Background to recent attempts to stamp out Christianity in Indonesia from Paul Stenhouse, PhD:
THE person speaking had lived through it all. He was from the Moluccas - the Spice Islands of legend - and had been there most of his adult life. He was a Catholic and spoke from experience of people and events known to him at first hand. The tale he told of friends and communities betrayed, and innocents tortured and murdered without qualm or mercy, was heart-rending. All the more so because it need never have happened; and because it reflected badly on those who were obliged to prevent it: the Indonesian government and the International Community, especially the UN and its International Court of Justice.It also exposed an unpalatable truth: that evil, cruelty and plain stupidity lie just beneath the surface of our seemingly humdrum lives, waiting to be summoned like the ring-wraiths and orcs in Tolkien’s classic metaphor of the human struggle of good against evil. Without compassionate and humane solidarity with those who suffer and are oppressed, our world becomes an uninhabitable jungle. There, as the pagan Roman playwright Plautus warned us, ‘homo homini lupus,’ man preys on his fellow men like a wolf, and fear and hopelessness dominate where once was love.
During 1997 and 1998 more than 500 Catholic and Protestant churches were burnt down throughout Indonesia. The figure is conservative, as, according to some estimates, more than 350 churches were burned down in the first months of 1998 alone. The Christians were weaponless and politically powerless. They were a minority in a Muslim country. They made no effective response.
This church-burning had been mainly restricted to Java and Sumatra including Aceh. Since 1968 more than 1,000 Indonesian churches had been burned down or demolished. The problem had not yet touched the Moluccas – mainly because Christians comprise 50 % of the population and relations between Muslims and their Christian neighbours were good.
By January 1999 all this had changed. When Christians in Kupang – the capital of West Timor – finally retaliated by burning down two mosques this act was regarded by Muslims as an affront by the 'Christian dogs,' - the infidels - and in January 1999 several people were killed in Dobu, in the Aru Islands.
Not long afterwards, on January 19, 1999, the killing started in Ambon, capital of the Moluccas.
A Christian driver of a minibus refused to give into extortion when a young Muslim demanded money; a fight started and people took sides and it quickly spread to the whole of the island. Muslims came from Hitulama and butchered many people – about twenty in the village of Benteng Kareng including one or more pregnant women - because they had heard that the mosque in Ambon was surrounded. The Christians then heard that the Silo Protestant Church had been burnt and destroyed. Tensions mounted.
The Catholics in Ambon were mainly immigrants from nearby islands and from other parts of Indonesia. The Ambonese were Protestants from Dutch colonial times, and Muslims. So the Catholics tended to stay out of the conflict - not regarding it as 'their fight'. This all changed when the Laskar Jihad arrived in May 2000. The Mujahidun in their distinctive white robes and caps, and brandishing machetes and guns, did not distinguish between Catholics and Protestants.
The Catholics and the Chinese subsequently suffered terrible material losses, but fewer of them were killed than the Protestant Ambonese because they fled back to their islands since they had no weapons with which to defend themselves, and they had fewer family estates to defend than their Protestant neighbours.
These latter on the other hand had weapons, and because they were locals, had nowhere to go. Ambon was their home, and they had been there longer than many of the Muslims who had taken part in early large-scale migration from Bugis, Buton and Makassar, or had arrived only after 1949 in this part of the Moluccas under government sponsored transmigration from Java. This partly explains the reaction of the Protestants to the violence of the Laskar Jihad and the local Muslims.
The Muslims looted and burnt the shops and homes of the Catholics and Protestants. Local Muslims also suffered damage to their homes and shops, but the military were ordered not to fire against the Muslims. Sometimes they did so. Mujahidun snipers controlled certain areas, and particularly bridges that Christians had to use, but the police never caught them.
Agence France Press [AFP] reported that east of the capital, Ambon. Muslims massacred 93 Christians on Kasui, a small island in Indonesia's Moluccas chain, for refusing to convert to Islam.
Annals hasn’t been able to confirm this number. But reliable sources confirm that all attacks by the Mujahidun on this occasion [November 23-26, 2000] took place at about 6.00 a.m. and that an estimated 3,000 Muslim fighters were involved.
