeted groups since 2006 have been the Jewish community, the Black community and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) community. In 2015, the Jewish community, followed by the LGBTQ community and the Muslim community were the most victimized groups. The three most reported criminal offences motivated by hate/bias in 2015 were mischief to property, assault and criminal harassment. The Jewish community was the most victimized group for mischief to property occurrences, while the LGBTQ community was the most victimized group for assault occurrences. The Muslim community was the most victimized group for criminal harassment occurrences".
Toronto Police Service Annual Hate/Bias Crime Statistical Report, 2015

"...O Allah! Count their number; slay them one by one and spare not one of them... Give us victory over the disbelieving people... Give victory to Islam... humiliate the ...polytheists... Destroy anyone who displaced the sons of the Muslims...Count their number; slay them one by one and spare not one of them... Purify Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews!"
Ramadan 2016, Imam Ayman Elkasrawy,  Masjid Toronto mosque

Ayman Elkasrawy, imam of the Masjid Toronto mosque (front row, wearing white), said on video: "... slay them one by one and spare not one of them... Give us victory over the disbelieving people... Give victory to Islam... Purify Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews!" (Image source: Video screenshot from Masjid Toronto via The Rebel)

"Our country is very diverse. I think that we need to continue to build those bridges amongst Canadians, and this [motion M-103] is just one way that we can do this, by really understanding the issue and really listening to what Canadians have to say."
"I'm really looking forward to the track that the Canadian Heritage Committee takes on this."
Iqra Khalid, Liberal MP, Mississauga, Ontario

"The word 'Islamophobia' can be used to mean both discrimination against Muslims and criticism of Islamic doctrine or practice. It is important that we not conflate the two -- religious people deserve legal protection, but religions do not."
"People should not discriminate against individuals, but should feel quite free to criticize the doctrine, history, or practise of any religion."
Garnett Genuis, Conservative MP, Commons debate

Protesters clash at a demonstration about the anti-Islamophobia motion in Montreal on March 4. There were several protests and counter-protests about M-103 across the country this winter. (Graham Hughes/Canadian Press)

It is interesting that Muslims like to portray themselves as being victimized by an unfair society that fails to recognize their exceptionalism as faithful of Islam. Non-Muslim societies have an unfortunate penchant of characterizing Islam as an intolerant, violent religion that unfailingly promotes strife between people, destabilizing societies, inciting its faithful to proselytize whether by blandishment or violence, or long-term suffocating of indigenous cultures through sheer numbers of birth-rate inflation is irrelevant.

The very same Muslims who feel entitled to complain that they are victims of racism and anti-religious bias are the same Muslims who sit complacently at Friday prayers in the proliferating mosques of Europe and North America listening to imams invoke against the infidels, the kuffars, the Christians and the Jews who have surrendered the right to live as virtuous human beings in their own right, by insulting Islam through their steadfast refusal to convert to the only true religion.

Islam's goal of complete conquest of the world through converting those who insist on respecting the wrong religion, and those whose spiritual convictions are absent cannot be achieved until the parts of the world Islam views as "houses of war" are transformed into the "house of peace" that is Islam. Without achieving that monopoly of one religion and one religion only reigning supreme over the world population signalling the final success of conquest, the world-wide caliphate cannot arise.

The great goal of that achievement does honour to Allah, the spirit of the almighty in its final, complete and irrefutable majesty. Those who do their utmost to halt the vaunted progress of Islam are enemies of light and champions of darkness. Which explains why it is that they must be vanquished and sent to the final solution to enable Islam to achieve its god-given purpose. So there can be no quibbling among the Muslim faithful over the sermons demonizing Non-Muslims. Entirely legitimate.

What fails the legitimacy test is those same sinners and enemies of Islam defaming the Prophet and Islam, an intolerable assault labelled by the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoots as the sin of "Islamophobia", a pathological condition that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation has dedicated itself to eradicating through introducing a motion to the United Nations to make it a criminal offence to indulge in Islamophobia, a criminalization effort that has not yet reached success.

In Canada, most Canadians do not support the notion that the concept of Islamophobia has merit and that there should be a political, social, legal proscription against that concept. But the Liberal Government of Canada is complacent in its belief that the motion which MP Iqra Khalid introduced should be supported and passed, condemning Islamophobia. Completely oblivious, and perhaps deliberately so, that the motion represents the first in a connected thread of manipulations enabling Islam to be defended from criticism while it continues to agitate for hatred against non-Muslims.

The motion calls on the government to do three things:

• Condemn Islamophobia and all forms of systemic racism and religious discrimination.
• Quell the increasing public climate of hate and fear.
• Compel the Commons heritage committee to develop a government-wide approach for reducing or eliminating systemic racism and religious discrimination, including Islamophobia.

MP Khalid referred to the heritage committee moving on from the approval achieved in a Parliamentary vote that took place on March 23 -- resulting in a 201 to 91 acceptance of the motion -- now proceeding with the collection of data on hate crime reports and to conduct assessments for affected communities' needs, with findings presented in an eight-month period.

Previous to the vote, Conservative MP David Anderson recommended "Islamophobia" be removed and in exchange the motion read that it would "condemn all forms of systemic racism, religious intolerance and discrimination of Muslims, Jews, Christians, Sikhs, Hindus and other religious communities", but this reasonable and realistic alternative was rejected out of hand by the government-leading Liberals.

