A report from the heartland of America, on ways to fight the “epidemic of anti-Muslim bigotry” that has apparently engulfed us, offers food for skeptical thought:
Breaking through the noise of the 24-hour news cycle, where participants are more likely to yell than offer thoughtful discussion, isn’t easy. But a dozen local churches, religious organizations and academics still are going to try.
The stakes surrounding Islamophobia, they say, are too high — even in the city that is home to the Mother Mosque of America — to leave it to the talking heads.
The reporter does not question, as she should have, her informants’ use of the word “Islamophobia,” a word which was invented to shut down, rather than provoke, thought, a word meant to convince readers that all criticism of, or anxiety about, Islam must surely reflect only a phobia — an “irrational fear and hate” — toward Islam. She might instead have written: “The stakes surrounding what some choose, tendentiously, to label as ‘Islamophobia,’ they claim are too high.”
The “Mother Mosque of America” in Cedar Rapids is the first purpose-built mosque in America, a small nondescript structure that dates from 1934, that soon fell into disrepair and ruin, and has recently been rebuilt. Some in Cedar Rapids seem to think that mosque helps prove, to quote Barack Obama, that Islam has always “been part of America’s story.”
“I recently read a novel by Louis de Bernieres, ‘Birds Without Wings,’ said Charles Crawley, president of the Inter-Religious Council of Linn County. The book, set in Turkey in the early 20th century, documents “how international events tore apart Christians and Muslims who lived together peaceably for centuries.”
Mr. Crawley, a local pillar of the Interfaith community, had just finished a work of fiction that told him all he apparently needed to know about Christians and Muslims who, he now believes, “lived together peaceably for centuries.” But did they? Even in the last half-century of Ottoman rule, there were endless massacres of various Christian communities in the Ottoman domains. In 1876-78, several hundred thousand Bulgarians were killed in three massacres (provoking a famous denunciation by Prime Minister Gladstone). 300,000 Christian Armenians were murdered by Muslim Turks in the Hamidian massacres of 1894-9. 20,000-25,000 Armenians and Assyrians were killed by Muslims in the Adana massacre of 1909. Turks engaged in the ethnic cleansing of Thracian Bulgarians in 1913. The second greatest genocide in history was that of the Christian Armenians by the Ottoman Turks, which lasted from 1915 to 1917; 1.5 million Armenians were killed. At the same time, Muslim Turks also killed Greek and Assyrian Christians.
The allusion by Mr. Crawley to “international events” that explain the Armenian genocide of 1915-17 can only refer to the Turkish argument that whatever killings of the Armenians took place did so in the context of World War I when, those Turks claim, Armenians in the Ottoman Empire betrayed the state, and attempted to help the Allies, especially Russia, and as a consequence were killed in battle (!) with Turkish troops. Those Turkish apologists hasten to add that the number of Armenian victims has been greatly exaggerated. But the genocide that began in 1915 was prompted by the same hatred for Christian Armenians that caused Muslim Turks to murder many of them in the 1894-96 massacres, twenty years before World War I. And the massacres of non-Armenian Christians — Bulgarians, Greeks, Assyrians — by the Ottomans, all have the same explanation: Muslim hatred of the Christians, whatever their ethnicity.
That Mr. Crawley would rely on a single work of fiction for his knowledge of how Christians and Muslims got along over 1400 years is disheartening. He apparently did not think it necessary to spend a few minutes to find online descriptions of the Muslim Turk killers (some Turkish doctors even engaged in “medical experiments,” prefiguring Mengele) and mass murderers of the Christian Armenians, or to find out more about the Bulgarian massacres at Batak, Stara Zagora, and Hamanli, or about the many attacks on the Greeks, and the Assyrians, or to find out more about the Massacre of Aleppo in 1850, when Muslims savagely attacked their Christian neighbors. He knows, from a novel, that in the Ottoman Empire Christians and Muslims “lived together peaceably for centuries.” Few historians would agree.