The village of Utta was attacked on November 23, resulting in the burning of a church and 4 houses. Karlomin was attacked on November 24, resulting in several residents being killed, others wounded, and a number of houses burned. On November 25, it was the turn of Wunin to be attacked. The Catholic church, a school and 100 houses were burned. The village of Tanasoa became target of an attack on November 26: several Christians were killed, a church, a school and a number of houses were burned.
270 people from these villages managed to escape to the neighbouring island of Teor. More than 700 Catholics and Protestants subsequently agreed to convert in fear of their lives.
The victims were among and estimated 3,000 refugees who fled into the jungle when Islamic mujahidun attacked four [other] villages on November 28, according to AFP.
Associated Press [AP] reported similar attacks earlier in the week [referred to above] that destroyed two Christian churches and left 54 villagers dead. The soldiers reportedly pursued the villagers and forced captives to choose between Islam and death.
Some Muslims sought to protect their Christian friends and neighbors, a Catholic priest told AP. ‘There are good Muslims who want to protect, while there are bad people who want to slaughter,’ he said. The government was slow to respond to the emergency, said a witness who claimed that only one boat came to evacuate the refugees. Government officials said about 500 people were rescued and several infantry companies have been sent to the island to prevent more violence, according to AP.
In a statement to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan the Catholic bishop of the Moluccas Petrus Canisius Mandagi, MSC, testified,"Only recently, reports have reached us about large-scale and ruthless Islamisation of Christians, both by brutal force and leaving them no choice. This happened in many places, including the islands of Buru and East Ceram, and most recently on the small islands of Kasui and Teor. On Kasui of the 692 Catholics, at least 473 are still alive and they have been Islamised; nothing is known about the fate of the other 219 Catholics. On Teor, with 841 Catholics, 142 have been Islamised, about 300 succeeded in fleeing to Kei Kecil island, while the remaining 400 are still on Teor. So of the 1,533 Catholics on the islands of Kasui and Teor, 615 have been forced to become Muslims, or have chosen to become Muslims rather than lose their lives. On these islands there are hundreds of Protestant Christians who have been converted to Islam in the same way. All these people urgently need to be freed and evacuated from Kasui and Teor." [1]Christina Sagat was one such Catholic woman forcibly Islamised and, along with hundreds of other Catholic and Protestant Christians, forciby circumcised in brutal and unhygienic conditions by the Muslims. Her story was printed in The Sydney Morning Herald in January 2001.
Christina was born and raised in Karlomin, a Catholic village in Kesui island referred to above, and lived with her parents and seven brothers and sisters, in-laws, nieces and nephews. Catholics, Protestants and Muslims used to live peacefully before the Laskar Jihad came to the island.
After her uncle and a Catholic youth were killed, she and her family, along with hundreds of other Christians fled into the mountains On the fourth day ... some of their Muslim neighbours found them and told them that they had to become Muslims, otherwise they couldn’t protect them from the Laskar Jihad.
‘ … we finally decided to follow the Muslims to their village and do whatever they told us to do in order to save our lives. We're fully aware that refusing to do so would only get us all killed. The Muslim representatives told us to go straight to a mosque in Kampung Baru village so that when the jihad arrived they would think that we had already become Muslims. … When we all entered the mosque, the habib (Islamic preacher) asked us whether we really wanted to be Muslims. I felt miserable. The habib then told us to say the Al Fatiha prayer (chanted when a person adopts Islam) three times. I did not remember any of the words at all because I did not say it. I just opened my mouth but in my heart I said my own Catholic prayers. The Muslim crowd inside and outside the mosque yelled and waved their machetes, spears. We all cried. I felt mixed up, scared. I told my mum, who sat beside me, "Why do we have to go through all of of this?... it's coercion. I can't do this. But what else can I do. We would only be killed if we refused it, wouldn't we?" Meanwhile, the crowd in the mosque searched our bags, they took out the Bibles, Rosary necklaces and small statues of Mary, which were torn and broken to pieces and burnt outside the mosque. … All of us, men and women, old and young, even infants and pregnant women, were circumcised.’ [2]Forced Islamisation on the island of Kasui to the south-east of Ceram Island started in November 2000. The Islamised Christians who, like Christina, managed to be evacuated after lengthy delays and much intimidation by the Muslims on the island, - 1,670 persons, most of them Catholic – lived on the island of Kei-Kecil or in Ambon while awaiting government action to guarantee their safety upon their repatriation to their homes in Kasui. At the time of writing I have no certain knowledge that all have managed to return to their homes without meeting opposition from their former Muslim friends who forcibly ‘converted’ them to Islam. Some 80 former Catholics who were ‘converted’ by force on Kasui have ‘chosen’ to remain Muslims, seemingly out of intimidation. Their land and spice crops are in Muslim villages.