Canadian Muslims, Harmony and Grace

"This is a bizarre strain of radical propaganda. It appears in the writings of Hamas and other groups like it and claims to debunk Jewish history. [It is] unseemly [that a religious service would propagate hate in this manner]."
"...[Calls to violence are] deeply troubling. Its presence in this mosque [Al Andalous Islamic Centre] needs to be investigated."
"We condemn these explicit calls for the death of Jews in the strongest possible terms. [W]e believe these declarations may be a violation of the Criminal Code."
“It is deeply disturbing that the leadership of Al-Andalous Islamic Centre failed to explicitly condemn repeated calls in its mosque for the destruction of Jews. Particularly unconscionable is the fact that the mosque, in full knowledge of the violent and hateful content of these sermons, allowed them to be distributed online until they were brought to the attention of the public and the police.”
Rabbi Reuben Poupko, co-chairman, Quebec branch, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

"[Jews are] people who slayed the prophets, shed their blood and cursed the Lord."
"If you examine the annals of history you will see that the Jews do not have any historical right to Palestine."
"[There was] not a single Jew in Jerusalem and Palestine [for long periods of historical time to the present]."
"O Allah, give victory to our brothers who engage in jihad for your sake in everywhere, O Lord of the worlds."
"[We look forward to] the black day you inflict on them [the Jews], kill them one by one [and] make their children orphans and their women widows."
Sheikh Wael Al Ghitawi, imam, Al Andalous Islamic Centre

"We cannot help but have the impression that this [public revelations of the Montreal mosque's sermons] is a shameful attempt to restart the polemics targeting the Muslim community after the wave of solidarity…recently observed following the terrorist attack [at the Quebec City Islamic centre]."
"If anything, the attack on the Quebec City mosque should serve as a reminder to all that there can be no ‘context’ in our democracy that legitimizes calls for violence against any identifiable group."
Al Andalous mosque response to furore over revelations of video sermons

Two video clips featuring sermons by imam Sheikh Wael Al-Ghitawi were accessible on line and not removed by the mosque until their presence was brought to the attention of the media.  In the controversy that followed their publication, the mosque authorities explained the misfortune that the imam's statements were 'taken out of context', and further stated that the imam was a 'volunteer imam', temporarily replacing the regular spiritual leader, on vacation.

How typical it is when Muslims are caught in the act of spreading hatred, they plead innocence due to grave misunderstanding, and invoke their right to live without fear of hate messages targeting the Islamic community, while feeling they can promote hatred against Jews and Christians with impunity. The prayers, after all, take place in the Arabic language, and only those who understand Arabic are privy to their content.

It should be understood, stated the mosque, that the sermon took place at a time of "the Israeli military offensive" in Gaza, condemned, they emphasized, by human rights organizations for the civilian "massacre" that took place. "When the replacing imam preached these invocations at the end of the sermon… the people present understood that the comments were addressed to Israeli soldiers guilty of abuses with regard to the Palestinian civilian population", the mosque's message clarified.

Justifying the message and leaving the puzzling impression that the "religion of peace" promotes slanderous propaganda simplifying a complex geography and history and competing interests where a legitimate state must fend off attacks by a terrorist group intent on destroying it, whose mission obviously finds enthusiastic support in Canadian mosques. Obviously unbiased and intent on pursuing the elevation of faith through brotherly love and understanding....

Sheikh Wael Al-Ghitawi was quite absorbed in his message of hatred, speaking of Jews as being descendants of "Turkish mongols" who had been "punished by Allah", who had forced them to "wander in the land", though evidently not the land of Judea since the imam went on to emphasize that Jews had no historical ties to Jerusalem or to Palestine. A scholarly historical treatise for the edification of his audience; venom purporting to be fact.

The two videos attributed to this imam followed on an earlier one posted to YouTube in August of 2014 when another imam asked Allah to "destroy the accursed Jews", and "kill them one by one". An ample illustration that these incidents of misspoken phrases represent random misunderstandings, not reflective of the mosque's message of Islamic tolerance and message of equality in the Canadian way.

Not that this Montreal mosque, named in fond memory of the Muslim conquest of Christian Spain is by any means the only mosque conspicuously preaching to the faithful in bruised purple tones of hatred against Jews and Infidels. The Masjid Toronto mosque had its own 2016 sermon speaking about the "filth of the Jews" which the Muslim Association of Canada, affiliated with the mosque, has apologized for, suspending the prayer leader and launching an internal investigation.

And so, will all of this end the prayer repeated at the conclusion of each Friday prayer session in Canadian mosques, calling on the faithful to despise the unbelievers?
“O Allah, pour patience upon Muslims, strengthen their feet and give them victory over ‘Qawm -el Kafiroon’ (Non-Muslims).
“O Allah, give victory to our brothers the Muslims, the oppressed, the tyrannized and the ‘Mujahedeen’ (those who fight jihad against non-Muslims)”.

Calling Out Racism -- Or A New Inquisition?

"[Dr. Henry Parada, director of Ryerson University's School of Social Work committed a cardinal sin] at a time when Black folks were giving praise to a young Black woman professor at a critical and vulnerable time ..."
"[His actions] perpetrate anti-Black racism ... indicated ... you [Dr. Parada] do not value anti-Black women, Black educators or education, Black experience, Black life and ultimately Black students ..."
"You chose to violently disrupt the speaker and the space."
Black Liberation Collective Ryerson branch

Ryerson University   Henry Parada

 

Dr. Parada may have recalled some urgent task he had forgotten to look after at that juncture in the meeting on October 27, as he quietly left the gathering. But his departure was noted as was his absence at this event which was Black-oriented, requiring the utmost, rapt attention from all in attendance. Dr. Parada may have been less than rapt, turning his attention away from the awarding of praise to a black colleague, and he was accused of having committed "a violent act of anti-Blackness, misogyny and misogynoir" which translated means misogyny related to a black female.

