George,

I would have thought that the excellent responses from Lloyd Snook and Helena Cobban would have sufficiently rebutted Henry Weinschenk’s demonization of the Islamic peoples, but as he seeks to “prove” that we cannot reason with the Islamic world through references to Islamic history, it may be instructive to undertake a comparative examination of Christian history.

Genocide and enslavement of adherents of other religions are widely countenanced in the Judeo-Christian scriptures as well as those of Islam. Non-believers are threatened with eternal punishment. Four hundred years before Muhammad, since the reign of the Emperor Constantine in the fourth century, Christianity had been a tool of Roman imperialism. In fact it is not unreasonable to see the rise of militant Islam as a reaction against a Greco-Roman hegemony that imposed Christianity by military force. Medieval Islamic cultures, in particular the Umayyad caliphate in Spain, were famously more tolerant of Christian and Jewish minorities than were their Christian successors, with their Inquisition and burning at the stake of those who didn’t subscribe to officially sanctioned Christian beliefs. The primary refuge for persecuted Jews was in the Muslim Ottoman Empire, because they had already been expelled from most of Christian Europe. The genocide of Jews in Mecca referenced by Mr. Weinschenk pales in comparison with that carried out by Christians in Europe and the former was almost 1400 years ago while some of the people who committed the latter are still alive today.

The pattern has continued in modern times, including Christian genocide and forced conversions of native Americans. For every Poitiers, Vienna, and Tripoli of Muslim aggression, there have been numerous attacks and conquests of Muslim nations by Christians. Within the last century much of the Muslim world has been subjected to military rule by Christian nations. Even today the Muslim countries of Iraq and Afghanistan are subject to occupation of a largely Christian military force, and the economic imperialism of Christian countries plays a large role in the oppression of Muslim peoples everywhere. The totalitarian governments that rule over the majority of Muslims, such as the Saudis and Mubaraks are maintained in power by the financial and military support of the U.S. and other “Christian” nations. In the current century, including 9/11/2001 far more Muslims have been killed by Christians than the reverse.

Every accusation Mr. Weinschenks makes of Muslims, can be made with equal justice of Christians. Before we make rash, incendiary accusations of others we should look into our own history of violence and aggression. Or as a wise man of peace once said “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” Matthew 7:3.

Peace,

Paxton Marshall (Electronic mail, January 9, 2010)