Writing in The Telegraph, Douglas Carswell finds the reason the UK faces increasing restrictions on free speech is fear: ‘Fear of Islamists who insist that their right not to be offended trumps your right to speak freely.’
The likelihood is that the Labour government will pass legislation based on the definition of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims, which sees Islamophobia as ‘rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness’. This is so vague that it can operate as a catch-all definition forbidding any criticism of Islam: in effect a modern blasphemy law.
Whilst we are still free to do so, I would like to look at what is quite possibly the most misunderstood event in European history, the Crusades of the Middle Ages. Most of what passes for public knowledge about this period is either misleading or plain wrong.
But was the first Crusade really launched in a mindless, bloodthirsty and irrational way?
Progressives’ assertions of a supposed moral equivalence between radical Islam and Christianity happen with boring frequency. ‘Terrorists are all bad, and Christianity has had as many victims as Islam,’ runs the usual accusation. This is then followed by the obligatory, ‘What about the Crusades’?
The Crusades are commonly seen as imperialistic invasions of otherwise peaceable Islamic countries with consequent mass slaughter, all committed in the name of Christ. Compared with the mission of Jesus and the life of the early Christians, the Crusades don’t look good. But was the first Crusade really launched in a mindless, bloodthirsty and irrational way? Was it the Crusaders who introduced warfare to the Holy Land?
If we look at the Crusades in context, we find that they were not a savage, rapacious assault launched upon a peace-loving, sophisticated culture. The Crusades were a response to five centuries of violently aggressive, imperialistic Islamic Jihad which had conquered, annihilated or forcibly converted more than two thirds of what had formerly been the Christian world.
From its inception, Islam was imperialistically aggressive in the face of lack of provocation from the surrounding Byzantine and Persian empires. Islamic imperialism had nothing to do with justified wars of self-defence, rather it was based on the Islamic concept of a holy war.
In contrast Muslims who subjugated other peoples, destroyed their cultures and forced conversion, did not wander from the teachings of Islam: they followed them closely.
The Crusaders may have wandered far from the teachings of Christ in their conduct of war. Jesus never called Christians to violence. In contrast Muslims who subjugated other peoples, destroyed their cultures and forced conversion, did not wander from the teachings of Islam: they followed them closely.
In the ten years during which he lived in Medina (622-632), Muhammad participated in or launched a great many raids, expeditions or full-scale wars. These ranged from sending out assassination hit-squads to the Tabuk expedition, in which he led 30,000 jihadis against a non-existent threat from Byzantine Christians.
Muslim armies marched throughout the Middle East into what is now Turkey and the Balkans, subjugating Christians and others as they went. Islam conquered the Iberian peninsula (c720) and marched into France until repelled by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours (732). They conquered Sicily (827) and raided Italy. Islam is a fighting faith with a lengthy history of imperialist conquest.
Far from the benign rule of popular myth, Muslim domination could be cruel. In 772, the Calipha al Mansur ordered the hands of all Christians and Jews in Jerusalem to be branded. Even when violence did not occur, the presence of vast Muslim armies in the background carried an explicit threat. If Muslims invaded a city or region whose people did not want to convert to Islam, they had to pay a jizya tax. If they converted, as new Muslims they had to pay a zakat tax. Either way, money flowed to the Islamic treasury in Arabia or to the local Muslim governor.
… the holy war, or jihad, was something foreign to Christians until unfortunately they learned it from Islam.
Fred M Donner, professor at Near Eastern History at Chicago University and author of the principal work on early Islam, cites three main factors for the Islamic jihad.
Expansionist Islam was a consistent aggressor in its own holy wars for centuries before Europeans responded defensively with the Crusades. For its first three centuries, Christianity spread by preaching, kindness and example. As pointed out by Jacques Ellul, the holy war, or jihad, was something foreign to Christians until unfortunately they learned it from Islam. Regrettably, the Crusaders learned the lesson too well and sometimes acted with a brutality equalling that of the Muslims.
The Crusaders were called to remove the Islamic invaders from the lands that had previously been Christian and to restore the freedom of pilgrims to visit the shrines of the Holy Land.
