The response to all this on the part of Christian leaders has been muted. In fact, many Christians seem more worried about the dangers of Islamophobia than about the persecution of fellow Christians. For instance, Protestant and Catholic clergy throughout Europe have strongly condemned the recent Swiss vote to ban construction of new minarets. Likewise, in France the clergy seem more focused on a possible ban of the burqa than on the precarious situation of Christians in Muslim countries. In Holland a majority of Dutch clergy have condemned Geert Wilders as un-Christian for speaking out against Islamic violence. And at a “Christian-Muslim Summit” held at the Washington National Cathedral in early March, the harshest words in the final statement were reserved for the media, which was challenged to live up to its responsibility of “stemming the tide of Islamophobia.”

A few weeks earlier, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue issued his own warning against Islamophobia. “We must not fear Islam,” he said at a theology congress in Granada, and added, “dialogue alone allows us to overcome fear, because it allows one to experience the discovery of the other…” So, it seems the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Once you get to know the other fellow and his religion—“experience the discovery of the other” and all that—your fears will melt away. In a January interview with L’ Osservatore Romano, Cardinal Tauran decried the “feeling of fear” associated with the Swiss minaret vote. “I wonder,” he said, “if these persons [who are afraid] know Muslims, if they have ever opened the Qur’an.”

Just be careful not to open it with dirty hands if you happen to be living in Pakistan. The point is, a lot of Christians living in the Muslim world are discovering the otherness of the other—often at the business end of a machete. What many professional dialoguers fail to appreciate is the almost total otherness of the Islamic belief system. It’s one thing to encounter the “other” in the carpeted rooms of the inter-faith meetings in Washington and Rome; it’s another thing to encounter him in a society where he has complete power to enforce his will and his religion on you.

Christian self-indictment isn’t the worst of it. While some Christians agonize over Islamophobia, others seem to be OK with Judeophobia. Thus, a number of mainline churches are devoting their energies not to seeking justice for fellow Christians, but to echoing Muslim complaints against Israel. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America recently disseminated to its members a statement by 16 Palestinian Christians declaring that “the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land is a sin against God and humanity…” And a report issued by Arab Catholic bishops in January blames the sufferings of Christians in the Arab world not on their Muslim persecutors but on the Israeli presence in the West Bank. So the next time a Christian Copt in Egypt steps out of his church into a hail of gunfire, blame the Jews.

Were Christians silent during the Nazi era? Some were, some even collaborated. On the other hand, some resisted, some risked their lives to save Jews. But the pertinent question for us is how would we react if faced with a similar evil. Right now we have a situation that is eerily reminiscent of the rise of Nazism: in this case the rise of a fanatical ideology that seeks world domination while calling, as the Nazis did, for the extermination of the Jews. Islamists even read the same books. Hitler’s Mein Kampf, is a bestseller in the Middle-East as well as in the Muslim sections of European cities. The anti-Semitic tract The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, also sells briskly. Hitler is a hero in some Muslim countries. Rabid anti-Semitism is an established fact of life on European and American campuses, and Jews are once again fleeing Europe. This is not a matter of history repeating itself in some subtle way that future historians will be able to sort out 50 years hence. This is history grabbing you by the collar, pulling you up close, and snarling, “Remember me?”

After World War II many Germans claimed that they didn’t know the extent of Nazi atrocities. And since the Nazis did keep some of their activities hidden, there may well have been many Germans who knew nothing about the killing camps. Nowadays, it’s a little more difficult to claim ignorance, what with the streaming headlines at the bottom of your TV screen itemizing the daily toll taken by Islamic suicide bombers. After 15,000 Islamic terrorist attacks since 9/11, the picture seems fairly clear. Why don’t Christians get it? The answer is that a considerable number of Christians seem to have confused their Christian faith with the more popular religion of tolerance—a religion which is mainly concerned with displays of multicultural respect.