Forced Islamisation is not confined to the use of physical violence, or to the Moluccas. [3] Christians living in Muslim countries often are denied promotion unless they become Muslims. In West Java, in the Kuningan district, Christians’ wells have reportedly been poisoned, their flocks have been killed, and access to their fields has been denied by Muslims in order to intimidate them into converting. In south Kalimantan, in Banjarmasin city, Shari‘a law has been proclaimed, and all who do not fast during Ramadan – including Christians – have been arrested and jailed if found eating in a public place. In Tangerang city, west of Jakarta, there is a curfew for all women. If caught travelling alone after dark unveiled even non-Muslim women may be arrested and charged with being prostitutes. In Makassar city in south Sulawesi Muslim students randomly check ID cards and if the bearers are found to be non-Muslim, they may be taken aside and beaten. The non-Muslims of Sindh and Boluchistan in Pakistan, and the Sufi Muslims, have endured forced Islamisation, and denial of their indigenous culture and Sufi traditions since the Pakistani State came into being fifty-five years ago. [4]
As well as Indonesia and Pakistan, forced Islamisation in a variety of subtle and less subtle forms is the bane of non-Muslims – and even some Muslims regarded as less observant - in a number of Muslim countries, including Iraq [5], Kashmir [6], Malaysia [7], Cameroon [8], and the Sudan.
Alarming reports were received of cases in southern Sudan where those who refused to convert and to send their children to a khalwa [9], were killed. During his recent mission, the Special Rapporteur received testimonies, including an eyewitness account, of the summary execution of 12 civilians, men, women and children, at Lobonok on 3 May 1995, at noon. At the end of April 1995, following fighting which reportedly had lasted almost three months, government troops entered Lobonok. The local population was forced to convert to Islam. Children were dressed in white jellaba and given Arabic names. Although some adults did convert to receive food, the group mentioned above was executed because they refused to convert and to send their children to the khalwa. According to an eyewitness, Victoria Yakisuk (aged 55), Salivar Yugu (aged 45) and Redendo Wani (aged 40) were killed after trying to run away into the bush; and Loku Mario (aged 35), Gumat Mario (aged 18), Yugu Mario (aged 10), Pitia Mario (aged 7), Redendo Tombe (aged 15), Renado Keny (aged 26), Kaku Tombe (aged 55), Kaku Lege (aged 12) and a middle-aged woman whose name the witness could not give, were lined up and shot dead. Kaku Lege was reportedly raped before being killed. The eyewitness claimed that the killings were carried out by a group of 12 soldiers in uniform. [10]The silence of official Islamic leaders and spokesmen in Indonesia and Australia at the inhuman treatment of the Christians – old and young, men, women, even pregnant women, and children, - in the Moluccas forcibly ‘converted’ to Islam, and circumcised with old Gilette blades and at the hands of so-called ‘female priests,’ [11] is revealing.
It throws doubt on claims that Islam is a tolerant and peaceful religion, and that Muslims understand the much quoted verse 256 of Sura 2 - ‘there is no coercion [12] in the religion’ - to forbid the use of physical force to impose Islam on non-Muslims who fall into their power.
It may be helpful to comment on briefly on this much-quoted Sura.
Popularly it is translated ‘There is no compulsion in Islam’. But the verse reads din ‘religion,’ not Islam. Also it should be noted [though this is never usually stated when the verse is used as a proof of the peacefulness of Islam] that Sura 2,256 is addressed to Muslims, not non-Muslims. It warns Muslims not to dally with ‘unbelief,’ and implies that belief is easy which is what the reference to ‘no force’ seems to suggest.
The following verse - usually never quoted - is the one that deserves attention. It applies to non-Muslims whom it warns in unambiguous language of the dire consequences of not embracing Islam: ‘[you] are the inmates of hell, and shall dwell there’. There is intimidation and coercion in this verse [Sura 2, 257] and perceptive Muslims would realise that if you can threaten unbelievers with hell fire if they don’t become Muslims, then a fortiori you can use physical force to make them embrace Islam.
