| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"The Black Monk" |
| Date: |
30 Oct 2004 10:06:07 AM |
| Object: |
Bush's Global War on Christians |
Bush's Global War on Christians
by Glen Chancy
As we approach the 2004 Presidential elections, many Christian
conservatives are lamenting various aspects of the current president's
policies. The list of gripes is long and familiar to anyone active in
conservative politics: out of control spending, the PATRIOT Act, No
Child Left Behind, lax border security, and on it goes. In fact, a
meeting of die-hard Republicans, held behind closed doors, is likely
to devolve into a Bush-basing session the like of which Democrats
could only dream. Give that there are alternatives to voting for
either George Bush or John Kerry, one would expect that disgusted
religious conservatives would look elsewhere for a candidate to
support. After all, there is even an explicitly Christian party for
which to cast a ballot.
Yet, despite their manifest anger towards him, most Christian
conservatives will turn out in force to support President Bush on
November 2nd. They will do so for a mixture of reasons, but above all
what keeps so many Christian conservatives on the Republican
reservation is the ‘War on Terror.' There is a belief, widespread
among Christian conservatives, that the ‘War on Terror' is really a
‘Clash of Civilizations.' Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, although himself a
conservative Jew, summed up the views of many Christian conservatives
quite succintly in one of his articles posted on the Internet. He
wrote, "It is time that I said in print what I have long felt in my
heart: I not only support President Bush, I revere him. At a time when
so many other world leaders want to paint Sept. 11 as a terror attack,
President Bush saw it for what it was: a clash of civilizations, a war
to the death between two systems – one open, democratic and respectful
of human life, the other oppressive, tyrannical and deeply
contemptible of human life."
The ‘War on Terror' then is not just about keeping the borders of the
United States secure. It is not simply about preventing future
terrorist attacks. Rather, the ‘War on Terror' is the ultimate
showdown of Christianity (and Judaism) versus Islam. It is a fight to
the finish, and George W. Bush is our Richard the Lionhearted, leading
the armies of the Cross, allied with those of the Star of David, to
glorious victory.
In this apocalyptic setting, the vast majority of Christian
conservatives are backing President George Bush because they sincerely
believe that, "Something must be done about the Muslim threat!" To
these religious conservatives, George Bush is willing to go on the
offensive and strike back in the name of God and country. They fear
that John Kerry will surrender to the Muslims, and allow Western
Civilization to be overrun a la Constantinople in 1453.
"Forget all of Bush's flaws," Christian conservatives bellow, "At
least he's willing to fight!"
So, is our glorious president leading the Christian World in a great
struggle against the Muslim hordes? If he were, then a reasonable
outcome of this ‘Clash' would be that the position of Christian (and
Jewish) populations worldwide would be in the process of becoming more
secure.
This is, alas, absolutely not happening. In fact, the current policies
of the Bush administration are threatening to absolutely devastate
ancient and pious Christian communities whose blood will be on all our
heads. To deal with the subject honestly, it must be acknowledged that
it almost appears as if President George Walker Bush were waging a
global war against Christians.
There are a tremendous number of facts that could be marshaled to
support such a counterintuitive statement, and at least some will be
surveyed in this article. However, the primary thrust of this article
will be to analyze the policies of the Bush Administration that have
placed us on the road to destroying one of the oldest Christian
communities in the entire world – the Assyrians of Iraq.
Iraq – Before the Liberation
To understand the situation in Iraq today, in proper context, let's
first review some basic facts about Iraq as it was under Saddam
Hussein's regime.
Saddam Hussein was a bad Muslim, and everybody knew it. A secular
dictator, he ruthlessly suppressed radical religious sentiment, and
tried to build a modern state. Saddam was bitterly hated and reviled
by Muslim radicals as diverse as Osama Bin Laden and the Shi'ite
Ayatollahs of Iran. In a tape released by Osama bin Laden in February
2003, Saddam Hussein is referred to as an 'ignorant infidel.' The
Iranian clerics hated Saddam so much that they repeatedly spurned
peace initiatives to end the Iran-Iraq War, in the hopes continued
fighting could topple his government. They intended to replace it with
a Shi'ite dominated state modeled after their own. Eventually, they
got smart enough to hire Ahmed Chalabi to convince the U.S. to topple
Saddam for them.
Saddam had inherited the Ba'ath Party ideology of secular pan-Arab
socialism, and hewed to many of its tenets throughout his brutal rule.