Campuses across North America have been gorging themselves on a feast of raucous, outraged organized protests against anything that occurs at colleges and universities that is taken as a symptom of 'micro-aggression'. Included in that catch-phrase is anything that appears to belittle a 'special' unprivileged minority, as interpreted by that minority, including cultural appropriation, where at special events someone might be misguided enough to dress in a manner reflecting a culture other than their own. White people are of course particularly skilled at insulting minority groups and most of the ire is directed toward them.

The Black Liberation Collective that appears to have Ryerson University quaking in its scholarly boots sent an open letter to senior university and social work administrators, dated October 31; the letter was posted to Facebook the following day. Accusing Dr. Parada of failing "to contain your anti-Black rage", being responsible for "a public display of toxic masculinity", demanding imperiously that he "immediately step down" as director of the school of social work. He must also apologize in a very public arena "and publicly release how you will genuinely address anti--Black racism".

The professor, recognizing just how powerfully privileged was the rage against him, did step down as director of the university's School of Social Work. Who can blame him? The intention being that he would resume teaching in the guise of just another academic without pretensions to leadership in the field that he had so abysmally failed in. Undoubtedly, although this must be a great relief to him, it appears only to have further infuriated the collective black-feminist rage against the man; his swift accommodation of the initial demand meant he wasn't bleeding sufficiently to satisfy their bloodlust.

The tenor of this almost-inchoate venomous rage might seem to some onlookers like a demonstration of black anti-white racism, but of course that could not possibly be the case, could it? The letter was signed "In rage, solidarity and kindness" by "concerned students" whose names were not included on the letter, as well being signed by the social work student union, the Ryerson Feminist Collective and United Black Students at Ryerson. The kind rage expressed by all concerned certainly released a flood of vitriol and race-consciousness.

Facebook    Students at a Black Liberation Collective Ryerson protest during a School of Social Work meeting this week.

Then on November 7 another kind missive was posted on Facebook in response to a response to the first one by the university: "We hear your concerns about Anti-Black Racism in the school and want to assure you we take them seriously. We ask for your patience as we continue to work to respond to the people, communities and constituencies involved", read the first letter from the social work school. Cravenly mollifying, hoping against hope that the surrender to black racism disguised in an impenetrable cloak of justness would calm the situation and restore order and 'mutual respect', but it did nothing of the kind.

What it did was elicit yet another tirade on Facebook: "This disingenuous response to our open letter is just another display of the anti-Black racism perpetrated by the School of Social work and particular individuals who benefit from maintaining this system of Whiteness." Quite the zinger that, but it hasn't finished the matter by any means. Those curious about what led to this furious distance between black students and the university have been informed by the BLC: "We can appreciate wanting to know the specifics of this event", under questioning of the purpose and reason for the Facebook postings.

Earning, however, the logic-free elucidation that anyone curious about what had occurred to engender the verbal fusillades by the BLC against Algonquin were posing "problematic questioning" and as such were themselves aiding, abetting and adding "to the anti-Black racism we are confronting". Ask not what your black brothers and sisters do on your behalf oh ye underprivileged. So there, ask not what drastic malfeasance against the black community at the university so well earned its collective rage, for by so doing, it becomes evident that you are part of the white conspiracy against blacks.

"We indict the School of Social Work of perpetrating anti-Black racism through placing our Black educators in the most precarious forms of employment, through particular educators allowing Black students to experience anti-Black racism in the classroom." Cower and wilt thou guilty! Demanding to meet with a variety of deans as well as "other higher administration" prepared to make a commitment to "challenging anti-Black racism and anti-Native racism" in a way that the BLC could guide, approve and graciously deign to accept.

And not to be forgotten was the requirement that "an official apology from Henry Parada that names what he did and why he stepped down" be humbly rendered for their relishment.

Torquemada would beam with pride, extending sincere congratulations. But of course in doing so he might also be opening himself to charges of cultural exploitation and expropriation. Only his heart was black, not his skin colour.

The unaffected and bemused onlooker might surmise in his/her ignorance that Ryerson University welcomed this situation. A banner appears across its website that reads: "Anti-oppression/social transformation/social justice". And if that isn't enough, here is their values statement: "School of Social Work is a leader in critical education, research and practice with culturally and socially diverse students and communities in the advancement of anti-oppression/anti-racism, anti-Black racism, anti-colonialism/decolonization, Aboriginal reconciliation, feminism, anti-capitalism, queer and trans-liberation struggles, issues in disability and Madness, among other social justice struggles."

Gag? Some might consider this unreconstructed drivel, giving ammunition to the disaffected in society, simmering with resentment and hatred at the very reality that in the past, before civil society developed a deep conscience of regret and dismay at its former unfortunate attitudes of discrimination against minorities. Yes, people of colour among others were disgracefully felt to be inferior and treated to an inferior status within society. 

Ameliorating that situation by completely reversing the social contract to replace it with one of guaranteed equality and respect appears to have done little to appease these 'progressive', 'activist' groups. In which instance, one can be forgiven for regretting the current state of affairs, while deploring the rancid stupidity of those feeling entitled to their episodic raging accusations while they themselves practise the delights of racism-in-reverse, black-on-white.

As for Ryerson, once again, they appear to have invited and welcomed the situation that has resulted in the utter abnegation of their "core values" statement: "We acknowledge that our School is on the land of the Mississaugas of New Credit. We support the struggles of Indigenous populations, nationally and globally, for Indigenous sovereignty and their collective rights. We educate about the intersectionality and interlocking of oppressions and seek to address their causes."

"As a community of people connected to the School of Social Work we agree that we will address micro-aggression as it occurs and discuss how we might be implicated in acts of micro-aggression." Which leads naturally enough to the empowered communities thus named reacting in acts of macro- aggression.