The Islamic conquest of Jerusalem occurred in 638; it was not until 1095 that Pope Urban II called the first Crusade. During that time Christians were in a precarious position and lived under threat and persecution throughout the Middle East. When the Sunni Seljuk Turks swept into Jerusalem in 1077 and replaced the Shia Fatimid Caliphate, they murdered more than 3,000 people, including many Christians. It was at this point that the Christian Emperor of Byzantium, Alexius Comnenus, appealed for help to the Western churches.
When Pope Urban II responded by calling for Europe to help the embattled Christians, it was not a call for either conquest or conversion. The Crusaders were called to remove the Islamic invaders from the lands that had previously been Christian and to restore the freedom of pilgrims to visit the shrines of the Holy Land.
Multiculturalism teaches that all cultures are of equal value and worthy of equal esteem. Reality teaches otherwise.
The Rev. Dr Campbell Campbell-Jack is a retired Church of Scotland minister; now a member of the Free Church of Scotland. Check out his many incisive articles on his blog, A Grain of Sand.
Islamist rebels have taken Damascus, and the regime of Bashar al-Assad has fallen. The world rejoices and there are street celebrations by exiled Syrians in the major cities of the West. Politicians including Sir Keir Starmer welcome the fall of Assad’s ‘barbaric regime’ as a ‘very good thing for the Syrian people’.
And the Christians of Syria flee.
Since the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, 90 per cent of Christians have abandoned Aleppo, the country’s second largest city. Will the remaining 10 per cent remain to welcome their jihadi ‘liberators’? What centuries of Islamic oppression was unable to do, the civil war managed and the overthrow of the Assad regime will probably complete – the destruction of one of the oldest Christian communities in the world.
It was on the road to Damascus that Saul, the persecutor of Christians, met the risen Christ and became Paul, the greatest of missionaries and theologians who wrote much of the New Testament. It was in the then Syrian city of Antioch (present day Antakya, in Turkey) that followers of The Way were first called Christians. Syria produced many of the saints and fathers of the early Church, such as Ephrem the Syrian and Eusebius of Caesarea. Two thousand years of Christianity in Syria may soon be coming to an end.
Two thousand years of Christianity in Syria may soon be coming to an end.
The Catholic Archbishop of Aleppo has described this as the end of Christianity’s presence in the city. ‘We are really tired,’ he said. ‘We are really exhausted, and we are also finished, in every sense.’ Speaking of the armed groups who have taken over, he said, ‘The Christians of Aleppo will be convinced that they cannot stay. That it is over for them. In Aleppo they are trying to bring about the end of the rich, magnificent and unique history of the Christians of Aleppo.’
Christians suffered just as much under Assad’s rule as the other citizens of Syria and had no affection for the president. They aligned themselves with the regime not through choice but out of necessity, to save themselves from being slaughtered by the radical Muslim jihadis. Now that the jihadis are in control of the country the Christians of Syria are in a perilous situation.
Speaking of the ‘rebels’ who have overthrown Assad, the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem II said, ‘So, let there be no doubt: they are anti-Christian. They call us infidels. Many believe that it’s their duty to slaughter us in order to offer a sacrifice to their god.’
As the jihadis advanced through the country, many Christians fled the villages and cities in their path. They sought refuge in the formerly government-controlled ‘Valley of Christians’ or Wadi al-Nasara. The community in the Valley responded by opening their homes, churches and community halls to offer shelter and support to the displaced. Now that the Valley has fallen under jihadi control following the collapse of the Assad government, the lives of the Christians there are at stake.
The mainstream media refers to the jihadis as ‘moderate rebels’ when they are neither moderate nor rebels. These militants want a theocratic country ruled by sharia law. When the terrorist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (Organisation for the Liberation of the Levant; HTS) launched their attack on the Aleppo Governorate in north-western Syria, they captured and killed dozens of Syrian Army soldiers, and promised mass executions and beheadings in front of TV cameras. Videos of jihadists abducting Kurdish women have surfaced on social media.
We should be under no illusion that everything in Syria is going to be transformed for the good, that freedom of speech and action will be established.