There is an even more cogent argument against the ‘tolerance,’ and lack of coercion allegedly preached by Sura 2,256: the behaviour of Muhammad.
‘Then the Apostle [Muhammad] sent Khalid bin al-Walid … to the tribe of Beni Haritha bin Ka‘b in Najran and ordered him to wait three days before attacking them, after inviting them to embrace Islam.. If they agreed then he was to accept their submission from them; and if they refused he was to fight them. So Khalid set out and came to them and sent out riders in all directions inviting the people to Islam saying “If you accept Islam you will save your life.” They embraced Islam because of the threat. ….. When they came to the Apostle [Muhammad] and he saw them he asked “Who are these people who look like people from India?” and they replied, “These people are the Beni al-Haritha bin Ka‘b. … The Apostle [Muhammad] said to them: “'Had Khalid not written to me that you had accepted Islam and not resisted, I would have tossed your heads beneath your feet”.’ [13]Despite denial by modern-day Islamic spokesmen, according to Ibn Hisham his biographer, Muhammad not only approved, but commanded the use of force in religion. And Islamic Law, especially the Qur’an, explicitly approves the use of such force.Some Muslim scholars may grudgingly admit this privately when pushed, but publicly attest the opposite, claiming against all evidence to the contrary that the Qur’an opposes the use of force in spreading Islam.
Sura 2,256 is a trap for unwary non-Muslims. It cannot be taken at face value. The final blow to its credibility comes from the fact that whatever it may originally have meant, informed Muslims consider it to have been abrogated. [14] The abrogating verse is Sura 9:73 : 'O Prophet, struggle with the unbelievers and hypocrites, and be thou harsh with them’.
When confronted with the indisputable fact of the abrogation Islamic apologists then try another spin by claiming that the abrogation only applies to pagans, not to Christians and Jews.
The history of Islam, and the recent actions of Muslims in Kasui and elsewhere in Indonesia and throughout the Islamic world, however, leave all thinking non-Muslims in no doubt that the abrogation of Sura 2, 256 and the continuing validity of Sura 2, 257 empower fanatics who don’t hesitate to use force to make non-Muslims embrace Islam.
Attempts to prove the opposite amount to falsifying the meaning of the Qur’an, and denying the example of the life and commands of Muhammad.
NOTES
1. The New Martyrdom: A Special Report. From the Caribbean to Oceania, Anti-Christian persecution heats up. See ZENIT.org (13.01.2001) /HRWF International Secretariat (16.01.2001)
2. Christina’s Story, Lindsay Murdoch, SMH January 21, 2001
3. Hizb ut-Tahrir stresses that they are ‘non violent’ while advocating the forced Islamisation of the Western World. It was reported that several of the 9/11 hijackers were connected to the group in Germany . HT was banned due to its virulent anti Semitic rhetoric. See ‘Soldiers of Allah in California,’ Militant Islam Monitor.org August 1, 2004
4. Sindhi Baloch Forum Ref.: SBF/14/08/02, 14th August 02; ‘Pakistan: Madrassa Reform A Mirage’ Adnkronos International, August 16, 2006.
5. Guardian, ‘A symptom of Iraq's tragedy,’ June 6, 2006.
6. ‘Acid test in the face of acid attacks,’ Sandhya Jain, The Pioneer, August 13, 2001.
7. ‘Temple Demolitions Spell Creeping Islamisation,’ Baradan Kuppusamy, Inter Press News Service, August 16, 2006.
8. North Province. See any Encyclopedia entry: e.g. Islam is the dominant religion in the north due to the cultural and political domination of the Fulbe. Those ethnic groups which resisted the Fulbe conquests and forced Islamisation are collectively referred to as Kirdi (‘pagans’), though they are not culturally homogenous. Kirdi groups include the Chamba and Fali. In addition, many inhabitants of the province profess Christianity, as well, particularly Catholicism.
9. A small Islamic rural school that stresses memorization of the Qur’an and provides some instruction in the reading and writing of Arabic.
10. United Nations, Human Rights Commission, CN.4/1996/62, 20 February 1996.
11. ‘Christina’s Story,’ Lindsay Murdoch, SMH January 21, 2001.