The Vermin In Our Midst

"It is a life-or-death struggle between the Aryan race and the Jewish microbe. No other government and no other regime would have been able to muster the strength to find a general solution to this issue."
Joseph Goebbels, March 1942

 “The Jew’s symbol is a worm, not without reason. He seeks to creep up on what he wants.” Der Stuermer

"Anti-semitism is exactly the same as delousing. Getting rid of lice is not a question of ideology. It is a matter of cleanliness. In just the same way, anti-semitism, for us, has not been a question of ideology, but a matter of cleanliness, which now will soon have been dealt with."
"We shall soon be deloused. We have only 20,000 lice left, and then the matter is finished within the whole of Germany."
SS Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler

Do not grow weary, do not loosen the grip,

This poisonous serpent may not slip away.

Better that one strangles it to death

Than that our misery begin anew.

And even then, the job was not finished. It was a vast aspiration, that, to cleanse the entire world of the existence of Jews. Attention turned to East Europe, and to the Europe of the West, and at such time when the Thousand-Year Reich had become triumphant, the war concluded and all nations of the Earth subservient to the Master Race, cleansing could continue until the valorous job was finally completed to the satisfaction of Goebbels, Himmler, Hitler.

"What then was the nature of the hold Hitler had on his followers? Wherein did he differ from other racists? To say that he had hypnotic, spellbinding powers is to say nothing. Perhaps the answer is that whereas other racists merely toyed with the idea of making murder a civic virtue, Hitler made it a reality by opening the Pandora's box of man's unconscious mind. Hitler freed those evil impulses which man has tried to chain and tame in the name of civilization ever since his emergence from the primeval forest. It was not by accident that those who rose to the highest posts in Hitler's inner circle were drug addicts like Goering ... sadists like Heydrich, murderers like Himmler.
Once Hitler had political power there was no holding him back. The entire state was organized for brutality. In 1935 the Reichstag passed the so-called "Nuremberg Laws", disenfranchising all those deemed to have "Jewish blood" -- which included anyone with one Jewish grandparent. It is interesting to note that Hitler considered the Jewish strain four times stronger than the Aryan. One by one the Nuremberg Laws stripped the Jews of their professions and their businesses; blackmail stripped them of their liquid assets. The businesses of the Jews fell into the appreciative hands of the Germans. The liquid assets found their way into the pockets of Nazi party officials. Thousands were hauled off to concentration camps where they were greeted by the Christian prisoners who had preceded them."
Max I. Dimont -- Jews, God and History

The introduction to the general public of the penetrating idea that a demographic of society already struggling with suspicion because of its achievements in business success, academic distinction, social standing, and other indices of superior intellect whose reality does not historically go down very well and proved to be only too receptive to the characterization of Jews as vermin, set the stage for what would follow. Convince enough of any population that among them exists a threat to the public weal, and assent to destroy that threat follows.

Marginalization and contempt, removing the accused from the respected corridors of social, academic and corporate standing, and a confused victim that the authority of the state apparatus had made helpless is confronted by an uncaringly indifferent public believing that the despised blemish of hubris was meant to be felled. Insult and degradation succeed as minds already receptive are fully poisoned and prepared to accept the agony of inhumanity meted out to the obviously deserving.

Ash-Sharq, February 19, 2006 (Qatar)

On the left: "Islam" is caricatured;
On the right: the "Western media" bows in front of a toilet bowl, labeled "Zionism," from which fire, labeled "the Holocaust," emanates.  Behind this is the devil, a menorah and the Star of David.

Hatred is the most potent tool of tyranny and Nazi Germany wielded it with the expertise of a surgeon handling a scalpel during a delicate operation. That delicate operation of first defaming Jews morphed into a far-less delicate operation of their total disenfranchisement since vermin whose predation on decent humanity have no rights, to concentrating the population in barbed-wire incarceration and finally dispatching them to mass, organized slaughter.

The systematic dehumanization of the Jews enabled Nazi Germany to construct a precise system of mass extermination, somewhat detracting at times from its other preoccupation, the domination through violent conflict of the rest of the world. That they failed, and that the world observed with horror their demonic success in slaughtering millions hasn't stopped what now appears unstoppable, despite the abhorrence and determination that such blasphemies against existence would never re-occur.

"Never again" now occurs with alarming regularity. The Tutsi in Rwanda were spoken of as cockroaches by the Hutus before that slaughter took place. Success lies in persuading supporters that those sidelined as adversaries are not really human, but sub-human, animalistic, vermin; crawling upon the Earth and desecrating it, their presence requiring extermination.

Al-Wifaq, February 6, 2006 (Iran)

Translation: The Jewish\Israeli devil is saying: "I don't admit the limits of freedom of speech except the Holocaust."

The global threat to humanity and civilization continues through the viral auspices of tyrants, dictators, demagogues and what some tribal groups consider to represent 'heroes'. Separated by ethnicity, culture, heritage, religion, ideology, the 'other' is always impugned as disgustingly alien and obviously substandard, in need of amelioration, and bloodshed will do as well as any other method of dealing with the others who fail to share the predators' vision.

Celebrating Polarization

"This is totally unacceptable. This is a low point in civilization where a country prevents its people from remembering their dead."
M.A. Sumanthiran, Tamil lawmaker, Colombo, Sri Lanka

LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI / AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Sri Lankan policewomen march during a Victory Day parade in the southern town of Matara on Sunday. The government is holding a military “victory parade” to mark five years since the defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels. Services have been banned to honour Tamil rebels and remember civilians killed in the conflict which claimed at least 100,000 lives.

