When the followers of Islam live in non Muslim countries they are generally not harrased because they are Muslims, because one of the tenets of free societies like ours is that people have freedom of religion. Despite the undoubted problems that Islam has brought to the West, there is an astonishing lack of mosque burnings, oppression and discriminination against Muslims. Although there have been problems in the past viz a viz relations between Christians and members of other faiths, these problems are now mostly firmly in the past. It is highly unlikely that modern, Western, post Reformation and post Vatican II Christians would engage in the sort of aggression against those who believe differently, that was sadly a part of the Christian world in the distant past.
Such an enlightened attitude however, is not to be found in the Islamic world, even in its so-called ‘moderate’ parts.
A Roman Catholic news source, AsiaNews.it, reports that the position for Christians in Indonesia appears to be getting worse.
AsiaNews said:
“This Holy Week will be full of tensions for Catholics in West Jakarta, who put up with repeated threats over the weekend from hundreds of Islamic extremists, who tried to block access to Christ the Peace Catholic Church in Kepa Duri, an administrative area west of the Indonesian capital.
Last Saturday, on the eve of Palm Sunday, Islamist groups made serious threats against Catholics in Kepa Duri, telling the priest and the faithful to cancel scheduled weekend celebrations.
Their hatred was triggered by the fact that the place of worship is located inside a school, which, in their opinion, “should not be used” for religious services.
The extremists tried to attack the site when the priest and some members of the congregation started a prayer meeting. As a result, Fr Matthew Widyolestari turned to the Interfaith Forum in Jakarta, which met with the leaders of the extremist protest.”
Whether this meeting with the interfaith forum will make things better for Christians in Indonesia is a moot point. Such a group is bound to have to have in the back of their minds the fear of Islamic violence if they stand up for the rights of Christians and others too forcefully.
It seems that the problem with Islamic violence aimed at Christians is getting so bad that only a massive security operation by the Indonesian military and police will allow Christians to celebrate Holy Week in safety.
AsiaNews added:
“Contacted by AsiaNews, Fr Matthew said that Sunday services would be held “regularly, as scheduled,” which is what happened. Yesterday in fact, the faithful were able to attend Mass, also thanks to the massive deployment of security forces sent to protect their life.
Now attention has turned on Holy Week services, with the maximum level of vigilance in force.”
The fact that peaceful Christians have to hold their services behind a high security cordon to protect them from a baying mob intent on killing and destruction, shows us where the problem lies and that problem is the violent ideology of Islam and those who follow it. Again we see a huge disconnect between what Islamic groups say about relations with other faiths and how such relations actually are where Islam is dominant.
The honeyed Qu’ranic words spoken by Islamic apologists that ‘there shall be no compulsion in religion’ is yet another piece of Islamic propaganda, just like the statements: ‘women are respected in Islam’ and ‘we don’t rape your children’.
If this is how the followers of Islam behave towards Christians in a ‘moderate’ Muslim nation, just think how bad the situation for Christians and other minority faiths in places like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and many others.
We should look to the truth of people’s actions and not the untruth of their words.
Links
Original story from AsiaNews.it
The appalling situation for Christians in:
Iran
http://www.christianpost.com/news/5-iranian-christians-to-face-trial-for-blasphemy-49563/
Pakistan – Christians treated as second class citizens by Islam dominated society.
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,IRBC,,PAK,,510f8dbd2,0.html
Saudi Arabia – Arrests for practising Christianity
Egypt – Discrimination and violence against Christians by Muslims
Mass rapes and sexual attacks carried out by the followers of Islam in the UK (a handy, if disturbing map showing the extent of the problem)
https://kafircrusaders.wordpress.com/muslim-grooming-paedo-map/
sadly this is not just a British problem, it is also an issue in the Netherlands
