The Washington Times - Downplaying Attacks on Christians

Op-Ed

by Rep. Doug Collins

The Islamic State, or ISIS, just released its latest online snuff video on Sunday. It makes for disgusting viewing and tells us all we really need to know about the folks who are wreaking havoc in the Middle East in the name of Allah. In it, ISIS' barbaric"warriors" line up and behead 21 Egyptian Christians on a beach in Libya. In case any of us in the West don't understand or cannot comprehend why they do what they do, one of the executioners is seen in the video proclaiming the act "a message signed in blood to the nation of the cross."

That proclamation had to be aimed directly at the president of the United States, who just can't seem to accept the fact that what's going on over there is not mere thuggery, but a religious war. Could the message be any clearer to President Obama? The Islamic State is waging global jihad against Christians, Jews, Shiites, Yazidis and any other any group that does not subscribe to its medieval worldview -- even if he and his administration doesn't seem able to utter the words "Islamic" and "terrorism" in the same sentence.

At a recent National Prayer Breakfast, the president himself tried to "explain" ISIS atrocities by reminding his audience of the Crusades 1,000 years ago. In an effort to obscure events occurring today, he offended thinking people everywhere, who know ISIS violence, however explained or excused, is inexcusable. Many Christian leaders were especially offended because they believe quite correctly that the
persecution of Christians in the Middle East is going almost unreported and is apparently of little concern to the Obama White House.

Instead of talking about events that took place in the region a thousand years ago, the president could have taken the opportunity to draw attention to the way Christians as well as Jews and others are faring today at the hands of a movement that hasn't advanced in that same thousand years.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt last year blamed that country's Christian religious minority for the ouster of their Islamist leader and torched Christian homes and churches as part of what they called a national "Day of Rage."

Last November, a mob of 1,200 in Pakistan lynched two Christians accused of burning a Koran and a judge sentenced a Christian to death for blasphemy.

A million of Iraq's 1.5 million Christians fled that country between 2003 and 2010, as an early version of ISIS bombed their ancient churches in the"cradle of civilization," and the well-known Sudan genocide -- which is usually depicted as tribal in nature -- was also a war by Islamist militants in the African country's north against Christians in the south.

And the war against Christianity on the African continent isn't limited to the Middle East itself. Boko Haram in Nigeria, as ugly a terrorist group as the Islamic State in the Middle East, has slaughtered thousands more Christians since Michelle Obama started her "Bring Back Our Girls" campaign on Twitter.

Currently, according to advocacy group International Christian Concern, nearly 200 million Christians suffer persecution around the world -- and not just at the hands of Islamic extremists. Communist regimes in China and North Korea target the faithful as enemies of the state. This is nothing new. Christians have experienced such oppression since ancient times, but the president's habitual
dismissiveness makes one wonder if he knows or cares about the crisis that amounts to a religious genocide in many parts of the world.

We cannot as Americans turn a blind eye to what is going on or accept measures designed to punish practicing Christians as a way to identify with others. That's why I'm doing all I can to draw attention to Army Chaplain Joseph Lawhorn, whose superiors punished him for expressing his faith while serving his fellow soldiers.

The violence against Christians and other minorities in the Middle East is much worse, or at least it's being practiced on a wider scale than elsewhere, but the reach of those who eradicate Jews and Christians is growing. The recent murders in France and Denmark may be harbingers of things to come unless we begin to face reality. Dismissing a concerted attack on our values and faith cannot be
dismissed as the result of the random acts of a few thugs in the way our own president described the killing of Jews in France. Doing so ignores what's going on before our very eyes.

We need to recognize our enemies for who they are if we are to develop a strategy to defeat them while at the same time identifying with those suffering at their hands. The president likes to quote scripture in support of his policies, but he shouldn't ignore the rest of the Bible, and perhaps especially Hebrews 13: "Remember those in prison, as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering."

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