The Tamil Tigers were a ferocious separatist scourge on the opposition landscape of Sri Lanka, responsible for countless deaths of Sri Lankans, including those of Tamils who opposed their violent tactics trying to bring the government of the country to heel. Tamils fled in their tens of thousands from Sri Lanka, to other parts of the world, to escape the institutionalized oppression of the Tamils living in Sri Lanka.

Canada was a major recipient of the Tamil refugee population, and today has the largest expatriate Tamil community outside of Sri Lanka. The Tamil Tigers succeeded in extorting money from Tamils living outside Sri Lanka to fund their violent activities. Canada and the United States arrested Tamils who were accused and found guilty of supporting the Tigers, considered a terrorist group in both countries, with weapons.

When one agreement to suspend hostilities after another failed, the Colombo government finally launched its last military attack on the Tigers in their geographic stronghold in a civil war that resulted in the final and complete destruction of the Tamil Tigers as a fighting force. In the process the government and the military took no care whatever to protect the lives of Tamil citizens not involved in fighting.

Used by the Tamil Tigers as a living shield to protect themselves from the military onslaught when they were hard pressed to match the full military might of the regime, Tamil civilians became targets for both sides in the civil war. When the rebels were defeated in May 2009, accusations of human rights abuses were levelled against the Sri Lankan government.

More latterly over the past several years the United Nations launched an investigation into human rights violations and concluded guilt on the part of the Colombo government, naming it as a perpetrator of human rights abuses and war crimes. Which the government has denied. Canada, in protest of those violations by Sri Lanka, chose not to attend a 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Colombo, a boycott eventually joined by India and Mauritius.

Tamils still imperil their lives attempting to escape the oppressive misery of living in Sri Lanka, to be accepted as refugees elsewhere in the world. The government of Sri Lanka has commemorated the fifth anniversary of the civil war that destroyed the militias of the Tamil Tigers, citing it as a great victory. Military personnel paraded in the streets with tanks and artillery guns, with fighter jets passing overhead.

In the ethnic Tamil-majority north and east in Sri Lanka, military troops effectively barricaded political party and newspaper offices to prevent public memorials from taking place in memory of those who died in the civil war. Roads to a fountain sacred to the memory of Tamil Hindus where for generations rituals were performed in honour of the dead, were closed down.

"No wise country celebrates war victory after a civil war", stated the National Peace Council, a local activist group, in condemnation of President Mahinda Rajapakisa's Victory Day ceremony in the southern town of Matara.

U.S. and Canada blast today's UN appointment of Richard Falk's wife, citing 'biased and inflammatory views,' 'abysmal judgment'

Today, as controversial UN official Richard Falk ended his 6-year term as human rights investigator, the UN appointed his wife and academic partner, Hilal Elver Falk, to her own 6-year term as a human rights investigator. The couple co-direct a research institute.

GENEVA, May 8, 2014 --  UN Watch condemned the UN's "bizarre, nepotistic, and politically-driven" decision today to hand a top human rights post to the controversial wife and academic partner of discredited official Richard Falk, on the same day that he ended his own 6-year term as UN investigator of Israeli violations.

Despite submitting an application form riddled with self-disqualifying answers, non-sequiturs, and more than 20 spelling mistakes, Hilal Elver (also known as Hilal Elver Falk) was named UN special rapporteur on the right to food, a position initiated by Cuba and first held by Jean Ziegler, founder and recipient of the Muammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize. 

"Decisions like this threaten to turn the UN into a joke," said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.

"Falk was an open admirer of 9/11 conspiracy theorists and an apologist for terror groups whose term was finally up, so now the UN installed his closest professional collaborator -- his wife."   

Elver and her husband Falk teach, lecture and publish together. They also co-direct a research institute.

Falk was condemned repeatedly during his term by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the U.S., Britain and Canada for promoting 9/11 conspiracy theories and endorsing an anti-Semitic book. 

At the same time, UN Watch welcomed the strong objections expressed by the U.S. and Canada, which followed a month-long protest campaign by the the Geneva human rights group. 

U.S. Blasts Elver's "Biased and Inflammatory Views"

"The United States again expresses its concern," said the U.S. in a statement today, citing Elver's "lack of relevant experience" and questioning "her readiness for this assignment." 

In addition, the U.S. pointed to Elver's "biased and inflammatory views" regarding the United States and Israel, which it said "run counter to the dispassionate professionalism central to the work of a Special Rapporteur." 

The U.S. said the appointment "could reflect negatively on the Council’s other special procedures mandates, most of which produce crucial work that highlights, promotes, and protects human rights around the world."

Canada FM Condemns Elver's "Abysmal Judgment"

"Her public record clearly demonstrates abysmal judgment, as well as associations with fringe groups," Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird said in a letter sent to Baudelaire Ndong Ella, a diplomat from the African country of Gabon and current UNHRC president.

Elver is one of 19 academics and former diplomats named today as independent experts of the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council. 

"Apart from Elver, many excellent people were chosen today, and we look forward to working with them to advance human rights for victims worldwide," said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer. 

"It is truly a shame that many of the independent experts who are the crown jewels of the UN human rights system should have their work tarnished by indefensible UN appointments driven purely by politics and anti-Western and anti-Israel ideological agendas." 

UN Watch had sent a letter, objecting to Elver's failure to satisfy the UN post's official criteria, to the U.S., Austria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Romania and the UK, all of whom are voting members on the UNHRC, and to Canada, an observer. 

Elver has joined her husband on numerous occasions in supporting the work of 9/11 conspiracy theorists, and in accusing the West and Israel of Islamophobia and "genocide."   

