Persecution of Christians: A living tradition

Muhammad’s last military expedition was against the Byzantine Christians in the northern Arabian garrison of Tabuk, and shortly after their prophet’s death Islamic jihadists conquered and Islamised what had up to then been the Christian lands of the Middle East, North Africa and Spain. The jihad then pointed toward Christian Europe and continued there for centuries, with a high water mark coming in 1453 with the conquest of Constantinople. But in September 1683, the Ottoman siege of Vienna was broken, and the Islamic tide in Europe began to recede. But the doctrines that fueled the jihad against Christians were never reformed or rejected by any Islamic sect. Consequently, with the renewal of jihadist sentiments among Muslims in the twentieth century came renewed persecution of Christians. This chilling story told by a woman who lived during the Ottoman Empire of the late nineteenth century captures the moment of that renewal in one household:

Then one night, my husband came home and told me that the padisha had sent word that we were to kill all the Christians in our village, and that we would have to kill our neighbours. I was very angry, and told him that I did not care who gave such orders, they were wrong. These neighbours had always been kind to us, and if he dared to kill them Allah would pay us out. I tried all I could to stop him, but he killed them — killed them with his own hand.[62]

The Christian population in Turkey has declined from 15% in 1920 to one percent today. In Syria, it has declined from 33% to 10% in the same span. In Bethlehem, 85% of the population was Christian in 1948; today, 12% hold to the faith of the town’s most celebrated native son.[63]

The burden of the past lies heavy on the present for Christians in the Muslim world. Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, a controversial pro-Osama Muslim leader who lived for years in Great Britain but is now barred from reentering that country, wrote in October 2002, “We cannot simply say that because we have no Khilafah [caliphate] we can just go ahead and kill any non-Muslim, rather, we must still fulfill their Dhimmah.”[64] The Dhimmah is the Islamic legal contract of protection for Jews, Christians, and some other inferiors under Islamic rule; those who accept this protection and the concomitant deprivation of various rights, are known as dhimmis. In 1999, Sheikh Yussef Salameh, the Palestinian Authority’s undersecretary for religious endowment, according to Jonathan Adelman and Agota Kuperman of the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies, “praised the idea that Christians should become dhimmis under Muslim rule, and such suggestions have become more common since the second intifada began in October 2000.”[65]

In a recent Friday sermon at a mosque in Mecca, Sheikh Marzouq Salem Al-Ghamdi spelled out the Sharia’s injunctions for dhimmis:

If the infidels live among the Muslims, in accordance with the conditions set out by the Prophet — there is nothing wrong with it provided they pay Jizya to the Islamic treasury. Other conditions are...that they do not renovate a church or a monastery, do not rebuild ones that were destroyed, that they feed for three days any Muslim who passes by their homes...that they rise when a Muslim wishes to sit, that they do not imitate Muslims in dress and speech, nor ride horses, nor own swords, nor arm themselves with any kind of weapon; that they do not sell wine, do not show the cross, do not ring church bells, do not raise their voices during prayer, that they shave their hair in front so as to make them easily identifiable, do not incite anyone against the Muslims, and do not strike a Muslim...If they violate these conditions, they have no protection.[66]

These Sharia provisions have not been fully enforced since the mid-nineteenth century, but today’s jihadists want to restore these laws along with the rest of the Sharia.

The idea that Christians must “feel themselves subdued” (Qur’an 9: 29) in Islamic lands is also very much alive. When the first Catholic Church in Qatar opened in March 2008, it sported no cross, no bell, no steeple, and no sign. “The idea, ” explained the church’s pastor, Fr. Tom Veneracion, “is to be discreet because we don’t want to inflame any sensitivities.”[67]

In the Philippines, the church in the nation’s one Islamic city, Marawi, has also done away with the cross. Catholic priest, Fr. Teresito Soganub, explains: “To avoid arguments and to avoid further misunderstandings we just plant the cross deep in our hearts.” Fr. Soganub, according to Reuters, “doesn’t wear a crucifix or a clerical collar and sports a beard out of respect for his Muslim neighbours.” He celebrates few weddings, since roast pork is a staple of wedding receptions for Filipino Catholics.[68]

It is easy to see the need for such discretion. Preaching in a mosque in Al-Damam, Saudi Arabia, the popular Saudi Sheikh Muhammad Saleh Al-Munajjid recommended hatred of Christians and Jews as a proper course: “Muslims must, ” he declared, “educate their children to Jihad. This is the greatest benefit of the situation: educating the children to Jihad and to hatred of the Jews, the Christians, and the infidels; educating the children to Jihad and to revival of the embers of Jihad in their souls. This is what is needed now...”[69]