Whilst we can be glad that Assad has fallen, we should not forget that HTS is a jihadist group with origins in Al Qaeda and ISIS, including the remnants of the group led by the late Abu Musab al Zarqawi, a Palestinian Jordanian known as the ‘sheikh of the slaughterers’. These are no democracy-loving liberals: wherever they have had authority, they have inflicted abuse.
We should be under no illusion that everything in Syria is going to be transformed for the good, that freedom of speech and action will be established. HTS aim to establish a theocracy. The situation, if anything, is going to be worse for all of Syria’s citizens and especially for the minorities: Alawites, Kurds and Christians.
Since the violent Muslim conquest of Syria in AD 634-638, generation after generation of Syria’s Christians have been oppressed and despised by the Muslim majority. When Muslims treat Jews and Christians as equals, they are being unfaithful to the teachings of their holy book. The Koran clearly teaches that Jews and Christians should have second-class status. A look across to Islamic North Africa and the Middle East would bear this out. It is difficult to find any instances in the Arab Islamic world of Christians living in harmony and peace under Islamic rule. Egypt has a large Christian population which existed long before the creation of Islam, yet the Coptic Christians live as second-class citizens in their own country.
Still those who govern us continue to welcome into our countries the kind of people who have destroyed the Christian minorities in their own lands. Islamists can persecute, murder and drive out ancient Christian communities, and you won’t hear a word from our tolerant Western governments. We should try to be respectful and compassionate, but not at the cost of naively closing our eyes to the realities faced by Christians in Muslim-dominated countries.
… those who govern us continue to welcome into our countries the kind of people who have destroyed the Christian minorities in their own lands.
It is possible for governments to show concern about the situation facing Christians in Muslim-dominated lands. Hungary has its own state secretary to assist persecuted Christians. The much-maligned Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán recently met Syrian Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem II and pledged continued support for Christians in need.
How will the UK government react to the plight of Syria’s Christians? Will there be speeches from the front bench in their defence, will they be welcomed here and given accommodation and support as they try to rebuild their lives: or will they be ignored and left to the mercies of the jihadis?
Given the Labour Party’s reliance on the Muslim vote, there is little doubt in my mind which stance the Starmer government is likely to take.
The Rev. Dr Campbell Campbell-Jack is a retired Church of Scotland minister; now a member of the Free Church of Scotland. Check out his many incisive articles on his blog, A Grain of Sand.
We were studying the opening verses of Matthew’s Gospel in our church home group the other day, appropriately at the start of the Advent season focusing on the first and second coming of Christ. With its long list of Jesus’ ancestors, it’s a strange way to start a book, as our leader pointed out.
Strange, for Gentiles that is. But for Jews, it was very important, tracing the ancestral line of Jesus to prove his Messiahship, as well as unearthing a rich source of treasure in terms of God’s amazing grace. Christ’s genealogy includes a preponderance of shady characters, including women of questionable repute like Rahab the prostitute.
Then there was Bathsheba. Of all the women who could have been chosen to continue the Messianic line (and King David had many!), the honour fell to the wife of Uriah the Hittite, with whom he had an adulterous relationship which he then tried to cover up by killing her husband.
Given the background to his ‘human’ ancestry (through his stepfather Joseph), it should not have been too surprising that Jesus came to be known as the ‘friend of sinners’, as he identified with our weakness and frailty in offering mercy that triumphs over judgment.
It should not have been too surprising that Jesus came to be known as the ‘friend of sinners’, as he identified with our weakness and frailty in offering mercy that triumphs over judgment.
The author of this particular gospel, which opens the New Testament, was seen at the time as a ‘sinful’ tax collector collaborating with the Roman occupiers.
It is especially noteworthy that Christ’s ancestral line includes several Gentiles, such as Ruth, serving to emphasise the Messiah’s mission to all people, both Jew and Gentile. And Matthew’s gospel ends with his Saviour’s call to preach the good news to all nations.
The gospel has indeed since gone global, but is now returning to its source in the Middle East where, in sharp contrast to the media’s general portrayal, both Jew and Arab are being reconciled through Jesus.
I often share my experience of witnessing this first-hand in Jerusalem over ten years ago, which always elicits incredulous responses – as few UK Christians, never mind unbelievers, are aware of this.
