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Hanania: Muslim World Needs to Speak Out More Against Growing Anti-Christian Incidents
When enraged Americans driven by emotion and ignorance spoke out against the building of a Mosque two blocks from Ground Zero, among the people leading the charge were Jewish Americans.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg were among those who expressed support for the mosque and urged religious tolerance.
Although several other prominent Jewish groups like the hypocritical Anti-Defamation League flip-flopped supporting the mosque and then opposing it, Jewish leaders across the country spoke about the principle of religious freedom and equality that was being betrayed.
In Afghanistan, I don’t know whether a team of 10 doctors were murdered in Northern Afghanistan this week by robbers or by Taliban terrorists, but the Taliban didn’t hesitate to jump on the grisly massacre and claim credit.
The reasoning they used is that the doctors were Christians trying to convert Muslims. Although Muslims trying to convert and educate Christians on Islam is not a crime in any Western country that I know of, Christians seeking to convert Muslims is and is often treated like a major crime in many Arab and Islamic countries.
The fact is that Christians continue to be persecuted in Muslim countries and the only defense we get is the argument of silence against “airing the dirty laundry” in public.
“Christians and Muslims have fought and died together in Palestine and we shouldn’t separate the two,” is the refrain often uttered in response. No one denies it, but Christians face as much turmoil equally oppressed with Muslims under Israel’s brutal occupation as they do in Muslim and Arab countries.
All my life, I was told that I should never use the phrase “Muslims and Christians.” Instead, I was told, we should always say “Arabs and Muslims.”
I don’t like it one bit. The silence demeans Christian Arabs and marginalizes them even more than we already are, easily targeted by extremists on the Internet like
When I was elected national president of the Palestinian American Congress in 1995, the pro-Hamas Islamic Association for Palestine published an article attacking me, arguing that “electing Ray Hanania president of the Palestinian American Congress is the same as electing a black man president of the United States.”
Need I point out that a Black man was elected president of the United States in November 2009, 14 years after my election as one of the first Christian Palestinian President of a major national Palestinian American organization.
Publicly, my Arab and Muslim critics insist that my religion is not an issue, but many Christians know that is a lie. It’s one reason why I was targeted then and why I am being targeted now, as one of the new members of the National Board of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
I know that most Arabs and Muslims do not discriminate against Christians. I know that being a Christian Arab is much like being a Muslim Arab in this country; most Americans believe I am Muslim and hate me because they think I am Muslim. I am proud to be mistaken for a Muslim because Christian Arabs are Muslims by culture.
And I won’t hide behind my Christianity simply to avoid being persecuted by ignorant Americans blinded by rage, bigotry and racism. When an American attacks me for being Muslim I defend myself and other Arabs and Muslims as if I were a Muslim.
Yet, I and many Arab Christians know that there is a serious and growing anti-Christian problem among some Muslims. And while they are the exception, the greater harm is that the majority of Muslims and Arabs who oppose this kind of anti-Christian hatred oftentimes fail to speak out on the issue.
They want to pretend it will go away if we just don’t talk about it.
Well, there are many important things to talk about regarding politics and saving Palestine but talking about and discussing the rising anti-Christian incidents in the Arab and Muslim community is something we need to start discussing publicly.
I don’t care if, as some fanatics argue, that discussing this “gives comfort” to the Israelis. The fact is that discussing it might also give comfort to many Christian Arabs who are not only fleeing Israeli oppression but also the sad reality of the Arab World, the Middle East and the Muslim World where more and more challenges against Christians continue to grow.
The fact that the Taliban felt comfortable to claim that the doctors, who were in Afghanistan helping to heal the poor victims of the terrorism there, were murdered because they were trying to convert Muslims to Christianity should outrage every Muslim in every country.
And they should say it publicly.
Ray Hanania