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Raymond Ibrahim: Christians Burn While Pope Worries about ‘Worldly’ Matters

Aug 12, 2015 2:28 pm By Raymond Ibrahim

FrancisdovesFrancisdovecrowGatestone Institute 

Indifference to the plight of persecuted Christians around the world was highlighted in June when Pope Francis released his first independent encyclical.

Although the Pope warned against things like global warming and issues dealing with the environment, he did not mention the plight of persecuted Christians—even though he is well acquainted with it and even though previous popes mentioned it at times when Christians experienced a small fraction of the persecution they are today.

Encyclicals are formal treatises written by popes and sent to bishops around the world.  In turn, bishops are meant to disseminate the encyclical’s ideas to all the priests and churches in their jurisdiction, so that the pope’s thoughts reach every church-attending Catholic.

If it were mentioned in the encyclical, bishops and the congregations under their care would be required to acknowledge the truth about Christian persecution.  Perhaps a weekly prayer for the persecuted church could be institutionalized—keeping the plight of those hapless Christians in the spotlight, so Western Catholics and others always remember them, talk about them, and, perhaps most importantly, understand why they are being persecuted.  Once enough people are familiar with the reality of Christian persecution, they could influence U.S. policymakers—for starters, to drop those policies that directly exacerbate the sufferings of Christian minorities in the Middle East.

Instead, Francis deemed it more important to issue a proclamation addressing the environment and climate change.  Whatever position one holds concerning these topics, it is telling that the pope—the one man in the world best placed and most expected to speak up for millions of persecuted Christians around the world—is more interested in speaking up for “the world” itself.

Meanwhile, Christians around the world in general, the Muslim world specifically, continued to be persecuted and slaughtered.  In one little reported story, the Islamic State burned an 80 year-old Christian woman to death in a village southeast of Mosul.  The elderly woman was reportedly immolated for refusing to comply with Islamic law.

A group calling itself the “Islamic State in Palestine” spread fliers in east Jerusalem threatening that it would massacre all Christians who fail to evacuate the Holy City.  The leaflets, which appeared on June 27, said that the Islamic State knows where the city’s Christians live, and warned that they have until Eid al-Fitr—July 19, when Ramadan ends—to leave the city or be slaughtered. The leaflet was emblazoned with the black flag associated with the Islamic State.

Similarly in Egypt, after the foiled suicide attack on the ancient temples of Karnak in Luxor—a tourist designation—the Islamic State promised a “fiery summer” for the Christian Copts.  Abu Zayid al-Sudani, a leading member of the group, tweeted the following: “The bombing of Luxor, a burning summer awaits the tyrant of Egypt [President Sisi] and his soldiers, and the worshippers of the cross.  This is just the beginning.”

The rest of June’s roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes, but is not limited to, the following accounts, listed by theme.

Muslim Attacks on Christian Churches and Cemeteries

Turkey: On June 9, a Muslim man attacked a church in the Kadıköy district of İstanbul with a Molotov cocktail, setting the building’s door on fire.  In a video of the attack, the man is seen shouting “Allahu Akbar” [Allah is greater] and “Revenge will be taken for Al-Aqsa Mosque” as he throws a firebomb at the Aya Triada Orthodox Church.  The door of the Christian worship building caught fire, though the blaze was extinguished shortly after the attack. The man was detained by police.

Egypt: A bomb was placed alongside a Coptic Christian church—the Virgin Mary Church in Helwan city, part of Greater Cairo—but security managed to dismantle it before it exploded…

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Filed Under: Catholic Church, Muslim persecution of Christians Tagged With: Pope Francis


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Comments

  1. Alarmed Pig Farmer says

    Aug 12, 2015 at 2:34 pm

    I would like to extend the worst of luck to Pope Frank. He practices what he preaches, both put together adding up to silence and inaction. This is leading from behind, and he knows who is the leading the procession. For my part, I know where this is leading. He should drop his mistaken and obtrusive socialist panacea act and pick up on what is on the minds of Christians in the Levant: survival.

    • jihad3tracker says

      Aug 12, 2015 at 7:17 pm

      ******* OFF TOPIC BUT VERY ENCOURAGING *****

      Some of you might already know this : HILLARY CLINTON’S PRIVATE EMAIL SERVER IS NOW IN FBI POSSESSION. And her attorney David Kendall gave DOJ two of her thumb drives.

