*Heavy sigh* “Yes, Father Bud?”
“I’m really sorry to bother you with this kind of thing again, but the Islamic State –”
“You mean ISIL?”
“Yes, ISIL. They’ve opened a market in Mosul to sell stolen Christian property.”
*Wearily* “Bud, the airstrikes are continuing –”
“Yes, Bishop Kevin, the next time you have a ‘dialogue’ meeting with Imam Mahmoud down at Masjid Aurangzeb, maybe you could bring it up.”
“Bring it up? What for? Mahmoud’s a terrific guy, and you know he hates how ISIL is hijacking his religion, but you know how touchy he is. I don’t want to ruffle his feathers — remember that time he harangued me for twenty minutes about the Crusades? Look, let’s just go next week, and smile, and reach out — reach out and get some of that hummus, Bud, it is positively mystical –”
“Bishop Kevin, I’m serious. I was thinking maybe we could craft a statement.”
“A statement? What kind of statement?”
“A statement denouncing the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and calling on Muslims to renounce all brutality and violence against non-Muslim minorities in Muslim countries.”
*Shaking his head* “Father Bud, if I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times –”
“I know you’ve told me, Bishop Kevin, but I, well, I just keep hoping for a change.”
“Look, Bud. Nothing is going to change. Forget it. You know what happened the last time I asked for something like your statement. Mahmoud said he condemned all terrorism, especially state terrorism. Wasn’t that good enough?”
“Well, since you asked, no. It wasn’t. By that he just means that he is condemning America and Israel.”
“Bud. Don’t be uncharitable. Don’t be Islamophobic. He said he condemned terrorism.”
“Yes, but you don’t know for sure if he thinks the attacks on Christians even constitute terrorism.”
“Yes, I do. He told me so, and even if it wasn’t in his public statement, I know he’s a standup guy. And remember, Bud, he just got offended last time I asked him to condemn something that radical violent extreme extremists did. Remember: talk about extreme, militant Islamists and the atrocities that they have perpetrated globally might undercut the positive achievements that we Catholics have attained in our inter-religious dialogue with devout Muslims.”
“I’ve heard that, Bishop Kevin. But the idea is not only to get him to condemn jihad terror and the persecution of Christians. The idea is to get him to start teaching in his mosque and the larger Muslim community that the terrorists’ understanding of Islam is wrong.”
“Bud, you’re just not being realistic. How would you feel if he came here and started telling me what I could teach here at St. Aethelred’s Cathedral?”
“Well, he did, Bishop Kevin. Remember? He gave you all the selected readings for the Qur’an Recitation we had for Outreach last month. And I still wonder why he refuses to reciprocate and have a Bible Reading at Masjid Aurangzeb.”
“Listen, Bud. You can’t push these people too hard. They’re very sensitive to racism and bigotry. You can’t ask them to go around teaching against terrorism and hosting Christian prayers in their mosques. Their memory of colonialism and imperialism is too strong. Heck, the Crusades are a living memory for them! We have to show them we’re not Crusaders. Not imperialists. That we love Islam and embrace it as part of the glorious mosaic of mankind. That we are not living in fear of radical extremist violent Islamist radical extremists. Heck — we have them among ourselves as well!”
“Well, Bishop Kevin, I don’t remember the last time that Christians drove Muslims out of an area, kidnapping women and selling them into sex slavery and then selling off the Muslims’ property.”
“It happens all the time, Bud. All the time. And in response, we need to adopt a posture of repentance, respect, humility and submission. Above all, we can’t keep nagging them about Muslim persecution of Christians! What would that do to the dialogue? I hope you’ll come with me to the mosque next week, Bud. You’ll see what a kidder Mahmoud is. And the hummus!”
“ISIS Opens Market in Mosul for Stolen Assyrian Property,” AINA, February 2, 2015 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
(AINA) — ISIS has opened a special market to sell property it looted from Assyrian homes and churches in Mosul. The market, called “Spoils Of The Nazarenes,” sells televisions, refrigerators, microwave ovens and other electronic devices, as well as furniture and artwork. Prices range from 50,000 to 75,000 Iraqi Dinars ($42 to $63).
ISIS captured the city of Mosul on June 10. Almost immediately thereafter it began to drive Assyrians out of Mosul and destroy Christian and non-Sunni institutions. It imposed a poll tax (jizya) on Assyrians, ordered unmarried women to ‘Jihad by sex’, destroyed the statue of the Virgin Mary at the Immaculate Church of the Highest in the neighborhood of AlShafa in Mosul, as well as the statue of Mullah Osman Al-Musali.
On June 26 Kurds clashed with ISIS near Baghdede, an Assyrian town east of Mosul, forcing nearly 50,000 Assyrians to flee.
On July 8 ISIS removed the Cross from St. Ephrem Cathedral in the Shoorta neighborhood in Mosul, one week after the church was seized on July 1.
On July 18 ISIS marked Christian homes with the Arabic letter “N” for the word Nasrani, which means Christian.
On July 19 ISIS plundered Assyrians as they fled Mosul.
On July 22 ISIS and Kurds clashed near the Assyrian town Tel Kepe; 2000 Assyrian families were driven from Mosul.
On July 29 ISIS destroyed or occupied all 45 Christian institutions in Mosul.
On August 2 ISIS looted 8 million dollars from Assyrian farms.
On August 21 ISIS looted Assyrian homes, vandalized churches in Mosul.

