OSTRICHES

from Midwest Conservative Journal by The Editor

One of the aspects of this on-again, off-again Florida Koran-burning that irritates me no end is the opportunity it gives to western liberal Christians to make posturing jackasses of themselves. Some of the Anglican bishops of Ireland had this to say:

As Bishops of the Church of Ireland, we join our voice to the widespread international condemnation of the plan to burn copies of the Islamic Sacred scriptures. This deliberate desecration of scriptures sacred to all Muslims is a gratuitous act of sectarianism and totally contrary to the Christian spirit of love and reconciliation. We recognise that the pain of this outrage will be felt by members of Islamic communities throughout the world.

My gracious lord of Canterbury weighed in a while back.

At the present time our religious communities face many challenges and many provocations. In this country there are those who speak maliciously about religion in general and often against Islam in particular; demonstrations in many of our cities are intended to provoke; and in other parts of the world the threat to desecrate scriptures is deeply deplorable and to be strongly condemned by all people.

What’s gradually moving my stance on this issue from moral ambivalence to “I’ll bring the hot dogs and bratwursts” are stories like the following.

After defeating their rivals in Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement, Muslim extremists are focusing their attacks on Christians in Gaza City. Christians in Gaza City have issued an appeal to the international community and a plea for protection against the increased attacks by Muslim extremists.

Father Manuel Musallem, head of Gaza’s Latin church, told the AP that Muslims have ransacked, burned and looted a school and convent that are part of the Gaza Strip’s small Roman Catholic community. He told the AP that crosses were broken, damage was done to a statue of Jesus, and at the Rosary Sister School and nearby convent, prayer books were burned.

Gunmen used the roof of the school during the fighting, and the convent was “desecrated,” Mussalem told the AP.

Father Musalam additionally told The Jerusalem Post that the Muslim gunmen used rocket-propeled grenades (RPGs) to blow through the doors of the church and school, before burning Bibles and destroying every cross they could get their hands on.

It’s not so much the fact that these incidents happened. These things tend to happen all the time in the Islamic world all the time and to be fair, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas vigorously condemned these atrocities.

Which is more than western liberal Christians like Dr. Williams and these Anglican Irish bishops will ever do. And if they should happen to allude to it or some other attacks like it, they’ll do so in vaguest terms possible.

Case in point. In the last few years, there have been several Muslim-Christian clashes in Nigeria and I wanted to see what, if anything, Rowan Williams had said about them so I searched the Archbishop of Canterbury’s web site. I found two items which seemed to directly address the issue.

One was a 2007 letter from Dr. Williams to the Rt. Rev. Isaac Orama, Bishop of Uyo, expressing his relief that Orama hadn’t said offensive words about Muslims that had been attributed to him in the Western press.

As I said last week, these reports were very concerning and it is a great relief to have had full assurances that the stories were false and should never have appeared. I am grateful that the prospect of the severe offence that would have been caused has now abated.

The other was a letter addressed to “Primate of Nigeria” following some Christian-Muslim clashes in 2009:

Primate of Nigeria

I am writing to let you know how deeply your Christian brothers and sisters here in the UK feel for you all in the midst of the violence and uncertainty that has overtaken you in Nigeria and especially in Abuja in recent weeks. In the face of mindless and brutal aggression, you have been asked to witness to the essential Christian truths, and we honour your courage and faithfulness. ‘You have kept my word and have not denied my name’ (Rev.3.8).

Notice the missing word there? I thought you might.