"Hilal Elver is not only Richard Falk's wife, employee and main collaborator, but she echoes his crude and simplistic post-colonial narrative, which demonizes America, the West, and Israel, while praising dictators like Erdogan and the books of 9/11 conspiracy theorists," said Neuer. 

Co-Author of Goldstone Report Loses Bid to Replace Falk; Indonesian Diplomat is Named Instead 

In an upset for LSE professor Christine Chinkin, co-author of the UN's Goldstone Report, the council dropped her name as Falk's intended replacement, instead naming former Indonesian diplomat Makarim Wibisono to the post.

This is second time that Chinkin applied yet failed to get the post. In 2006, she was defeated by Falk.  

"While UN Watch was the first to express concerns over several of his past UN statements made on behalf of Indonesia," said Neuer, "I met and interacted with Ambassador Wibisono in 2005 when he was Chair of the former UN Commission on Human Rights, a position that he fulfilled with fairness and professionalism." 

"Despite the bias inherent in this one-sided UN mandate, which only examines Israel and presumes guilt in advance, I hope that Ambassador Wibisono will turn a new page for the UN position." 

"Falk's 6-year tenure was marked by baseless and inflammatory condemnations of Israel that only caused polarization, threatening to push the parties apart."

 

"We need someone now who will respect universal standards, genuinely protect the human rights of all citizens, and uphold the UN's purpose of bringing people together."

Caretaker of the World

Thank heavens for the existence of the United Nations. Yes, it has a bloated bureaucracy, and yes it is inefficient, corrupt, hypocritical, and utterly useless in helping to solve the globe's incessant conflicts, or even to put in place peace-keeping contingents that might be capable of fending off ethnic, religious, political, ideological, tribal conflicts. But it offers well-paying employment to great hordes of people from developing countries.

And, as an international club of great prestige pampering itself in the glory of humanitarian goodness and posing as the world's ultimate champion of human rights, it holds an irresistible draw. To become a part of the United Nations is considered to be the ultra accomplishment, hugely respected and the deference that accrues to the institution simply cannot be reflected through any other symbol of global enterprise.

Just before the referendum in Crimea last month the UN Security Council voted on a resolution reaffirming Ukraine's "sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity". Like all motherhood issues this was a pious declaration of support for Ukraine's right to determine its own destiny without unwanted interference from any source not authorized by Ukraine itself.

In view of the knowledge of the upcoming referendum the unified position was that it "can have no validity". Of the 15 Security Council members, thirteen voted in favour of the resolution, one abstained and one voted against. Unsurprisingly the one 'against' was none other than Russia's. And so was the resolution defeated, since Russia is one of five countries capable of vetoing any Security Council decision.

That same resolution was then considered by the 193 countries of the UN General Assembly, where one hundred declared the results of the referendum had "no validity", and thus "cannot form the basis for any alteration of the status of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea". Another 58 countries abstained and 11 voted against, with two dozen not making the effort to show up for the vote.

Within the United Nations one body and one alone has the ultimate authority to issue binding resolutions. The permanent Security Council  consisting of the United States, Britain, France, China and of course, Russia. Whether it considers resolutions and sanctions on issues as disparate as the dreadful Syria file, the intractable Israeli-Palestinian situation, on Iran's intentions with nuclear weaponry, the conflicts in Africa the debating society of the Security Council finds few areas of agreement.

Libya, Cuba, China, Azerbaijan and other countries not exactly known for their huge respect for liberty and human rights are routinely voted into position on the UN's human rights bodies. For rank hypocrisy nothing beats the United Nations' various committees on human rights.  Iran's human rights record has been slammed and damned universally yet the UN Economic and Social Council elected Iran to a four-year term  on its 45-nation Commission on the Status of Women dedicated to protecting women's rights.

Iran was also elected as a member of the UN's 19-nation Committee on NGOs which allows the silencing of criticism for those countries placed on the committee acting as overseers of human rights groups for whom they stand in judgement. Azerbaijan, China, Cuba, Mauritania, Russia were elected to other UN bodies, obviously in recognition of their sterling attributes as upholders of human rights.

Sudan, whose president Omar Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide in Darfur was also elected to a similar UN position.

The list goes on, to include countries like Turkey, Burundi, Guinea, Nicaragua, Pakistan and Venezuela, considered by Freedom House to be "partly free" -- in other words not the absolute worst examples of oppressive dictatorships -- have been similarly courted and rewarded to sit on United Nations committees.

It is so good to know that the health of the world is in such reliable, trustworthy hands.

Insulting Islam

"They hatched a conspiracy to push out the residents of the colony. They contrived a case and got it filed by a person who was close to me."
"I am innocent."
Sawan Masih, Pakistani Christian

"In Pakistan, even being accused of blasphemy is equivalent to being sentenced."
"The blasphemy laws in Pakistan are used to settle personal vendettas."
Xavier Williams, president, Christian group, Life for All Pakistan

Associated Press

The death penalty for insulting the Prophet Mohammed. A more grave, grievous crime cannot be imagined by the faithful of Islam. It is an unforgivable crime, one so dreadful in its resonating violence against the faith that it must be punished by death. Never again would someone who assaulted the sanctity of the Prophet's name be able to repeat his intolerable offence. And his/her death would serve as a caution to all others who dare to insult Islam.

It cannot be known how many people languish in jail in Muslim countries which enforce capital punishment for any who are accused of blasphemy. In some Muslim countries, antipathies between Muslims and Christians are so great that false testimony is often given intending the accused to come to harm through false witness. Although the penalty of death is seen as required to ensure that respect and honour for Islam and its Prophet be ensured, it is possible that intervention can commute the sentence.

