In the meantime, because jizya is not being exacted by the state, many Muslims deem it their right to plunder Christians, as in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere. In fact, this has been going on since the 1970s, when al-Gama‘a al Islamiyya (the Islamic Group) issued fatwas legitimizing the plundering of Christian homes and businesses in Egypt, in lieu of jizya. 150
Since the “Arab Spring” began, several human rights reports have appeared indicating that roaming gangs of Muslims are intentionally targeting Egypt’s Christians and holding them for ransom. The stories follow the same pattern: a Christian is kidnapped; his or her family is contacted and told to pay an exorbitant sum, usually more than they can possibly come up with; and police do nothing.151 A report by the Arabic-language news outlet Alkhbar entitled “After Dahshur, Jizya Imposed on Copts in Asyut” tells how “hundreds of Christians gathered before the Asyut Security Directorate in Manfalut Municipality, demanding that police protect them, their children, and houses from a gang attacking their homes and imposing tributes on them.”152
In January 2012 two Christians, a father and son, were killed “after a Muslim racketeer opened fire on them for refusing to pay him extortion money.” The local bishop “hold[s] security forces and local Muslims fully responsible for terrorizing the Copts living there.... who are continuously being subjected to terror and kidnapping.”153 In March 2012 Muslims abducted Fadel Rushdie, a Christian youth, and went on to contact his family demanding a large sum of money. Police failed to react.154
And in August 2012, Islamists in Egypt’s Constituent Assembly attempted to extend the extortion to the law, demanding that the Coptic Church’s funds be placed under the Islamist-led government’s financial control—a measure categorically rejected by Copts. The Egyptian state in no way funds the Coptic Church, even though taxpayers—including Christians—fund mosques. Condemning the proposal, the acting patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church at the time said the demand has only one meaning: “that Copts are clearly persecuted.”155
The displacement of Coptic Christians has become an ongoing crisis, so much so that a recent statement by the Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt lamented the “repeated incidents of displacement of Copts from their homes, whether by force or threat.... Displacements began in Amiriyah, then they stretched to Dahshur, and today terror and threats have reached the hearts and souls of our Coptic children in Rafah [Sinai]”—all regions which saw Muslim mobs drive out Christian minorities and seize their property, often as collective punishment for individual Christians’ purported transgressions against Sharia.156
Spotlight on Pakistan
It is the same for Pakistan’s harried Christian minority. Anecdotes of Christians being abducted and held for ransom abound; a great many of them concern the hundreds of females abducted and raped. For example, in August 2011 Shaheen Bibi, a forty-year-old Christian mother of seven children, “was kidnapped, raped, sold into marriage and threatened with death” if she did not convert to Islam. Because she resisted, her Islamic abductors contacted her father and demanded 100,000 rupees in exchange for the woman’s freedom.157
Of course when it comes to extorting money from Christians, women are not the only targets. An August 2009 report from the Indian Daily News & Analysis website states that “eight members of the minority Christian community have been kidnapped in Pakistan’s troubled Waziristan tribal region.... There have been several instances of members of minority communities being abducted for ransom or forced to pay jiziya [sic], a tax levied on non-Muslims.”158
It is the same elsewhere in Pakistan, not just in jihadi-infested regions. In August 2012 Agenzia Fides, reporting the murder of a Christian youth by Muslims in Karachi—the largest city and financial center of Pakistan—said, “Christians are harassed by criminal gangs and Islamic terrorist groups of ethnic Pashtuns: armed to the teeth, the militants enter the area to collect the ‘Jizya.’ . . . Militants raid houses, steal and abuse women and children for fun. The local population is terrorized. ”159
In July 2009, a Christian businessman driving through Lahore was “shot eight times in the legs” for refusing to pay extortion money to a Muslim. Apparently envious of the Christian’s wealth, the Muslim approached him and said, “‘You now have three cars, so give me $3,750. You are a wealthy Christian, so it is my right to get as much money as I need from you. If you don’t give it to me, I will kill you.’” When the victim’s brothers went to file a report at the police station, they were harassed and delayed. Although the police know the identity of the “jizya-collecting” Muslim, they took no action. 160