      Yes, cynics here will be justified in countering that probably everything has already been removed. BUT THIS IS GOING TO CLAMP ON HER TREASONOUS ANKLES like a rabid pit bull.

      I am a 67 year old lifelong Democrat, but my party has become a politically inbred sewer of disloyalty to the Constitution — overflowing with Leftists hoping for Sharia pathology eventually taking over.

      STAY TUNED, PATRIOTS . . . THIS IS FAR FROM OVER.

      • Louise says

        Aug 13, 2015 at 12:31 pm

        Glad you are seeing the light

  2. jihad3tracker says

    Aug 12, 2015 at 2:35 pm

    Pope Frank (the Counter-Jihad Blank) will visit the U.S. in September. Do you suppose ISIS “lone wolves” are planning a flashy welcome for him ? Balloons, confetti, sparklers . . . that sort of whiz bang stuff they love to see !

    • Alarmed Pig Farmer says

      Aug 12, 2015 at 2:48 pm

      Nah, why would they wanna kill Frank? If anything, the mass murderers should show up and throw flowers at his feet. A real pope would be on the phone to national leaders demanding that they confront ISIS (and Al Qaeda, and the Mo-Bro-Hood, etc.) and put a stop to it. This guy should look up on what Pope Urban II did, and why.

      • jihad3tracker says

        Aug 12, 2015 at 3:54 pm

        Hello again APF — I could not resist being sarcastic, but reading this posted article is heart breaking.

        It is just the latest in a long parade of evidence — including, of course, prelate sexual abuse and the cover-up — on why the Catholic Church lost love and respect in the hearts of hundreds of millions of the Faithful AND persons who hold other beliefs.

        The Holy See apparently thinks the world’s calendar page is forever pegged at the mid-20th Century, in terms of how clearly sin + indifference fly out of the Vatican into clear sight.

        • voegelinian says

          Aug 12, 2015 at 7:55 pm

          The majority of Catholics (as with the majority of Protestants, Orthodox) are likely Kumbaya Christians and think most Muslims “just wanna have a sandwich”. Pope Francis’s problem is not that he’s going against the grain — but that he’s going with the flow of the prevailing PC MC fashion of thought. His next Bull should be titled Ecclesia apud Fluxum Mundi et Populorum (“The Church with the Flow of the World and the People”). There continues to be a too small minority of Westerners waking up; slowly but surely a nucleus is growing… let us hope it won’t be too late. It would be nice if some influential representatives in various contexts too the bull by the horns and helped to kindle a momentum. If only we had a Pope who would help jump-start the critical mass we need, with an Islamocritical Mass… (The previous Pope, Benedict, woulda, coulda been that one; but alas…)

      • Shane says

        Aug 13, 2015 at 9:53 am

        This Pope thinks a lot like Obama, which means I have no use for him. I am not a Catholic, but if I were I would not pay this guy much attention.

        • ninetyninepct says

          Aug 14, 2015 at 10:22 pm

          We don’t give him ANY attention. He finally lost all “respect” with his blind and ignorant view of the climate changing.

          He would regain credibility if he would pop over to Syria and Iran and order isis and Iran to quit being such islamic pigs. Other than that, he is just a nothing pope.

  3. Joan_in_Houston says

    Aug 12, 2015 at 2:37 pm

    I think the author meant to write “a tourist DESTINATION.” I was there once many years ago as a tourist.

  4. mortimer says

    Aug 12, 2015 at 5:32 pm

    Pope Francis seems asleep to the sufferings of Christians persecuted by Muslims.

  5. Sam says

    Aug 12, 2015 at 5:57 pm

    What a crazy world we live in. The pope does not seem very Christian to me, Obama hates the country he is president of, American media seems to be in bed with Islam and enemies of USA, our congress does not seem to be doing its job, Europe keep accepting Moslem immigrants who cause havoc openly, we are going to protect Iran against threats against its nuclear program, Israel may be the most democratic country is blamed for everything.

    I really can not fathom what is going on anymore. Is human race really crazy?