Iraqi women enjoyed more rights than women in the surrounding Arab
countries. Women could hold jobs and attend higher education, all with
uncovered faces. In fact, women comprised 20% of the professional
workforce.
Under Saddam, alcohol merchants plied their wares freely in their
shops. The lack of enforcement of the Sharia made Iraq the party spot
of the region. David Younan Oro, a 70-year-old patriarch of a
Christian family in Ramadi, ran casinos and nightclubs during the
heyday of Saddam's regime. He described the glory days like this,
"They drink like donkeys here. Business was good. I had a lot of
restaurants and shops." If you stayed out of politics, life and
business were good.
Among the primary tenets of Ba'athist ideology was a dedication to
religious tolerance. This is not surprising, since the intellectual
father of Ba'athism was Michel Aflaq, himself an Orthodox Christian.
In keeping with Ba'athist ideology, Saddam did not interfere with the
rights of the Assyrian Christians in Iraq to practice their faith.
Comprising somewhere between one and two million Iraqis, the
Aramaic-speaking Assyrians are the original inhabitants of the
modern-day state of Iraq.
The Assyrians did suffer repression under Saddam Hussein, who
suppressed their ethnic and linguistic distinctiveness while trying to
meld the hodgepodge of peoples in Iraq into a unified state. At no
time, however, were the Assyrians ever denied the free practice of
their religion, nor did they fear for their lives simply because of
their faith.
One measure of the relative religious freedom of the Assyrians under
Saddam was the exuberant and public celebration of Christmas. As one
writer described it, "Christmas decorations, including nativity
scenes, were seen in shops, restaurants and hotels. And Saddam
reportedly sometimes attended services at Christian churches in
Baghdad and even delivered an annual Christmas address."
As for the United States, Saddam seems to have pined for better
relations. He had been a de-facto ally of the U.S. during his war
against Iran, and appears to have wanted to recapture that status.
According to the Duelfer Report, compiled by the Iraq Survey Group
(ISG), beginning already in 1991, "very senior Iraqis close to the
president made proposals through intermediaries for dialogue with
Washington," even offering to be Washington's "best friend in the
region bar none."
Apparently, Saddam never did understand why he couldn't just work a
deal with the U.S. In his beffuddlement, Saddam is not alone. Many
other observers of the region still can't grasp why this secular
dictator made it to the top of the U.S. hitlist in a war supposedly
directed at Muslim extermists.
Iraq – After the Liberation
To say the least, since being liberated from Saddam, things have gone
badly for a great many Iraqis. However, the time has been especially
harsh for the Assyrian Christians. Large areas of Iraq are now under
the control of Muslim religious leaders whose militias have been
enforcing Muslim law. Based on locally issued fatwas, these armed
fanatics have killed Christians for engaging in prohibited businesses
such as selling alcohol or other formerly legal products. Many
Christian business men have seen their shops, restaurants, and other
business either forcibly closed or confiscated.
David Younan Oro's casino, the flagship of his family business, was
taken over by armed men who converted it to a Mosque. "We had a very
good situation until the fundamentalists began to appear and we were
affected," said Roger William, Oro's son-in-law. "Because America and
Britain are Christian countries, they blame us for the war. We are
terrified. We really don't know what the future will hold."
Even Christian homes and private land are being appropriated. The
Kurds, America's erstwhile allies, are among the worst offenders.
Writing about the situation in Dara, his home village, an Assyrian
Christian living in London reported that, "The Kurdish people are
building homes on our village's land, without our permission. It is
sad to say, our own neighbors are stealing it from us."
Christians have reported rapes, kidnappings, and assaults. The
situation is so bad, that Christian children have been gunned down in
their own homes. This little girl, Raphid was gunned down in her home
along with her sister in July. She was only six years old. Her sister,
Raad, was only sixteen. They belonged to a well-known Assyrian
Christian family that had been threatened. While the family was out,
terrorists entered and shot the two children at point blank range.
These two little girls died simply because they were Christians in a
country increasingly slipping into Muslim rule.
Armed groups of men have stopped cars on the street and harangued
women whose heads are uncovered, accusing them of violating Islamic
law. Even Christians have started wearing headscarves out of fear,
something that never happened under Saddam Hussein's regime.