In October 2011, Muslims raided a Christian home, beat a sick father and abducted two brothers, who they say owe them money—to which supposed debt the kidnappers added an additional 70,000 rupees in ransom. “The men’s mother tried to file a report with police, which refused because one of the suspects is a fellow police officer”—not to mention, a fellow Muslim.161
In March 2012, Muslims abducted “two Christian hospital employees in Karachi.” A senior investigator said, “‘Such cases are on the rise, as banned Islamist groups and other criminal gangs are turning to kidnappings for ransom in order to survive and procure weapons and ammunition.’”162
Pakistan’s despised Christians have also been robbed of land with impunity. In October 2011 one man was killed and “two dozen Christians including children, men and women were seriously injured” when an influential Muslim hired Muslims who attacked the Christians “to grab a piece of land bought for a social project”—land that the church had purchased to build an orphanage.163
Two months later, in December 2011, during another attempted landgrab, Muslim police and the associates of a retired military official beat two Christian women with “batons and punches,” inflicting a serious wound on one of the women’s eyes, and opened fire on Christians who came to the aid of the attacked women, all because the women had dared to speak up in defense of their land. “In the last few years Muslims have made several attempts to seize the land from the Christians, usually succeeding because Christians are a marginalized minority,” reported World Watch Monitor.164
Elsewhere around the Islamic world Christians are being forced to ransom their lives with money. For example, in Islamist Sudan in January 2012, “after a large truck smashed through the gates of the St. Josephine Bakhita’s Catholic Church compound,” Muslims affiliated with Sudan’s Islamic government kidnapped two Catholic priests, “severely beat” them, and “looted their living quarters, stealing two vehicles, two laptops and a safe.” Later the kidnappers forced the priests to call their bishop with a ransom demand of 500,000 Sudanese pounds (US $185,530).165
The jizya-jihad has even reached the West. In March 2012, in a Muslim ghetto in Copenhagen, an African refugee was threatened by a group of “youths” who repeatedly kicked his door in, accused him of being “both black and Christian,” and tried to extort money from him. Police said they could not guarantee his safety, and he was eventually found “in tears” living in the streets.166 Likewise, in December 2012, another gang of “youths” attacked the Holy Cross Church in the heart of the Nørrebro area of Copenhagen, demanding money because it was “in their territory.” Nørrebro has a significant Muslim population. 167
Islamic attempts to collect jizya are no longer limited to the Christian minorities under Islam. In 2002, Saudi Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul Rahman, discussing the prophet’s prediction that Islam will one day conquer Rome, said, “We will control the land of the Vatican; we will control Rome and introduce Islam in it. Yes, the Christians . . . will yet pay us the Jiziya [sic], in humiliation, or they will convert to Islam.”168
According to other Muslim leaders, the West is already paying jizya, by way of welfare benefits. For example, in February 2013, Anjem Choudary, an Islamic cleric and popular preacher in the United Kingdom, was secretly taped telling a Muslim audience to follow his example and get “Jihad Seeker’s Allowance” from the government—a pun on “Job Seeker’s Al
lowance.” The father of four, who receives more than 25,000 pounds annually in welfare benefits, referred to British taxpayers as “slaves,” adding, “We take the jizya, which is our haq [Arabic for “right”], anyway. The normal situation by the way is to take money from the kafir [infidel], isn’t it? So this is the normal situation. They give us the money—you work, give us the money, Allahu Akhbar. We take the money. Hopefully there’s no one from the DSS [Department of Social Security] listening to this.”169
PIOUS MUSLIMS, PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS
Muslim hostility toward non-Muslims often occurs in connection with Muslim piety. For instance, a great many of the above anecdotes, particularly the mob attacks on churches, occurred on Friday—the Muslim equivalent of Sunday for Christians. Friday is the one day of the week that Muslims go to mosque, engage in communal prayers, and listen to a sermon. It is also the one day that Christians and others are most likely to be attacked, thanks to sermons which habitually incite Muslims against religious minorities. The significance of these Friday attacks can be best understood by analogy: What if Christians were especially violent and intolerant toward non-Christians on Sundays, right after leaving church service? What would that say about Christianity? What does it say about Islam?