12. The Arabic word Ikrah means ‘coercion,’ ‘use of force’ or ‘constraint’.
13. Ibn Hisham, Biography of Muhammad, [Arabic version, Dar Ehia al-Tourath al-Arabi, Rue Dakkache Beirut Lebanon] Part 4, pages 249-250. Trans. Paul Stenhouse. Also, see ‘The Wolf Pack, What it means to live by Muhammad’s words and deeds,’ by Bruce Thornton, Private Papers: A review of Robert Spencer’s The Truth about Muhammad,‘ (Regnery Publishing, 2006).
14. See e.g. al-Nahas, An-Nasikh wal-Mansukh, p. 80. See also Ibn Hazm al-Andalusi, An-Nasikh wal-Mansukh, Beirut, 1986, p. 42. quoted: ‘Tolerance in Islam’ by M. Rafiq ul-Haqq and P. Newton, http://debate.domini.org/newton/tolerance.html.
No matter how many horrors perpetrated in the name of this ugly ideology, no matter the level of psychopathic evil carried out in its name that you read about, you are never desensitized when confronted with accounts such as this. The pity, the sadness and the rage gets you every time.
May the hate speech against this cancer on the body of the world never stop.
When Christians in Kupang – the capital of West Timor – finally retaliated by burning down two mosques this act was regarded by Muslims as an affront by the 'Christian dogs,'considering thatMuslims have Since 1968 more than 1,000 Indonesian churches had been burned down or demolished. Christians there be tell the Muslims for every Christian killed a dozen Muslims will be killed and for every church burned down or destroyed four mosques will be burnt to the ground, and the villagers need to form a Christian militia to patrol their villages and defend them against these Muslim terrorists, in other words to scare Allah out of Muslims by being Muslims worst nightmare i.e. when they kill a Muslim wrap the body in a pig skin shroud, it seems the only thing Muslims understand is terror and the Christians are going to have to become what Muslim mothers tell the children at night to make them behave i.e. if you don't behave a Christian martyrs brigade will get you.
There are good Muslims who want to protect, while there are bad people who want to slaughter...
The "good" Moslems stand by and watch, what they wanna protect is their Korans sitting on the table back in the hut.
(Indonesian government) officials said about 500 people were rescued...
A token getsture intended for the consumption of the ever gullible, ever Leftist dips from Retuers, AP, CNN, BBC, and the other usual suspsects.
...and several infantry companies have been sent to the island to prevent more violence...
Moslem infantry. That'll be a comfort to the beseiged Christians. Standing there in their infantry greens holding their M-16s, they manifest a Call to Islam to the vulnerable Infides being "protected."
... according to AP.
See! What did I say? The AP is on the story.
There are only Crimes commited against poor MUSLIMS in the world, Anything else is Allah's will.
"So of the 1,533 Catholics on the islands of Kasui and Teor, 615 have been forced to become Muslims, or have chosen to become Muslims rather than lose their lives."
Who doubts that this current way of Islamicizing the Indonesian archipelago differs not significantly from the ancient way, which is assumed by so many (even Hugh Fitzgerald at one point) to have been non-violent?
The forced Islamisation in 2000 was mentioned in UN country report in 2001.
But, NOTHING was done whatsoever about it! No resolutions, not even a mention anywhere else as far as I know!
And now, there are not as many bombings any more, just a shooting here and there, closing of churches sometimes, ----- hence, the State Department's report regarding human rights and religious tolerance have 'improved' in Indonesia.
Hmmmmmmmm .......... wehn somebody was in the gutter, when a population have experienced forced islamisation and killings in the past and there is none of that happening these days, I guess conditions have improved allright!!!!!!
None of the perpetrators have been caught, it didn't even make the news in Indonesia!!!!!!! Most of Indonesians are unaware of the forced Islamisation.
The Indonesian government has 'caught, arrested and sentenced' some jihadist, but not only have they been sentenced lightly compared to their crimes, but the bali bomber that was sentenced to death has had his appeal time extended a few days ago. Anything to accomodate tbe jihadists.
Every time a muslim jihadist was caught, the government always would arrest a Christian on some trumped up charges and give him a sentence heavier proportionally to the trumped up charges. Never mind those charges were not proven in court, never mind the government's witnesses either recanted or said I didn't do that.
Like the UN special rapporteur (to asses the justice system) to Indonesia said a few years ago that justice in Indonesia is far worse than he had suspected, it permeated all levels of the justice system, from the bottom all the way to the very top.