As Christians have retreated into the shadows, the compromise
Transitional Administrative Law in force in Iraq today has actually
gone far towards officially establishing Islamic rule in what was once
a secular country. Article 7 states, in part, that "Islam is the
official religion of the State and is to be considered a source of
legislation. No law that contradicts the universally agreed tenets of
Islam, the principles of democracy, or the rights cited in Chapter Two
of this Law may be enacted during the transitional period." It further
complicates the problem for Christians in Iraq that they are under
represented in the interim government when compared with their
percentage of the population. It is almost as if the U.S.
intentionally excluded them in the lead up to the ‘handover' of power.
Nor do the promised elections in January appear likely to improve the
situation. According to a recent poll released by the International
Republican Institute (an organization allied with the U.S. Republican
Party), the highest level of support among Iraqis for any politician
belongs to Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for
Islamic Revolution in Iraq. The name of his organization probably
speaks for itself.
It is bitterly ironic that far from bringing Western secularism, the
U.S.-invasion has instead opened the door for an Islamic Republic. Out
of fear, an estimated 40,000 to 45,000 Assyrians have already fled
Iraq. Most have found shelter in Syria next door, a nation that the
U.S. may be targeting next in its drive to spread ‘freedom' in the
Middle East. Had President George W. Bush set out with the intentional
goal of destroying the Christian population in Iraq, it is hard to see
how he could have been more effective than he has been to date.
More Fronts in the War
President Bush has continued the NATO occupation of Kosovo. Since the
end of the war against Serbia, Kosovo has been the scene of
anti-Christian ethnic cleansing on a massive scale. More than 120
churches have been destroyed, some dating to the 14th century. 240,000
Christian Serbs have fled the province. Periodic anti-Christian
pogroms such as the one that erupted from March 17th – March 18th kill
dozens, wound hundreds, and cause more Serbian Christians to flee for
their lives. While the U.N. administers the province, NATO troops,
some 60,000, are the actual force on the ground. This means that,
ultimately, the Bush Administration bears the responsibility for
failing to protect the Christians in Kosovo from Muslim fanatics.
Elsewhere in the Balkans, the Bush Administration has continued the
status quo in Bosnia, which allows Muslim terrorists to use it as a
safe-haven for recruiting and training. According to European
intelligence sources, Bosnia has become a "one-stop shop" for Islamic
militants heading from terrorist battlegrounds in Chechnya and
Afghanistan to Iraq. In addition, the U.S. under Bush has continued to
try and dismember the nation of Macedonia by forcing it to make ever
larger concessions to its Muslim Albanian minority.
The Bush Administration has made Turkish entry into the European Union
a number one priority on its international agenda. Despite Turkey's
horrendous record of mass murder and abuse of its Christian
minorities, President Bush has been intervening personally to try and
convince skeptical Europeans that, "Including Turkey in the EU would
prove that Europe is not the exclusive club of a single religion, and
it would expose the 'clash of civilizations' as a passing myth of
history." President Bush's single-minded determination to see Turkey
in the EU even drove him to try and force a bad settlement of the
Cyprus queston on unwilling Greek Cypriots, who ultimately rejected
it.
Ironically, even as his Christian supporters in the U.S. bemoan the
increasing Islamization of Europe, President Bush is doing everything
he can to make sure that 70 million more Turkish Muslims will have the
opportunity to settle there. While the possibility that this massive
migration could destroy the very heart of Christendom seems to be lost
on President Bush, certain European leaders have become quite alarmed.
Addressing the issue of Turkey joining the EU, former French President
Valery Giscard d'Estaing said, "In my opinion, it would be the end of
Europe."
Both d'Estaing and Jacques Chirac, current president of France and a
favorite target of American Christian conservatives, have positively
emerged as defenders of the faith as they fight against Turkish
accession to the EU. If only President Bush had as much dedication to
Europe's Christian heritage as the heroic French.
In Chechnya, a region much in the news since the Beslan massacres, the
U.S. has inserted itself on the side of the Muslims opposed to Russian
rule. Foremost among the American agitators against Russia is The
American Committee for Peace in Chechnya, a front group of
Bush-connected neoconservatives such as Richard Perle, James Woolsey,
Michael Ledeen and Kenneth Adelman. The ACPC wants Putin to negotiate
with the Chechens rebels, and favors a NATO presence in Chechnya along
the lines of the NATO missions in Bosnia and Kosovo. President Putin
seems to be relatively uninterested in listening to their ideas. If
only the American president were half as wise.