Consider the fact that Ramadan—Islam’s holiest month, when Muslims are expected to fast during daylight hours and pay special attention to their religious duties—typically sees some of the worst attacks on religious minorities, usually in revenge for their not “knowing their place.”
On August 8, 2011, after breaking their Ramadan fast in the evening, thousands of Muslims rampaged through a predominantly Christian village in Egypt, firing automatic weapons and throwing Molotov cocktails at Coptic homes. They intentionally targeted and beat the village priest, plundering and torching his home. Another Copt was murdered in his home, which was also ransacked. 170 Separately, seven Muslims savagely attacked yet another Christian in front of a police station; he lost one eye and required twenty stitches in his head. Muslims sexually harassed girls leaving church and also hurled stones at the church, shattering five windows. 171 This particular attack, like the Maspero Massacre, was prompted by the fact that the Christians had had the audacity to stage a protest—in this case, against the fact that Muslims were targeting Christian girls for abuse.
On July 27, 2012, a diabetic man in Egypt was driving his car when he was struck with great thirst, “which he could not bear” (a side-effect of diabetes, further exacerbated by Egypt’s July weather). He pulled over by a public water source and started drinking water. Soon three passersby approached him, inquiring why he was drinking water (which is forbidden to Muslims during daylight in Ramadan). The diabetic replied, “Because I am a Christian, and sick,” to which they exclaimed, “You’re a Christian, too!” and begun beating him mercilessly. Other passersby began to congregate to see what was happening, but no one intervened on behalf of the diabetic Christian until he managed to make a dash for his parked car and fled the scene.
Also in Egypt, on July 30, 2012, a young Christian doctor, Maher Rizkalla Ghali, was shot by neighboring Muslims, including easily-identifiable Salafis, resulting in the loss of an eye, because he had had the temerity to ask them to keep the noise down for the sake of “children and the elderly”—the Muslims had been rioting and shooting guns in the air to celebrate after sundown in Ramadan. Their response was to “insult his religion” and open fire at him, partially blinding him and severely disfiguring his face. Then they went into full mob mode and tried to break through the door of his home to plunder it. Although the family filed a police report, “security forces have not taken any action towards the perpetrators.” In addition, this gravely wounded Christian doctor was denied admission to several hospitals. 172
It is the same for Christians during Ramadan from one end of the Muslim world to the other. Far to the east, in Pakistan, on July 29, 2012, eleven Christian student nurses were “allegedly poisoned with mercury in their tea,” likely as “punishment” for drinking a beverage during the month of Ramadan while their Muslim colleagues were fasting.173 Far to the west, in Algeria in August 2012, a Christian Lebanese singer was arrested for smoking in public and “failing to show due respect to Muslims.” She was released after police warned her that “she was not allowed to smoke in public during Ramadan in Muslim Algeria, even though she was a Christian.”174
Ironically, almost every year, stories appear in the Western news about Christmas decorations on public property being suppressed, at least in part to accommodate Muslim sensitivities.175 But in the Muslim world, during the major Muslim holy season of the year, Christians themselves are being suppressed to accommodate Muslim sensitivities.
PART FIVE
SEE NO EVIL, HEAR NO EVIL
We have now surveyed hundredreds of documented stories of Christian persecution under Islam-the overwhelming majority of which have taken place in just the last few years. To cover and document the amount of persecution Christians have experienced across the Muslim world in only the last few decades would require volumes.