Bringing some jihadist criminals to court is only a token gesture from the Indonesian government, to show the world that they are doing something regarding fighting terror. Also so that they could get whatever assistance they was. The US government have resumed training the Indonesian armed forces again.
What is not being reported both inside and outside Indonesia is that the Muslim population itself is getting more and more anti Christians. OR, maybe I should say 'more pious'. There are more of them now and they are being more open about it. What people in the West don't realize is that the more pious a Muslim, the more anti infidels they get.
Like having prayer meetings, or worship at homes. In areas where there are a lot of 'PIOUS' Muslims, one can't have prayer meetings in their own homes anymore. There have been instances where these 'pious' muslims would go and demand that they stop, or else. Or rocks have been thrown.
Of course there is also the 'Chinese problem'. In the past, before there are so many 'pious' muslims, whenever native Indonesians are unhappy/upset with the government they always vented it out towards the Chinese, who are either Buddhists or Christians. The shameful thing is that the Indonesian natives who are Christians were too afraid to protest and protect them. And now, it is not just the Chinese, but the Christians who are targeted of course. (The anti chinese riots had never occurred in Christian majority areas).
there is something that I call 'defenseive church attendance', like defensive driving, practiced by some people. If they go to church, especially during religous holidays, they are always on the alert. Some even try to get a seat where they think would be easiest to go to the exit should something happen.
Sharia is spreading also, implemented officially or unofficially by the local government.
These things don't make the news since they are not spectacular, like a bombing for instance, or beheadings. Just because there are not many large bombings, like the Bali bombing, just some small ones, doesn't mean that there is no persecution anymore.
We in the states are far from this situation yet, but with the help of some felow Americans, these jihadists surely are making inroads using our laws and freedoms, just like what this website and others have warned.
Where's the world outrage about this? In the 1990's all we ever heard about was how the Serbs were destroying the Muslims-one would have thought all that made the Holocaust look like nothing the way the media played it up. Same sort of thing is going on here and yet the silence is deafening. Once again Islamania is given a free pass. The old double standard regarding Islamania continues unabated.
May the hate speech against this cancer on the body of the world never stop.
Posted by: anti-uffe
Good to see you again anti-uffe. Keep up the good work! We have every RIGHT to speak against their hate!!
I want them out of Europe and the USA. I want complete SEPARATION from these KKKoranimals.
Holy Lord. The Devil is strong with these ones.
I wonder why the majority of moderates did not stop these horrors? Oh, yeah...
"Where's the world outrage about this? In the 1990's all we ever heard about was how the Serbs were destroying the Muslims..."
It's the PC Multiculturalist Template at work: according to one of its major mechanisms,
1) Third World peoples can do no evil;
2) when Third World peoples seem to be doing evil, it's ultimately the fault of the evil West and its Colonialist, then post-Colonialist policies;
3) only Westerners can do evil (unless, sometimes, when those Westerners are of Third World origin).
Thus, when Serbs seemed to do evil, it was easy for the West (processing the data through its PC Multiculturalist Template) to blame them, since Serbs are deemed to be Westerners. When Muslims in Indonesia seem to do evil, the West (processing the data through its PC Multiculturalist Template) either refuses to see the evil, or when it can no longer avoid the obvious, reinterprets that evil as ultimately caused by the evil West and how the evil West through its geopolitical policies has ruined that area and caused those Noble Savages or Beautiful Animals to misbehave, understandably, in their natural habitat.
Note: A special wrinkle to this dynamic is that Muslims have become the Poster Children of the Third World, representing at one and the same time the status of Victims par excellence, and of Agents of a proud alternative culture to the corrupt and evil West.
Ye gods! If there ever was a time when we needed a Churchill it is now.
Wanted: Clear thinking individual for executive position. Applicant must have knowledge of history ancient and modern, a respect for the fundamental rights of individuals and the ability to look evil in the eye and not blink. Applicant will also be judged on communication skills. The ability to inform, inspire and motivate is of paramount importance. Apply: The Western world before it's too late.
Wayne Kopping, director of the film Obsession, interviewed today in Front Page.com, expresses well what I meant by the PC Multiculturalist Template, though he leaves out the crucial angle of reverse racism and anti-Westernism enforced by the white PC West:
Front Page: Why do you think the threat we face is so grossly misunderstood in the West?
