• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

“Where are your Bonhoeffers, your Niemoellers, your Sakharovs, your Solzhenitsyns?”

Sep 15, 2004 8:41 am By Robert Spencer

Joseph D’Hippolito takes the dhimmi Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, to the woodshed in this Jerusalem Post piece:

“When the Christian, the Muslim, or the Jew sees his neighbor of another faith following the ways of this world instead of the peaceful will of God, he must remind his neighbor of the nature of the one God we look to,” the Most Rev. Rowan Williams told Muslim scholars gathered at Al-Azhar in Cairo, Islam’s most prestigious seminary.

This from a religious figure who personally witnessed the World Trade Center towers collapse.

As an American who saw thousands of his countrymen incinerated three years ago, I believe the good archbishop did nothing but politely revile the innocent dead and the loved ones they left behind.

Can men who hijack airplanes and plow them into buildings for the greater glory of Allah be considered the neighbors of civilized people?

Can men who abduct civilians committing the unpardonable sin of seeking a living in Iraq and behead them for the greater glory of Allah be considered the neighbors of civilized people?

Can men, women – and even children – who strap on explosive vests filled with shrapnel and blow themselves up in crowded buses, discos, markets, pizza parlors, and subway stations be considered the neighbors of civilized people?

Can men and women who invade a school, take hundreds of children hostage, deny them food and water, force them to drink their own urine, rape some of them, then shoot them in the back as they try to escape be considered the neighbors of civilized people?…

…[C]onsider what the archbishop said and wrote one year after the terrorist atrocity:

The National Catholic Reporter, a liberal American newspaper, quoted Williams saying at a British arts festival in August 2002 that, as the twin towers fell, he was “pondering at the time, thinking … actually, I do not think this is an act of war. It is an act of terror, of violence, of barbaric carnage but somehow, war does not come into it.”

In a collection of essays published one month later, Williams criticized the moral necessity to remember collectively the unique mass murder he personally witnessed: “The point at which we need to show more footage of collapsing towers, of people jumping to their death, when we raise the temperature by injunctions never to forget – that is when something rather ambiguous enters in Bombast about evil individuals doesn’t help in understanding anything. Even vile and murderous actions tend to come from somewhere.”

Instead of patronizing his Cairo audience, Williams should have said this:

“Fellow theologians We come together seeking mutual understanding and respect. Yet how can you claim to seek them when you do nothing about the atrocities committed in Allah’s name?

“You say you respect Christians and Jews as ‘People of the Book.’ Then why do you do nothing when many of your fellow Muslims refer to Christians as ‘infidels’ or Jews as ‘pigs’ and ‘monkeys’? Why do you do nothing when Arab media outlets broadcast the lie that Jews used the blood of Arab children to make matzot?

“You call Islam a religion of peace. Why do you do nothing when many of your fellow Muslims – including clerics – support and commit such ‘unpeaceful’ acts?

“You say that not every Muslim supports these fanatics. Not every Russian supported communism; remember Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov. Not every German supported Nazism; remember Martin Niemoeller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

“Where are your Bonhoeffers, your Niemoellers, your Sakharovs, your Solzhenitsyns?

After he was released from a Nazi concentration camp, Viktor Frankl was asked what he learned. Frankl responded that there are only two races – the decent and the indecent. In which camp does Islam lie?”

Such words would provide a refreshing change from the effete diplomacy that marks inter-religious gatherings.

They would be bold, visionary, honest.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: anti-dhimmitude


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • Infidel on Iranian Kurdistan: Muslim brothers behead their sister in honor killing over her romantic relationship
  • gravenimage on Israel At A Crossroads?
  • Infidel on Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, France and UAE conduct joint military exercises amid rising Turkish threat
  • iconoclast123 on India: Police make first arrest for ‘love jihad’ under new law
  • gravenimage on Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, France and UAE conduct joint military exercises amid rising Turkish threat

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.