    • Jaladhi says

      Aug 13, 2015 at 9:00 am

      This is a topsy turvy world created by the religion of political correctness which makes you forget your own roots unless you are a Muslim. We are racing at a horrid pace to capitulate to Islam unless another “Pope Urban II ” emerges. Otherwise humanity is doomed!! Muslims sense the end they increasing the pressure. One can see the moral depravity of our leaders, media and academia when they just ignore the genocide and rapes being committed everyday in this modern world by ISIS Muslims and tell us they are not Muslims nor they are following Islam!! These scumbags should been annihilated last year when they started committing these crimes. Sad!

  6. G P says

    Aug 12, 2015 at 6:07 pm

    The Pope is a sell-out – he needs to step down.

    Dialogue with muslims? Impossible, muslims are looking to kill him and his followers.

  7. locust says

    Aug 12, 2015 at 6:45 pm

    I really hope that not all Catholics are following this path , well what can I say human trend “self appointed God’s messengers & loftiness “

  8. Annabelleebeidersee says

    Aug 12, 2015 at 9:15 pm

    The Pastor at my church lncludes praying for the persecuted Church in our weekly “Prayers for the Church.” There are many wonderful organizations out there helping persecuted Christians. I get a newsletter from one of them. This month it highlighted attacks by Boko Haram in Christian Villages in Nigeria – including a teenage boy whose eye was gouged out, his arm hacked at w/ a machete and his genitals cut off. Yet this boy said he forgave these tormentors who left him to bleed to death. So much for Mohammed’s teachings of racial equality and tolerance! Let’s not let ” our love grow cold.” but at the same time let’s not kow – tow to the beast either.

  9. Mervyco says

    Aug 12, 2015 at 9:34 pm

    The Catholic Church has called upom the Israeli Government to prosecute a far Right Jewish politician for saying Churches should be burnt.
    He is SAYING it and they want action. IS/Muslim Brotherhood/Al Shabab/Boko Haram et al are ACTUALLY burning churches and Christian people and the Pope says nothing.
    If saying gets a bigger reaction than doing, we have to ask if the Religion of the speaker has a greater influence on the reaction than words would normally warrent!

    • Cecilia Ellis says

      Aug 13, 2015 at 3:34 am

      Mervyco, after reading your post, I searched the internet for news reporting of this request by Catholic authorities in response to the words of Bentzion Gupstein, who is the leader of Lehava, a right-wing, orthodox organization opposed to assimilation in Israel.

      The statement, for which Gupstein has subsequently been interrogated by Israeli police, was in direct response to a specific question presented during an August 4, 2015, closed-panel discussion for yeshiva students. Reflecting on and using the words of the 12th-century Jewish philosopher, Maimonides, Gupstein said that Christianity was guilty of idolatry, citing Deuteronomy, and idolatry worship should be destroyed. While it was a hypothetical question and answer, Gupstein specifically stated that he was not calling for such action. [1]

      Significantly, the swift reaction of the Vatican representative to this incident is quite revealing. On August 9, 2015, the Vatican’s Custodian of the Holy Land submitted a letter that requested Gupstein’s prosecution:

      “The danger and threats to the Church and to Christians in Israel are imminent . . . [demanding an end to] the ferocious campaign of religious incitement and racist violence against the Church and its institutions in Israel”. [2]

      “This isn’t a time for procrastination, delays and helplessness! This is a time for determined and uncompromising action by law enforcement authorities under your leadership. The writing is on the wall, and a cost to human life, with consequences which cannot be foretold, isn’t a question of if but of when.” [3]

      In a complaint filed on August 7, 2015, against Gupstein – and signed by more than 20 Patriarchs and Bishops – the Secretary General of the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land said:

      “The Catholic community in the Holy Land is fearful and feels in danger . . . [and called] on Israeli authorities to ensure real protection for Christian citizens of this country and their places of worship.” [4]

      While there is no doubt that Gupstein is considered to be extremist in his words, he in no way compares to the actual atrocities committed by Muslims against Christians. The silence of the Church against Islamic-mandated persecution of Christians – expressed by murder of thousands upon thousands – renders its complaint to Israeli authorities despicable, at best.

