The graffiti said “Infidels!,” which is clear enough, along with “Qur’an 3:151” and “Qur’an 19:88,” which is not mentioned in this article.
3:151 is “We will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve for what they have associated with Allah of which He had not sent down [any] authority. And their refuge will be the Fire, and wretched is the residence of the wrongdoers.”
19:88 is “And they say, ‘The Most Merciful has taken a son,” and the following verse makes it clear that this is not good: “You have done an atrocious thing.“
So on the face of it, this is Islamic anti-Christian polemic against the Christian idea of Jesus as the Son of God, along with an unmistakable hint of menace: “We will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve.”
So if Muslims painted this graffiti on these churches, I hope they are found before they end up going on jihad — although usually if someone issues a threat like this, he is otherwise harmless, having spent his jihad impulse on spray paint. However, I am not at all sure that Muslims are behind this. Muslims generally don’t refer to Qur’an verses in this fashion; they more often refer to them by the name of the chapter and then the verse number, so that they wouldn’t say “Qur’an 3:151” but “Ahl e-Imran 151,” and not “Qur’an 19:88” but “Maryam 88” or “Surat Maryam 88.”
This is not always the case, of course, and if the graffiti artists were Muslims they might have chosen to write the citations that way so that they’d be easier for Infidels to look up, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this graffiti turned out to have been painted by some non-Muslims, in a misguided attempt to draw attention to the reality of the jihad threat and how jihadis target Christians. If so, it was stupid, as it only serves the spurious campaign of Islamic supremacists and their Leftist enablers to portray any opposition to jihad terror as a victimization of the Muslim community: they claim that Muslims are being unfairly victimized by counter-terror efforts, in an attempt to end those counter-terror efforts and enable jihad terror to advance unopposed. If this turns out to have been done by non-Muslims, Hamas-linked CAIR and its allies will claim that it was an attempt to vilify Muslims, and the reality of the jihad terror threat will again be buried beneath an avalanche of politically correct nonsense about “Islamophobia.” Fr. Marcotte, obviously a USCCB company man, is already thinking along those lines below, when he asks: “Is this someone that’s trying to incite people against Muslims?”
Meanwhile, note the absurdity here: “‘We condemn this, and I read the verse, most importantly what that showed me is the ignorance who actually misquoted or misinterpreted the Quran,’ resident Nassim Khaled, a volunteer at a local Islamic center.” But these Qur’an verses were neither quoted nor interpreted, much less misquoted and misinterpreted. All that was painted on the churches was the verse numbers. Nassim Khaled appears anxious to divert people from the literal meaning of the verses that the graffiti artist invoked. If only he could divert the Islamic jihadists.
“3 Columbus churches vandalized with graffiti overnight,” WTHR Channel 13, August 31, 2014 (thanks to all who sent this in):
COLUMBUS, Ind. – Columbus Police said they’ve never had anything like it – three churches vandalized in the same night.
Someone spray painted them on the outside. It’s the words used, though, that have some people asking if this was more than a prank.
“It was just one word. It said ‘Infidels!’” Father Doug Marcotte said of what was spray painted on Saint Bartholomew’s Catholic Church in Columbus overnight Saturday.
Parishioners saw that, along with the word “Qur’an 3:151” on their way into mass Sunday morning.
“It’s certainly not a warm and fuzzy verse. It talks about the infidels, their refuge being the fire,” explained Father Marcotte.
Specifically, that passage of the Qur’an reads: “We will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve for what they have associated with Allah of which He had not sent down [any] authority. And their refuge will be the Fire, and wretched is the residence of the wrongdoers.”
Saint Bartholomew’s wasn’t the only Columbus church vandalized.
“It’s really bizarre and the fact that they hit two other Christian Churches. It’s not like we’re all in a line. So why did they pick the three of us,” asked Father Marcotte.
Outside East Columbus Christian Church and Lakeview Church of Christ, members there found the same kind of graffiti Sunday morning.
“Is there somebody that really believes this that we’re all infidels so they felt the need to write it all over our church? “ asked Father Marcote. “Is this some sort of nasty prank? Is this someone that’s trying to incite people against Muslims? I mean I don’t know,” he added.
Columbus Police said they’re looking at surveillance video to help figure it out.
Until they do though, parishioners at Saint Bartholomew’s have been unsettled by the defacing of their church, at the very least.
“There’s a lot of bad stuff being done in the name of Allah and so when people see this happening in Columbus, whether that was truly the person’s intent or there’s something else going on, It makes people nervous. It makes people upset. It makes them scared,” said Father Marcotte.
Columbus police would not comment on whether they had alerted federal authorities to the vandalism because of its nature. The priests at Saint Bartholomew’s said they’ve been contacted by members of the local Muslim community in Columbus who have condemned the vandalism and offered to help clean it up.