It is also possible, in a country like Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Iran, for example, that those who come to the defense of the accused, even faithful Muslims, court death themselves through assassination by incensed Muslim fanatics. It has occurred often enough, even for Muslims of the rank of a governor, who in attempting to defend a Christian woman accused of slandering Mohammed, was killed by his own bodyguard in revenge for a perceived slight of Islam.

Now another case in Pakistan, a country where a young girl can be accused by an imam of desecrating the Koran by tearing pages and placing them in a bag she carried. Causing panic and terror in her Christian community, and pleas for mercy, that the child not be arrested, jailed and sentenced to death on the word of a malevolent Muslim cleric. In the more recent instance, a Christian has been accused by a Muslim friend of insulting the Prophet Mohammed.

Muslim mobs attack a Christian area of Lahore after blasphemy allegation. (M. Ali photo)

Sawan Masih was convicted during a hearing held in the jail where he has been incarcerated; held there in hopes of avoiding violent protests. Accused during a conversation with his friend of speaking ill of the Prophet, word quickly spread in the eastern city of Lahore. Swiftly, thousands of Muslim protesters began marauding in a Christian neighbourhood known as Joseph Colony. They torched Christian homes and churches and pandemonium and terror ensued.

Police only looked on as homes, shops and churches were destroyed in Lahore. (M. Ali photo)

Mr. Masih and his supporters insist that the incident was a fabricated one, meant to lead to success of an underhanded plot to seize land. Even if the government of Pakistan withholds committing an accused to the death penalty, the very issue is sufficient to arouse passions to the extent that rampaging mobs will carry out the death sentence on behalf of the state, with the assurance that in so doing they are committing to god's will as pious Muslims.

More than 180 homes and shops were reduced to rubble in Islamic rampage in Lahore. (M. Ali photo)

Following the rampage through the Christian colony, police arrested 83 suspects, including the man who lodged the complaint of blasphemy. So far, though a year has passed, no one has been convicted. A call has come from Amnesty International for Mr. Masih's release, and for those guilty of attacking Christian homes to face justice.

"Failure to do so will effectively send the message that anyone can commit outrageous abuses and excuse them as defence of religious sentiments", commented David Griffiths, Amnesty's deputy Asia Pacific director.

What a curious case of naivete.

Pakistani men, part of an angry mob, react after burning belongings of Christian families, in Lahore …

Christianity's Middle East Death Knell

There isn't much that has escaped Britain's heir to the thrown, Prince Charles's attention. He has an inquisitive mind and a critical eye, and he speaks of his distaste of poor architecture, his commitment to organic farming, his appreciation of art -- as no mean artist himself -- and now he has spoken out publicly about the plight of Christians in Muslim-majority countries of the world. And in particular, in the very part of the world where Christianity became a religious force.

"I have, for some time now, been deeply troubled by the growing difficulties faced by Christian communities in various parts of the Middle East. It seems to me that we cannot ignore the fact that Christians in the Middle East are increasingly being deliberately targeted by fundamentalist Islamist militants."
"Christianity was literally born in the Middle East and we must not forget our Middle Eastern brothers and sisters in Christ."
"Yet today the Middle East and North Africa has the lowest concentration of Christians in the world, just four percent of the population, and it is clear that the Christian population has dropped dramatically all over the last century and is falling still further. We all lose something immensely and irreplaceably precious when such a rich tradition dating back two thousand years begins to disappear."
"For 20 years, I have tried to build bridges between Islam and Christianity, and to dispel ignorance and misunderstanding ... we have now reached a crisis where the bridges are rapidly being deliberately destroyed by those with a vested interest in doing so. This is achieved through intimidation, false accusation and organized persecution, including upon Christian communities in the Middle East at the present time."
Prince Charles (London Daily Telegraph)

Telegraph.Co. UK

There is not too much new about this. Islam has traditionally scorned the heritage of other religions, transforming ancient churches and cathedrals into mosques. But that detestation of religious symbols relating to Christianity and the faithful of Christ also extends further, to another religion in particular, one which pre-dated both Christianity and Islam. Sacred Jewish sites have been claimed by Islam as their own, and Jews have been forbidden entry.

Wikimedia Commons -- St.Nikolaos Mustafa-P{ascha-Moesche

Those sites which have no Islamic heritage value to Islam but which do to other religions like Judaism and Christianity and Buddhism, are summarily destroyed as offensive to Islamic ideals. The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem sits directly atop the most sacred place in Judaic traditional heritage, the Second Temple of Solomon. Muslims bristle at the very idea of Jews approaching the Temple Mount as sacrilegious, throwing stones at pious Jews who dare pray there.

View More Photos »

Non-Muslims use a wood ramp to enter the complex, home to the gilded Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine, and the Western Wall, holy to Jews. (Polaris)

This long-time advocate of the usefulness and necessity of promoting dialogue between religions to produce tolerance and understanding, who has dedicated much of his time to attempting to do just that, appears to have reached a plateau in his efforts. He has, in fact, only to look about him in his native Britain to assess the effect on his own culture and heritage that has been so deleteriously impacted by a flood of Muslim immigrants, many of whom view Christianity with repugnance.

Among the British Muslims that populate large swathes of England now, there is a dishearteningly large proportion who believe that Islam should dominate and will prevail, in England, transforming it into an Islamic country in time. If the power of the cradle has anything to say about it, this is a distinct possibility, allied with British tolerance and public fear of drawing attention to politically incorrect views. The Prince can certainly now expect a backlash from within his own country.

That will emanate from the large numbers of British Muslims who agree that violence to achieve an end such as an Islamic majority, universal Sharia and a global caliphate is desirable. These are people who will never accommodate themselves to living in peace and goodwill with their neighbours who are not Muslim, because their very presence is distasteful to them, and the growing tide of political Islamism holds that even contact with non-Muslims is forbidden.