Jovial Joe says
On balance it seems it’s atheists who are more forceful in their opposition to Islam and jihad than ‘believers’. Just off the top of my head: Sam Harris, Bill Maher, Dawkins, Pamella and of course the mighty Pat Condell. On the other side: the Pope (and Robert of course who more than makes up for that idiot in a dress). I wonder why that is?
Western Canadian says
That is not the way things are. How about the way that the atheistic left sells out the western standards? Oh, lets not talk about that, let’s lie about how ‘brave’ the occasional atheist is, while the cult of atheists on campuses everywhere lick the jackboots of their islamic masters.
Jovial Joe says
Here’s my theory: any leftwing atheist who apologises for Islam is as ideologically and dogmatically driven in their Marxist leanings as are those among the religiously devout. Atheists – and secularists – in the mode of a Harris or Hitchens are characterised by the absence of dogmatic belief (they have no belief that god exists rather than believe that god does not exist). Someone like the Pope, then, can identify with people of every faith, including Islam, because they share the same ideological mindset. Not so atheists of the kind described who consider any positive beliefs in the absence of evidence to be simply idiotic if not downright dangerous. Islam will be defeated by a firm and confident secularism not by holy warriors of a different stripe yet identical ideological outlook.
terry says
Just a thought, perhaps Islam will be defeated by Jesus Christ, and Christ Jesus only???
Jovial Joe says
Well anything’s possible but shouldn’t the divine cavalry have saved the day by now? Perhaps before the Taliban murdered all those school children or even before Gabriel visited Mo in his cave? These things are better off nipped in the bud.
Richie says
Islam; the religion of killers, rapists, liars and thieves
Nicu says
THEY ARE the new Nazis !
gravenimage says
Islamic State opens market in Mosul for stolen Christian property
(AINA) — ISIS has opened a special market to sell property it looted from Assyrian homes and churches in Mosul. The market, called “Spoils Of The Nazarenes,” sells televisions, refrigerators, microwave ovens and other electronic devices, as well as furniture and artwork…
…………………………………….
“Spoils of the Nazarenes” Market—the Muslims who shop there can’t even claim the comparative innocence of someone who buys something off a truck in an alley—they know *exactly* where this “booty” came from.
Nor are the thieves trying to hide it. And why would they? There is a whole Sura of the Qur’an, Al-Anfal, which means “Spoils”.
The truth is that there is nothing more Islamic than robbing Infidels. *Ugh*.
Matthieu Baudin says
Are they selling slaves in old fashioned slave auctions or just giving them away to successful commanders?
gravenimage says
Good question, Matthieu.
“Islamic State slave price list shows Yazidi, Christian girls aged 1-9 being sold for $172”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/11/islamic-state-slave-price-list-shows-yazidi-christian-girls-aged-1-9-being-sold-for-172
“The barbaric group that has full-fledged slave markets both in Mosul, Iraq and Raqqa, Syria; has even gone to the extent of justifying its kidnapping of women as sex slaves citing Islamic theology.
“’One should remember that enslaving the families of the kuffar — the infidels — and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Shariah, or Islamic law,’ the group had said in an online magazine report, reported CNN.”
ISIS has also referred to slaves being bought not just by their own Jihadists, but by buyers in Turkey, Syria, and the Gulf.
Deeply disturbing—and it shows that support for these Islamic horrors go beyond ISIS itself.
Matthieu Baudin says
Thanks Gravenimage for bringing us up to date. I could buy a reasonable power drill for that money or alternatively spend a couple of nights away in a cabin by the sea. Sadistic zealots aren’t they. Hope I can get some sleep tonight; for anyone who’s had children of their own or cared for them, the kidnapping and sale of children is truly diabolical.
PRCS says
“radical violent extreme extremists”
Heh! Heh!
Salah says
Some good news for a change:
“ISIS getting ‘desperate,’ struggling to replenish fighters”
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/isis-getting-desperate-struggling-to-replenish-fighters/ar-AA8TbeK?ocid=mailsignoutmd
Matthieu Baudin says
Salah, your material is original and your comments usually uplifting. Thanks for keeping up the effort.
Salah says
Thanks, Matthieu. Good will prevail because Good must prevail.
Despite all the bad news we hear day in and day out, Islam is dying.
Let’s keep fighting on. WE ARE WINNING.
somehistory says
Christ said He came to “give life and in abundance, but the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10).”
Christ was talking about satan the devil, which, evil creature that he is, uses humans to do his dirty work of taking what does not belong, killing those who do not agree and destroying everything with which they come in contact and which *insults* satan.
satan has constructed his beast and its image and is rampaging in all corners of the earth.
The True God will crush satan shortly (Romans 16:20).
s says
Until the issue of abortion is addressed by the West, this state of affairs will go on. The West kills at a rate of 10s of thousands per day and is quiet on this matter. Militant Islam knowing that that abortion is destroying the West, is silent on the subject.
mortimer says
Somebody spiked the hummus with hallucinogens. Bishop Kevin needs a month listening to persecuted Oriental Christians so he can get the point. It isn’t hunky-dory to be Christian in a Muslim-majority country. The most vulnerable and persecuted Christians are the poor.
Your excellency, it’s a question of JUSTICE and CHARITY to defend the persecuted Church.
Matthieu Baudin says
(the brilliantly fictitious) Bishop Kevin has found a deep sense of belonging and purpose in an outreach community from which he may never escape.