The real story is that religious cleansing by Islamists acting in the name of Islam is taking place throughout the Middle East and Christians are being victimized wherever they live
Every year at Christmas mainstream media all over the Western world run feel-good stories about Christians celebrating Christmas in Bethlehem. This year was no exception
Throughout the West the usual stories appeared showing Christians celebrating Christmas there...practically every newspaper and television station had an obligatory story about Christians filling Manger Square and the Church of the Nativity to celebrate the birth of Christ. The real story about Christians and Christianity in the Middle East has never been fully reported on or examined in the mainstream media in this or any other year however and the mainstream media generally has been entirely derelict in its duty by keeping it from the public.
The real story is that religious cleansing by Islamists acting in the name of Islam is taking place throughout the Middle East and Christians are being victimized wherever they live. Wherever Christians remain in the Middle East they are being subjected to terrible persecution and forced to live in fear for their lives, just because they are Christian, just because they don’t practice Islam.
The fear is well founded...beatings, mutilation, intimidation, torture, murder, rape, desecration of holy places, church burnings and other expressions of Islamic intolerance and hatred are commonplace and no place in the Middle East is safe for them, except Israel ironically whose Christian population has increased exponentially in recent years because Christians can practice their religion freely there and not have to worry about falling prey to Islam and Islamists. Christianity predominated in the Middle East long before Islam came along and Christians have been one of its two primary victims ever since it did, Jews being the other. Islamic religious cleansing has been going on the Middle East since Islam first came into existence 1,400 odd years ago and it is being spread today the same way its always been...violently, with the sword at its victim’s throats. Christians and Christianity are in mortal peril wherever they are in the Middle East and it is Islam and Islamists which are placing them there, as they have from the beginning. Christians and Christianity have been effectively religiously cleansed from most of the Middle East by Islam and Islamists and it won’t be too long until the cleansing is complete if things keep going on the way they are.
That’s the real story of Christmas in the Middle East, not the fuzzy, warmhearted pap that is foisted upon us every year at this time. The truth is most assuredly being written in blood and just as assuredly isn’t being written in anything else-not for general consumption anyway.
So what can we do about it? Lots of things, if only we had the sense and the courage.
As but one example we can take the advice of the Washington Times. In an editorial on December 22 entitled “Being Christian is a death sentence” the Times advocated the United States giving refugee status and a guaranteed safe haven to Christians fleeing from the Middle East. The Times even stated that precedent exists for this. It says “The definition of a “refugee-escapee” in the 1957 Immigration and Nationality Act included not only those who had fled from any Communist-dominated, or Communist-occupied area” but also those “from any country within the general area of the Middle East, and who cannot return to such area, or to such country, on account of race, religion or political opinion.”
Makes sense to me. Perhaps Western governments could even band together and open their doors to Christian and other victims of Islam and Islamists in the Middle East, or anywhere else for that matter. The U.S. should certainly do so even if no one else will. In addition to saving lives and preserving our Judeo-Christian culture, heritage and way of life it would have the added benefit of helping to remove the Islamic sword from all our throats.
Jerry Philipson is a retired grandfather who has spent many years working in non-profit social service agencies in Canada and the United States. He holds dual Canadian and American citizenship and has been passionate about politics, civil liberties, freedom and democracy for virtually his whole life. He is particularly interested in the Middle East and America and believes that it is vital for people of good heart and good conscience to speak out against tyranny and dishonesty and to stand up and defend and protect Western values, principles and institutions.