Prince Charles had been moved to make his statements of denunciation of the growing presence of intolerant Islamists reacting to the presence of Christians and acting to destroy their presence, after he had listened to first-hand testimony from Christians who had sought refuge in Britain, as he visited the London cathedral of the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church centre in Stevenage.

The Hagia Sophia at night.

While unrest in Turkey continues to capture attention, more subtle and more telling events concerning the Islamification of Turkey — and not just at the hands of Prime Minister Erdogan but majorities of Turks — are quietly transpiring. These include the fact that Turkey’s Hagia Sophia museum is on its way to becoming a mosque.
Why does the fate of an old building matter?
Because Hagia Sophia — Greek for “Holy Wisdom” — was for some thousand years Christianity’s greatest cathedral. Built in 537 A.D. in Constantinople, the heart of the Christian empire, it was also a stalwart symbol of defiance against an ever encroaching Islam from the east.
Raymond Ibrahim

Daily Beast Exploits Christian Persecution to Demonize Israel

November 6, 2013

Author:

Raymond Ibrahim

Tags:

Christian persecution Christian Persecution Middle East Daily Beast Daily Beast Israel Daily Beast Israel bias Egypt Christians Israel Christians Israel non-Jews Middle East Christians Raymond Ibrahim Syria Christians

A burning church in Egypt. Photo: IPT News. 

What’s worse than the silence of Western Christians concerning the Muslim persecution of their coreligionists in the Islamic world? Answer: Cynically exploiting that persecution for a political agenda—in the case of a recent Daily Beast article, to excoriate the state of Israel and its supporters.
Titled “Why Won’t the West Defend Middle Eastern Christians?” and written by Diarmaid MacCulloch, a Fellow of St. Cross College, the article touches on the persecution of Christians, but primarily as a springboard to attack American Christian support for Israel. Consider the following excerpt:

… one of the silences which I find most frustrating is precisely the lack of noise from Western Christians about the fate of ancient Christianities in the Middle East. At the heart of the problems in the Middle East is seven decades of unresolved conflict between Israel and Palestine…

Yes, Western silence vis-à-vis the plight of Mideast Christians is as real as it is frustrating, but exactly how is MacCulloch able to jump to the conclusion that the Arab-Israeli conflict is “the heart” of the problem?

What about the well-documented Islamic doctrines that codify the suppression and persecution of Christians and other non-Muslims?

What about the documented fact that Christians under Islam have been persecuted for more than 1,300 years before the existence of the state of Israel, in complete accordance to said doctrines?

What about the fact that Christians are currently being persecuted in every corner of the Islamic world, as documented in my monthly “Muslim Persecution of Christians” series—including diverse countries such as Pakistan, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, and every corner of Africa—and not just the Middle East?

Surely this is the true “heart of the problem”—and not the tiny and relatively new state of Israel.
Of course, to thinkers like MacCulloch, all the above points concerning Islamic hostility for Christians are not open to consideration, for they portray Islam in a negative light and so must be false (see Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians for abundant documentation otherwise.)

Instead, MacCulloch offers politically correct boilerplate statements, such as: “Christians are scapegoated for their faith by an extremist militant minority of Muslims, who betray their own religion by intolerance, and who make other Muslims ashamed of what is happening.”
Indeed, it is MacCulloch who betrays himself by characterizing Islam as a “tolerant” faith when any moderately objective reading of doctrine and history—made manifest in daily headlines—all prove the reverse.

Likewise, instead of delving into and exposing the true “heart of the problem,” MacCulloch critiques Protestant eschatology and U.S. support for Israel, the consequences of which “have been particularly dire for the traditional Christianities of the Middle East.”

It would have been more useful and sincere if he had addressed more glaring questions, for example:

• When the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters in Egypt torched some 80 churches and murdered Christians, including children—not to mention all the other anti-Christian atrocities they committed before and since—was that because of Israel or something else?
• When Islamic rebels in Syria terrorize Christians, behead their priests and pastors, break Christian crosses and smash icons—all while shouting Islamic slogans—is that because of Israel or something more innate?
• When Muslims in Indonesia illegally close off churches forcing Christians to celebrate Christmas in the streets—only to have cow dung and urine hurled at them—is that because of Israel, or something more ingrained?
• When the Nigerian Islamic group Boko Haram destroys hundreds of churches and slaughters thousands of Christians, and when, on the other side of Africa, the Somali Islamic group Al-Shabaab terrorizes and beheads converts to Christianity—is that because of Israel or something more doctrinal?
• Indeed, when Christian minorities in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip are abducted and forced to convert to Islam, is that because of Israel or the elephant in the room?

MacCulloch is correct about one thing: many Muslims do hate Israel. But that hate, far from prompting the persecution of Christians, is actually a byproduct of the same hostility Islamic supremacism engenders for all non-Muslims. The reason it is much more viral for Israel is because the Jewish state is in a unique position of authority over Muslims unlike vulnerable Christian minorities (as fully explained in this article).

The theme of silence permeates MacCulloch’s Daily Beast article—specifically, that Western Christians are silent concerning the plight of their persecuted brethren. This silence is true and troubling—and many mainstream American Protestant denominations are certainly guilty of it.
However, instead of exploiting the sufferings of Christian minorities simply to scapegoat Israel—ironically a nation that is in an existential struggle against the very same ideology and forces that persecute Christians—it might have been better for MacCulloch himself to be silent.

Raymond Ibrahim is author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians.  A Mideast and Islam specialist, he is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, an associate fellow at the Middle East Forum, and a Hoover Institution Media Fellow, 2013.