Apparently the novel Mr. Crawley relies on for his history made no mention of the devshirme, the forced levy of Christian boys in the Balkans who were seized by the Ottomans and taken back to Turkey, a practice that lasted from the 14th to the 17th centuries. The goal was to supply the Ottoman state with capable soldiers and administrators; the boys underwent compulsory conversion to Islam. Christian families were unable to resist. Does the devshirme system suggest that Christians and Muslims “lived together peaceably” during the four centuries of its existence?
Christians and Muslims “lived together peaceably” only intermittently, for Muslim fury could flare up against the helpless Christians at any time. And the Christians, even in the best of times, were required to meet all of the onerous conditions required of dhimmis, including payment of the Jizyah. Can someone forced to endure the dhimmi status be said to live “peaceably”with his Muslim masters?
Mr. Crawley also says nothing about the treatment of Jews under the Ottomans. They were subject to repeated pogroms in Palestine by the local Muslim population of Arabs and Turks. And they, too, as dhimmis, had to pay the Jizyah to the Muslim Turks.
Christians could also be subject to special hardships imposed locally by Turkish overlords. For example, after Cyprus was conquered by the Ottomans in 1570-71, it was forbidden for any Christian to live within the walls of Nicosia. That rule affected many Christians for whom Cyprus was a way-station on the route to the Holy Land, and who were now forced to sleep in stables or on the ground, in the open. This was not a case where Muslims killed Christians, but an example of the many smaller ways that the Christians were subject to unjust treatment by the Muslim Turks.
“If we aren’t proactive, the same thing could happen here, with national and international events used to separate people on a local level,” he [Mr. Crawley] said. “So we want people to know there are forces actively promoting Islamophobia.”
Mr.Crawley seems to think that there is a conspiracy of islamophobes, “actively promoting” their hate, who need to be exposed. He offers no evidence for this claim. Who are these unidentified malignant and powerful “forces” that “promote islamophobia”? And how do these dark forces manage to do it? He doesn’t say.
somehistory says
“fell into disrepair and ruin, and has recently been rebuilt.”
***************************************
If this were being written about a church in Egypt, there would be rioting, burning, looting and Death to those rebuilding…by islamoslavers…a.k.a. moslims.
The people worrying about the accusations of growing…shall we say, animosity…against moslims…should be looking at the reality. What evidence is there that moslims are “hated” and if so, “why” are they?
They should investigate to find out what is the real situation, to find out if lies are being told in order to further islam’s growth and eventual takeover by propagating the idea that moslims are under attack and they need everyone to jump to their defense and ***stop all of the Talking about what they do and stop Talking about what islam teaches and stop Talking about the dangers inherent if they get their way and telling the Truth is stopped…and everyone questioning is silenced and everyone who knows the Truth is silenced.
gravenimage says
True, Somehistory.
gravenimage says
And the very fact that this “mother mosque” just dates from 1934–and was not even in continuous use or even upkeep–shows that Islam was *not* ‘always a part of America’s history’, but is rather a quite recent phenomenon here.
This is essentially a small metal shed. My modest home is considerably larger and more commodious that this thing:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_laT6GZeAW1Q/TO_31AxqfkI/AAAAAAAAD94/gkqSW8HDOlw/s400/1.jpg
CRUSADER says
Dr Mark Gabriel, ex-Muslim imam, and a staunch Christian convert, now,
having lived in Egypt and experienced how Christians were treated by Muslims,
would agree….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJbJwFkU1U8
James says
it is not anti-muslim bigotry; it is telling the truth of the muslim/islam agenda which is total dominance at any cost, so get over yourselves. islamaphobe is term muslims created to cover their rear ends to distract those who do not care for nor want islam in their communities, or country for that matter. they will always blame something or someone other than themselves; pitiful.
rubiconcrest says
We in the West have good reason to question Islam. Many of us are actually quite familiar with the teachings of Islam. There is no good reason to keep repeating lies and equating criticism of Islam with hate of Muslims. The question we need to ask Todd Green is, ‘How many lectures have you given to the Jihadist’s in the middle east or in Syria? They are the ones that need to hear your message. We are not killing Muslims.
mortimer says
A MEDIEVAL OTTOMAN FANTASYLAND of PEACE & LOVE ? JEWS, CHRISTIANS … happy, happy under Ottoman rule. REALLY?