Kopping: ...we have a hard time wrapping our heads around the notion that there are people out there that really, really hate us... So, what we do, is we say to ourselves that if there are those that hate us, and that are literally raising a next-generation of suicide bombers, it must be for a good reason. Therefore, we believe that it has to be that we, in the West, have committed some heinous crime in order to invoke such hatred. And so we navel gaze and try to find something, anything, everything that we have done to raise the ire of the Islamic world.
"And so we navel gaze and try to find something, anything, everything that we have done to raise the ire of the Islamic world."
"Navel gaze"? Kopping is being far too diplomatic.
The West has its head so far up its backside it has to open its mouth to see daylight.
If Dr. Stenhouse has a web page about forced Islamization around the world, please post a link to it on Jihad Watch. If he does not have such a web page, it would be a good idea for somebody to create one.
I wanted to reiterate that I am so THANKFUL to have discovered this site. It is much easier to digest reports of world events when one realizes that not everyone is insane. Thanks everyone for the engaged conversation, and a quick education on so many things.
I did want to make a specific point with respect to Serbia. I admit to being one of many in the West who presumed that Serbia was the main source of the problem. However, the basis of that presumption was not some flimsy PC-based reason. Rather, it was the historic closeness of Serbia with Russia.
As a person of Polish descent, I can tell you that any freedom loving person from former Soviet Europe (except for Serbs and Russians) would likely presume that the Serbs were the trouble.
I am not against re-analyzing events, but the opposition of many to Serbia had nothing to do with PC thinking.
I am not against re-analyzing events, but the opposition of many to Serbia had nothing to do with PC thinking.
from above
The reason we "like" russians is in a simple fact that they was the only ono to help when nobody else wants or can.Read about a time with otomans and you'll understand
"Background to recent attempts to stamp out Christianity in Indonesia from Paul Stenhouse, PhD:"
To Dr. Stenhouse, this account should be carved in stone tablets and floated on a raft to some future dispenser of justice. This account must not be allowed to pass away without some formal recognition of the suffering of the innocents in the histories which are yet to be written.
I salute those brave individuals who refused to bend their knee to Baal (or alah if you prefer). May God bless those of us who are determined to steadfastly refuse to pay the Jizah with their wonderful courage, may their example never be forgotten. Thank you for your wonderful example my brothers & sisters.
Other facts about the situation in Indonesia and the Laskar Jihad:
* The government has a plan of transmigration in which they move Muslims to Christian areas. They relocated Muslims to the Moluccas and the Sulawesi islands. For the last 30 years they have been doing the same in Papua (Irian Jaya). And they have divided up Papua so that Muslims have the majority in all but one province. Laskar Jihad is presently active in terrorizing Papua.
* When the population becomes close to half and half, the terror begins. Then the Christians/animists/Buddhists are afraid to respond.
* The Laskar Jihad used government military weapons.
* Some Laskar Jihad warriors were proven to be Indonesian military.
* Some Laskar Jihad warriors were foreign. Now they have returned home to implement what they learned.
* The military/police entered into the carnage.
* The police would show up only after the slaughter was over.
* Government and foreign money seemed plentious.
* Christian leaders faced kangagoo courts while Muslim leaders were not detained.
* The government hardly showed even lip-service to being concerned about Laskar Jihad.
* I never heard one Indonesian Muslim leader express outrage over the Laskar Jihad.
* The international media and the UN did not seem very concerned. In fact, no government got worked up over it.
* Many who fled have yet to return home. They live in poverty and fear. If they return, they have no houses left. Their employment is gone. Plus they fear more terrorism. Very little help has been given them to start over again.
The situation in the Moluccas and Sulawesi islands from 1999 to 2001 is an illustration of how the Muslims followed their strategy perfectly. And it is still going on.
Islam---- A religion you can learn at the point of a gun.
Re: "If there was ever a time when we needed a Churchill."
We all have to stand up and be Churchill. I feel like I'm doing Churchill every day trying to tell people what Islam is really doing in the world. I hear on local radio-talk shows people identifying themselves that way -- "I feel like I'm Churchill battling Chamberlin."
We need a paradigm shift, a change in volcabulary to change the debate: they are no longer immigrants, but colonists. Can't we make a law restricting colonization, a hostile take-over?
I wonder how the left of center women leaders would feel if they were forcibly circumsized by Islamic facists in a mosque?
Our grandaughters may know what that's like -- if the Carter, and the left and the media keep burying their heads.