by Raymond
Ibrahim
A lie conceals the truth. And ugly but hidden
truths never have a chance of being acknowledged, addressed, and ultimately
ameliorated.
Because of this simple truism, one of the
greatest lies of our age—that violence committed in the name of Islam has nothing
to do with Islam—has made an intrinsically weak Islam the scourge of
the modern world, with no signs of relief on the horizon.
One of the latest manifestations of this lie
took place in Pakistan. On Easter Sunday, March 27, a
suicide bombing took place near the children rides of a public park, where
Christians were congregated and celebrating the resurrection of their Lord. At
least 74 people—mostly Christian women and children—were killed and nearly 400
injured. "There was human flesh on the walls of our house," recalled
a witness.
Who—or what—was responsible for this assault?
"We claim responsibility for the attack on Christians as they were celebrating
Easter," said Jamaatul Ahraar, a splinter group of the Taliban. In a media
statement, the group said it had "deliberately targeted the Christian
community," adding that "we had been waiting for this occasion."
The Taliban and its affiliates are not alone.
Click here, here, here, here, and here for numerous examples of similarly
lethal attacks on Christians celebrating
Christmas or Easter by other Islamic groups and individuals around the world
who also "had been waiting for this occasion." Even "the terror cell that struck in
Brussels [last month, killing 34] was planning to
massacre worshipers at Easter church services across Europe, including Britain,
intelligence chiefs believe."
Still, connecting the dots and understanding
what binds all Islamic terrorist groups is a big no-no for the so-called
mainstream media. The problem, we will be told, is the "Taliban,"
which "has nothing to do with Islam." Rather, it's a finite,
temporal, localized problem: defeat it, and the problem vanishes.
Meanwhile, about 5,000 miles west of Taliban
territory, in Nigeria, Christians are also under attack. Indeed, according to a
new report, since 2000, some 12,000 Christians
have been slaughtered for their faith and 13,000 churches destroyed. Just last month, over 500 Christians were butchered.
According to the official narrative, something
called "Boko Haram" is responsible. This is another group that
defines itself exclusively according to Islam; another group that habitually bombs churches during Christmas and Easter;
and another group that, we are told, "has nothing to do with Islam,"
but rather is a finite, temporal, localized problem: defeat it, and the problem
vanishes.
About 5,000 miles west of Nigeria, in the U.S.,
Americans were told that something called "al-Qaeda" attacked and
killed 3,000 of their countrymen on 9/11; defeating that finite group would
cease the terror. Its leader, Osama bin Laden, was killed, and victory loudly proclaimed—except that an even
more savage manifestation, this time called the "Islamic State" (it too "has nothing to do with Islam")
came on the scene and has gone further than al-Qaeda could've ever dreamed, in great part thanks to the Obama administration.
It gets worse. The problem is not only that the
media and decision-makers refuse to connect the dots and insist on treating
each of the aforementioned groups as disparate, finite groups with different
motivations—none of which has to do with Islam. The problem is that regular
Muslims who are not called "Taliban," "Boko Haram,"
"al-Qaeda," "ISIS," ad infinitum commit similar acts, and
much more frequently, though this is rarely ever mentioned by the MSM.
Thus, although the "Taliban" was
behind the recent Easter Day massacre, it is everyday Muslims who discriminate
against, persecute, enslave, rape and sometimes murder Christians
every day in Pakistan (click here for a typical month); it was
everyday Muslims who burned a young Christian couple alivedue to
unsubstantiated rumors that they had insulted Muhammad.
Those who slaughtered 500 Christians last month
in Nigeria were not "Boko Haram" but rather unaffiliated (but Muslim)
herdsmen. Likewise, "Northern Muslim political and
religious elite are also major actors of targeted violence towards the
Christian minority."
Although ISIS claimed the Brussels attack, it is everyday Muslims who ban, burn, bomb, and urinate on
Christian churches, and who, as in Pakistan and other Muslim
majority nations, target non-Muslim European women for rape on the basis
that they are subhuman "infidels."
This is the real issue. While the media may name
the terrorist groups responsible for especially spectacular attacks—followed by
the customary admonitions that they "have nothing to do with
Islam"—few dare acknowledge that Muslims in general engage
in similar acts of violence and intolerance against non-Muslims. According to a recent study, Muslims —of all
races, nationalities, languages, and socio-political and economic
circumstances, hardly just "terror groups"—are responsible for
persecuting Christians in 41 of the 50 worst nations to be Christian in.
These statistics are consistent with a recent
Pew poll finding that, in 11 countries alone, at least 63 million and as many
as 287 million Muslims support ISIS. Similarly, 81% of respondents to a recent
Al Jazeera poll supported the Islamic State.
In sum, what "extremist"
"terrorist" and "militant" groups (that "have nothing
to do with Islam") are doing is but the tip of the iceberg of what Muslims are
doing all around the world. (See "Muslim Persecution of Christians,"
reports which I've been compiling every month since July 2011 and witness the
nonstop discrimination, persecution, and carnage committed by
"everyday" Muslims against Christians. Each monthly report contains
dozens of atrocities, any of which if committed by Christians against Muslims
would receive 24/7 blanket coverage.)
Media aren't just covering up for Islam by
pretending that the spectacular attacks committed by Islamic groups on
non-Muslims "have nothing to do with Islam." They are covering up for
Islam by failing to report the everyday persecution non-Muslims experience at
the hands of everyday Muslims—Muslim individuals, Muslim mobs, Muslim police,
and Muslim governments (including America's closest "friends and allies")—not
just Muslim "terrorists."
Because of these entrenched lies, the world must
continue to suffer from Islamic terror. Not only have these lies allowed
countless innocents to be persecuted into oblivion in the Muslim world, but
they have allowed the same persecution to enter America and Europe, most recently
via mass immigration.
The fact remains: an ugly truth must first be
acknowledged before it can be remedied. It may be hard to acknowledge an ugly
truth—that Islam, not "radical Islam," promotes hate for and violence
against non-Muslims—but anything less will just continue to feed the lie, that
is, continue to feed the jihad and terror.
Raymond Ibrahim is a Judith
Friedman Rosen fellow at the Middle East Forum and a Shillman fellow at the
David Horowitz Freedom Center.