But I saw it with my own eyes at a conference for the mutual encouragement of believers from throughout the region. We sang, alternately, in English, Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish and Farsi. And though I was surrounded by men and women from many nations, most of whom could not speak my language, we knew we were family worshipping our shared Father and Lord.
I witnessed the breaking down of barriers which the Apostle Paul describes as the effect of the cross of Christ: “His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.” (Ephesians 2:15f)
It was especially moving to witness a profound gesture of peace between Israel and Iran as the event gathered momentum. But as the British national media refused to carry my reports at the time, it’s no wonder little is known of what I still see as the greatest untold story of the modern era.1
Jesus is truly the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). Only He can heal the 4,000-year-old rift between Isaac and Ishmael, the sons of Abraham.
Only He can heal the 4,000-year-old rift between Isaac and Ishmael, the sons of Abraham.
Congregations of Jewish followers of Jesus (Messianic Jews) have sprung up all over Israel since around 1967. Their number has in fact quadrupled in the last 26 years. And many of them include Arabs worshipping together with their Jewish brothers. A Haifa congregation conducts services in four languages. And I know personally of yet another such Arab-Jewish body of believers soon to open its doors in Jerusalem.
Satan, the father of lies, is doing his best to prevent this happening. But God is working his purpose out. We are called to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And it will surely come! But only through Yeshua (Jesus), the babe of Bethlehem who will soon return as King of Kings to rule and reign from Jerusalem.
At the 2014 conference, a pastor from Beersheva said that what Satan had meant for evil (in terms of the current conflict) God was working out for good, just as he had done with the patriarch Joseph whose brothers had thrown him down a well. For he ended up as second-in-charge of all Egypt and was able to rescue his brothers from famine and death.
I have just watched a stunning video – released by OneforIsrael.org – of young Jewish and Arab followers of Jesus worshipping together on a Jerusalem rooftop, holding hands as they sing a carol in Hebrew, Arabic and English, calling on the Lord to ‘ransom captive Israel’.
As a friend well versed in Hebraic theology put it, God often fixes a problem with the problem, citing the classic case of Bathsheba – where everything was wrong with the relationship which brought it about – continuing the Messianic line through giving birth to Solomon.
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18)
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be resolved at the cross of Christ!
Notes
1. See my book Peace in Jerusalem from olivepresspublisher.com
On Friday, the Brazilian supreme court sentenced former president Jair Bolsonaro to more than 27 years in prison for plotting an attempted coup after losing the 2022 election. The landmark ruling marks the first time the country has tried and convicted a person for trying to overthrow an elected government. For days ahead of the Read more…
The post Brazilian Evangelicals Call for Reconciliation After Bolsonaro Convicted of Coup Plot appeared first on Christianity Today.
I was waiting for my lunch appointment to arrive when I saw the video on X. In my gut, I knew Charlie Kirk was going to die. The brutality—and grim clarity—of the clip made my heart drop. My first thought: His wife. His Kids. My second thought: My congregation. What do they need? How many Read more…
The post How Should Pastors Respond to Charlie Kirk’s Assassination? appeared first on Christianity Today.
French Catholic sociologist René Girard argued that ever since the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, violence has been robbed of its sacred legitimacy and ancient power—but you wouldn’t know that by scanning some corners of the internet today. Over the past few days, a slew of violent events has erupted in our nation, including Read more…
The post Charlie Kirk Is Not a Scapegoat appeared first on Christianity Today.
Do you remember the excitement and sense of purpose when you first felt called by God to vocational ministry? Like the disciples on the mountain with Jesus just before he gave them their commission, you may have wrestled with some nervous jitters or doubts. But beneath those anxious thoughts there was a genuine excitement—a holy Read more…
The post Kingdom Friendship in a Divided World appeared first on Christianity Today.
Hundreds of students filled the lawn of evangelical Grand Canyon University near downtown Phoenix Wednesday evening, grieving the murder of Charlie Kirk. One by one, they spoke into a mic, many praying for Kirk’s wife and two children and sharing stories about his impact. Less than a year ago, many of these same students were Read more…
The post Charlie Kirk Rallied Young Christians into a Political Movement appeared first on Christianity Today.
