In this mailing:
- Raymond Ibrahim: Genocide of Christians Reaches "Alarming Stage"
- Amir Taheri: Iran's Options and the Destructive Defiance
by Raymond Ibrahim • May 26, 2019 at 5:00 am
Many of the world's most persecuted Christians have nothing whatsoever to do with colonialism or missionaries. Those most faced with the threat of genocide — including Syria's and Iraq's Assyrians or Egypt's Copts — were Christian several centuries before the ancestors of Europe's colonizers became Christian and went missionizing
The BBC report highlights "political correctness" as being especially responsible for the West's indifference....
Among the worst persecutors are those that rule according to Islamic law, or Sharia -- which academics such as Georgetown University's John Esposito insist is equitable and just. In Afghanistan (ranked #2), "Christianity is not permitted to exist."
UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt (pictured) commissioned an "Independent Review into the global persecution of Christians," which was recently published. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)
"Christian persecution 'at near genocide levels,'" the title of a May 3 BBC report, cites a lengthy interim study ordered by British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and led by Rev. Philip Mounstephen, the Bishop of Truro.
According to the BBC report, one in three people around the world suffer from religious persecution, with Christians being "the most persecuted religious group". "Religion 'is at risk of disappearing' in some parts of the world, " it noted, and "In some regions, the level and nature of persecution is arguably coming close to meeting the international definition of genocide, according to that adopted by the UN."
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt is also quoted on why Western governments have been "asleep" — his word — concerning this growing epidemic:
by Amir Taheri • May 26, 2019 at 4:00 am
To start with, we must realize that the crisis in question isn't caused by any of the traditional causes of conflict between nation-states.... In other words, the conflict isn't a classical international one. The reason is that Iran no longer behaves as a nation-state but as a vehicle for an ideology.
The madness that is Khomeinism has always had its method, which includes abject surrender when pressed too hard and brazen aggression when pressure is eased.
Contrary to claims by the pro-mullah lobby in Washington, the choice isn't between surrender to Khomeminist madness and full-scale invasion of Iran. Only when the threshold of tolerable pain is reached the "Supreme Guide" may well reconsider his options. We are not there yet.
The madness that is Khomeinism has always had its method, which includes abject surrender when pressed too hard and brazen aggression when pressure is eased. There are signs that Iran's "Supreme Guide," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, may be contemplating what he has called "heroic flexibility". (Image source: kremlin.ru)
According to an old adage, every crisis also contains an opportunity. And the current crisis between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States may be no exception. Intense sabre-rattling on both sides, combined with what one might call "diplomacy of gesticulations," have reignited interest in what was a half-dormant conflict. That renewed interest could be used for persuading both sides, and others interested in the "Iran problem", to re-visit the root causes of the conflict. And, having done so, try to find realistic ways of defusing the situation.
But before that could be done, a number of steps must be taken.
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