Conclusion
Whatever President Bush and his coterie are doing globally, one thing
is abundantly clear. They are not fighting a global war on any kind of
Islam, radical or otherwise. On the other hand, they are making
tremendous progress towards crippling or completely destroying large
segments of the world's Christian population. And in this slaughter,
the American people have become his accomplices.
Despite all of the negative impacts of his foreign policy on
Christians globally, the Christian conservatives in America have been
deafeningly silent. Two reasons account for this. First is their
overwhelming pre-occupation with Israel. The State of Israel and its
security were mentioned by both presidential candidates in their
debates. The need to protect Israel is the subject of daily articles
in conservative publications, both online and dead tree. Pat Robertson
even threatened to form a third party, if the Republicans ever waiver
in their full-throated support of the State of Israel. Such concern
for the plight of Christians abroad is non-existent.
Perhaps if the Assyrians and others renounced Christ and embraced the
Talmud, American Christians would care what happens to them?
The second reason is the fear that criticizing Bush will hurt his
chances of re-election. For this reason, many Christians have kept
their silence, all the while knowing the truth of what is happening.
This is not a Christian attitude. Christ stood for the truth at all
times, not only when it was expedient. Standing silent in the face of
suffering, simply to prevent inconvenience to a favored politician, is
not following the way of Christ.
It is time for Christian conservatives to end the silence. We must
speak out, and we must let the President, whether it be Bush or Kerry,
know that a continuation of these disastrous policies will absolutely
not be tolerated.
October 30, 2004
Glen Chancy [send him mail] is a graduate of the University of Florida
with a degree in Political Science, and a certificate in Eastern
European Studies. A former University lecturer in Poland, he currently
holds an MBA in Finance and works in Orlando, Florida as a business
analyst for an international software developer.
----------------------
BM
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| User: "Richard S. Guski" |
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| Title: Re: Bush's Global War on Christians |
30 Oct 2004 11:50:01 AM |
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Hey, *black muck*, wrong text!
"The Black Monk" <cherniymonakh@hotmail.com> wrote :
INTRO: Four days before the U.S. presidential election al-Qaida leader
Osama bin Laden has threatened new attacks on the United States. He
appeared in a video broadcast on the Arab T-V network Al Jazeera
claiming responsibility for the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York.
Correspondent Laurie Kassman has more from Washington.
TEXT: /// BIN LADEN ARABIC AND FADE ///
A gaunt-looking Osama bin Laden appears in the video, standing at a
podium and dressed in a small white turban and traditional white robe
and beige cloak.
In what he calls a message to the American people, he threatens new
attacks on the United States unless its policies change.
At a campaign stop in Ohio, President Bush says the United States will
not be intimidated.
/// BUSH ACT ///
"I also want to say to the American people we're at war with these
terrorists, and I am confident we will prevail."
/// END ACT ///
White House spokesman Scott McClellan says U.S. officials believe the
tape is authentic and was made recently. Analysts are checking it for
information that could warrant action. For now, Mr. McClellan says there
is no plan to raise the national security threat level.
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry told a TV station in
Florida that Americans are united against terrorism.
/// KERRY ACT ///
"My reaction is that all of us in this country are completely united.
Democrat, Republican, there is no such thing. There's just Americans and
we are all united in hunting down and capturing or killing those who
conducted that raid. We always knew it was Osama bin Laden."
/// END ACT ///
Speaking in a calm but strong voice, the terrorist leader referred to
next week's U.S. election, telling Americans their security does not
depend on President Bush or Democratic candidate John Kerry or al-Qaida,
but will depend on government policies.
Bin Laden says al-Qaida decided, in his words, to destroy New Yorks'
World Trade towers in 2001 and listed several factors that motivated the
attack, including frustration over what he called America's pro-Israeli
Middle East policies. He says Israel's bombing attacks on Beirut in 1982
gave him the idea of targeting New York's skyscrapers.
Still, the al-Qaida chief ends the speech saying "if a nation does not
attack us, we will not attack them."
The Arab T-V network Al Jazeera, which broadcast the video, does not say
how it obtained the 18-minute tape. Al Jazeera has broadcast other video
and audio messages from al-Qaida in the past.
This is the first video of Osama bin Laden in more than a year. (Signed)
NEB/LMK/TW/JP/KL
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BM
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