In his book, “HOLOCAUST AVERTED”, historian Dr. Miroslav Marinov, PhD, contradicts Charles Crawley’s whitewashed Islam … a total fantasy.
Marinov writes about Jews and Christians under Ottoman rule: after the city of Tirnovo fell to the Ottoman Muslims, ‘one Jew came out to greet the sultan and declare his loyalty to him. The sultan despised his behavior and had him killed.” (There’s a howdy-do.)
Marinov continues: “The Turks occupied the land for nearly 500 years. Most aristocrats were either exterminated or chased away; most libraries were burned down, churches were destroyed (following a ban on building new churches) … The Ottoman Empire was a backward feudal state, whose economy was based on plunder and severe exploitation of ‘infidels’. While the countries in Western Europe moved slowly through the Renaissance toward industrial power, the Turks were in constant stagnation. The feudal model, frozen in time, dragged down each and every one of the conquered nations.”
Marinov reveals one of the BIGGEST of all complaints in Ottoman-occupied territory. One of the greatest injustices (that Charles Crawley has not even thought of) is the way Muslims from the highest aristocrat to the lowliest pedlar was allowed to force himself on any Christian or Jewish home living there freely for three days at the expense of the household. For that reason, throughout the Ottoman Empire, Christians built their villages high up in the hills away from main thoroughfares near which Ottoman troops would frequently force their way into Christian homes for up to three nights.
19th-century British writer, Edward Freeman observed in his book, ‘The Ottoman Empire in Europe: its Nature, its Growth and its Decline’: “The truth is that the Mahometan religion is, above all others, an aggressive religion.”
Message to Charles Crawley: FACTS MATTER.
gravenimage says
Fine post, Mortimer.
FYI says
I saw the clip “The fear of islam:A conversation with Todd Green”
It just didn’t appear to be a cogent,intelligent “conversation”:It seems he was talking to himself.
I’m sorry:But…
Todd is Odd.
{Buy a book from someone else who knows what they are talking about…or an ice cream or something….}
gary fouse says
Todd Green: Where does he tend bar?
Spiro says
Tell me then
What is his background and what makes him an expert on Islam
gravenimage says
He is an Associate Professor of Religion at Luther College. It’s associated with the Lutheran Church. It is not a particularly prestigious institution.
Keys says
Yes, good question.
He is a relatively young man. Should he not be working to support his family like many contributing Americans ? How does he have time to go on lecture tour, and who is paying his expenses ?
Lydia Church says
If you truncate the last part of the compound word on the last word in the sentence… you will get the truth:
The epidemic of islam….!
Hence the aversion to islam… the defense system’s natural reaction!
Lydia Church says
And no mention of all the forces actively promoting jihad terror!
gravenimage says
In Cedar Rapids, “Nationally Recognized Expert” Todd Green Deplores “Epidemic of Islamophobia” (Part 1)
…………….
What an idiot.
This tool has a book called “The Fear of Islam–an exploration of why the West fears Islam and why this matters”.
mortimer says
Only an idiot would not fear the intrinsic terror of Islam. There are 164 jihad verses in the Koran. Islamic history is a river of blood.
gravenimage says
Grimly true, Mortimer.
CRUSADER says
Understanding the Threat —
John Guandolo spells it out:
Shariah is a brutal system of governance which Islam
is set out to spread across the world….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm4RidRx-hg#action=share
mortimer says
Agree … “Shariah is a brutal system of governance” … Islam is a brutal system of governance designed to subjugate the world to the Arabs through enslavement.
gravenimage says
+1
tuner38 says
Infidelophobia is the issue that keeps being ignored. it is the central tenet of Islam is keeps being hidden by exclusion.