      That the Vatican has pursued an active crusade against one man but blatantly has refused to initiate an equivalent campaign against Islamic ideology, which is uniquely responsible for the daily-growing roster of Christian martyrs, can not be ignored. This failure lies primarily with one person: Pope Francis. With his demonstrated priority of climate change (Laudato Si), he has rendered the Catholic hierarchy devoid of moral credibility. In so doing, he should change his motto, “Miserando atque eligendo” (“By having mercy and by choosing”), to “Lacramatus est Iesus” (“Jesus wept” [John 11:35]).
      ____________

      [1] http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/332891/opposition-leader-herzog-lock-up-lehava-leader-and-declare-the-organization-illegal.html

      [2] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/11796411/Far-Right-Jewish-leader-questioned-by-police-over-support-for-church-burnings.html

      [3] http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/diplomacy-defense/81528-150810-vatican-rep-urges-israel-s-ag-to-prosecute-jewish-extremist

      [4] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/vatican-benzi-gopstein_55c92903e4b0f1cbf1e61874

      • Oliver says

        Aug 13, 2015 at 4:57 pm

        Numerous Christian leaders (mostly in the Middle East, but a few in the US & Europe) have said THAT ISRAEL IS THE ONLY COUNTRY IN THE MIDDLE EAST, WHERE CHRISTIANS ARE SAFE. (or, i guess, not persecuted for being Christians).

        And, any Christian in Israel who feels threatened, can freely emigrate. And not worry about being killed along the road, by the Israeli army.

  10. Wellington says

    Aug 12, 2015 at 10:46 pm

    Very few popes in papal history have been fools, but Francis is one of them.

  11. Davegreybeard says

    Aug 12, 2015 at 11:59 pm

    @Sam
    “Is human race really crazy?”

    I have thought the same thing Sam.

    Crazy, crazy times we live in.

    An age on nonsense and lies, wide open for the devil, “The Father of Lies,” to begin his opening act…

  12. Pervy Grin says

    Aug 13, 2015 at 1:12 am

    You know the old joke about “is the Pope Catholic”? With this pope we really have to wonder.

  13. Linde Barrera says

    Aug 13, 2015 at 1:17 am

    To Raymond Ibrahim- Thank you for your 2:28 pm Aug. 12, 2015 article. It was thoroughly researched, painstakingly well written, and absolutely heartbreaking. I sent a fax earlier this week to Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, asking him to give more help for the persecuted Christians in Syria and Iraq. I know that is like “a voice crying in the wilderness” but the fax cost me 2 bucks and I said a prayer that it would make a difference.

  14. duh_swami says

    Aug 13, 2015 at 8:47 am

    Frank is just another guy who likes to play dress up, and ‘holier than thou’ games…Most of these actors, never did a days ‘work’ in their entire lives. The issues are real, the people being murdered are not actors, and they are not all Christians…But Christians are a favorite target of the pious for Allah, when there are a lot of them in close proximity to the pious…Frank can do nothing but make statements and pray, neither of which have saved one Christians life so far. The pious just keep rounding them up and taking them out.
    The only way to stop the pious is brute force. Frank won’t advocate that, and the worlds governments seem reluctant to get serious about it, so evacuation is all the infidels have left, if there is anywhere to evacuate to…

  15. Jaladhi says

    Aug 13, 2015 at 8:49 am

    Can he learn anything from Pope Urban II??

    • Angemon says

      Aug 13, 2015 at 10:47 am

      He can, but I think Francis filled him under “Popes who are a bad example – do not emulate”.

  16. Veritas says

    Aug 13, 2015 at 3:28 pm

    Go to Persecuted Christians under the Catholic News Agency on the web and you will see this defamation against Pope Francis can come from someone who is sanguine to the point of coma . You have failed an even basic research of the Pope’s protests against Islamic Jihad. The anti Catholicism of this site is so divorced from reality it deserves satire rather than refutation. The Church, as the only organization in the past, will like Samson of old, slay the devil and his Muhammedan minions with the jawbones of anti Catholics on this site. (The jawbone belonged to an Ass.)

  17. Mary Ellen McMillen says

    Aug 13, 2015 at 10:31 pm

    This doesn’t surprise me, did we all forget about the Crusades?

  18. gravenimage says

    Aug 14, 2015 at 2:02 am

    Pope Francis released this a few months ago:

    “Pope Francis: Do not be ‘silent’ about persecuted Christians”

    http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/04/06/pope_francis_do_not_be_silentabout_persecuted_christians/1134897

    And yet, he himself did not consider it worth mentioning in his own Encyclical.

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