We have also seen the distinctly Islamic nature of these attacks—whether they are literally rooted in Islam’s teachings, such as the attacks on churches that follow from Islamic rules forbidding them to be built; or whether they are cultural byproducts of Islamic supremacism and contempt for Christians, such as the double standards in the courtroom, and even widespread rape and murder. The same exact patterns of persecution are evident from one end of the Islamic world to the other—in lands that do not share the same language, race, or culture—that share only Islam. This fact alone leaves no doubt concerning the root source of such persecution. Whether they arise out of doctrine or culture, all the forms of persecution we have surveyed are rooted in the Sharia—the “Islamic way.”
And yet the question remains: Why is this humanitarian crisis so little known, and even less acted upon, by the West—the West, which not only champions humanitarianism, but reportedly has a large Christian population, especially in America? Why do Americans persist in believing that each new atrocity against Christians in the Muslim world is somehow an anomaly—an exception to the rule of tolerance that is presumed to prevail in Islam?
At the beginning of this book we briefly touched on some reasons for the modern West’s ignorance about Muslim persecution of Christians. It is understandable that memories of the colonial period and its immediate aftermath—which, after all, are really not that long ago—would lull Americans and other Westerners into assuming that the natural state of affairs for Muslims is to coexist peacefully with Christians. Or at least it would be understandable—if not for the enormous weight of recent evidence demonstrating Muslim abuse of Christians wherever Islam holds sway, and even wherever Muslims are a majority of the population. Surely anyone who pays attention to recent events in Muslim nations must quickly clue in to the fact that the “Golden Age” of Christianity in the Islamic world is long gone.
Apparently not.
What is keeping our ideas about the status of Christians in the Muslim world from catching up to the reality on the ground?
A large part of the explanation is that three enormously influential institutions in the West have skewed the story. Western academia, Western media, and Western governments—in different ways, to different degrees, and at different times—have all refused to acknowledge what Christians are suffering at the hands of Muslims. This is in keeping with their reluctance to recognize that Islam itself is the cause of this persecution.
ACADEMIA: WHITEWASHING ISLAM, BLAMING THE WEST
Islam has been whitewashed by Western professors in Western universities. The picture of Muslims and of Islam that trickles down from the scholarly establishment to textbooks and lesson plans across America is flattering but false. Objective history and primary texts have been jettisoned and replaced with a revisionist history that has little grounding in reality. In the politically correct narrative that holds sway in Western institutions of lear
ning, the Christian West is always the oppressor—from the Crusades through colonialism to the present—and the Islamic world is the noble victim.
For an example of how American academics see Islam and its history through rose-colored glasses, consider the way the medieval Islamic leader Saladin has been so thoroughly whitewashed and held up as a counterexample to help demonize Christians. According to one esteemed American historian, “When we contrast with this [the Crusader conquest of Jerusalem] the conduct of Saladin when he captured Jerusalem from the Christians in 1187, we have a striking illustration of the difference between the two civilizations and realize what the Christians might learn from contact with the Saracens [Muslims] in the Holy Land.” Note the present tense: “might learn.” Saladin—a hero for al-Qaeda1—is being held up in the West as an example from whom “intolerant” Christians today need to learn. Another historian wrote that Saladin was “unusually merciful for his time. He allowed the Crusaders who entered it [Jerusalem] in a bloodbath, to leave the city in peace.”2
Such historians habitually neglect to mention the political exigencies of the situation, which prompted Saladin’s apparent mercy—just as they fail to mention that in the Muslim lands where he was in absolute power, Saladin’s “mercy” expressed itself in commands to break the crosses from atop the domes of churches, to cover church buildings with black mud, and to crucify Christians.3 Saladin’s retirement wish—to pursue the same Crusaders he supposedly pardoned “until there shall not remain on the face of this earth one unbeliever in God [Allah], or I will die in the attempt”—is also conveniently omitted from the story, as it detracts from the narrative of the magnanimous Muslim.4
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