So, in regard to Islam, many Christians are more eager to demonstrate their tolerance than to understand the facts. As Faith McDonnell of the Institute of Religion and Democracy puts it:

Many churches are obsessed with making themselves likeable to Islamists…such churches opt for sessions of feel-good dialogue with the local mosque, gushing about how much Christianity and Islam have in common, and never challenging Muslims to serious debate on those so-called commonalities…

Today’s culturally sensitive Christians haven’t grasped the point that if there really were a lot of common ground between Islam and Christianity it would not be wise to advertise it. It’s a bit like bragging that you have a lot in common with the neighborhood bully who beats his wife. In short, searching for common ground with a tyrannical religious ideology is a formula for discrediting your own faith.

The religion of tolerance affords many opportunities for self-congratulation, but not for clear thinking. All moral/religious codes are not created equal. And to speak and act as though they are is to engage in a form of lying. Christians who keep quiet about the crimes of Islam or make excuses for them should stop congratulating themselves on their open mindedness, and should ask, instead, how they differ from all those Europeans who looked the other way when crimes were being committed in the Nazi era.

The record of Pope Pius XII is still being debated, but most of the evidence shows that he spoke out strongly against the Nazis and in defense of Jews. His efforts were not limited to formal protests, but also included initiatives to protect and shelter Jews throughout Europe. Historian David Dalin notes that in Rome alone, in response to the Pope’s request, “155 convents and monasteries sheltered some five thousand Jews… No fewer than three thousand Jews found refuge at Castel Gandolfo, the Pope’s summer residence…Pope Pius himself granted sanctuary within the walls of the Vatican in Rome to hundreds of homeless Jews.”

When the pope and other Catholic bishops did not speak out, it was often at the request of Jewish leaders who feared Nazi retaliation—a justified fear, seeing that the very strong protests by the Dutch bishops in July 1942 against the deportation of the Jews provoked the most savage of Nazi reprisals against the Jews.

But that is not the reason that so many Christians today remain silent about Islamic crimes. While it’s undoubtedly true that some church officials temper their words for fear of retaliation against their Christian brethren in the Muslim world, the majority of Western Christians are barely aware that they have brethren in places like Egypt, Pakistan, and Malaysia. Their silence is the silence of those who are blind to the danger—blinded by their faith in multicultural myths about moral equivalence, and blinded in part by the glow of their own self-regard. Tolerance is fine up to a point, and it does wonders for one’s self-esteem. But as Thomas Mann said, “Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil.” We’ve reached the point where Christians need to subordinate their search for self-esteem to a search for facts.

By William Kilpatrick
www.frontpagemag.com

William Kilpatrick’s articles on Islam have appeared in Catholic World Report, The National Catholic Register, Jihad Watch, World, and Investor’s Business Daily. AINA

When the protocols were signed in Switzerland, we believed that it marked the end of ninety-five years of the policies of lies and that it was the death knell for the Gündüz Aktan [a former member of the Turkish Armenian Reconciliation Commission , Şükrü Elekdağ and Yusuf Halaçoğlu [the head of the Turkish Historical Society] era. Not only was the border going to be opened, but commissions devoted to making recommendations on how to resolve the issues stemming from history were going to be established. It seems likely that while the Swiss were mediating the agreement, they tried to convince both you and the Armenians by pointing to the “Bergier Commission” which had been established in 1996, as an example of a “Commission of Independent Experts.” This commission had been formed to research the role that Switzerland had played in the Jewish Holocaust. After five years of work, it presented a final report in 2001, but during those five years, twenty-five research papers were published covering almost 11,000 pages of information.

There is, however, a fact that is even more important. One year before the commission was formed, in 1995, the Swiss government apologized to all Jews in the world for its policies during the Second World War. In actuality, the commission was formed as a result of that apology. There is no possible way that you could not have known that one of the conditions for the establishment of the commission was an apology to the Jews. Even if the Swiss hadn’t mentioned it to you, it was a well known fact and we believed that you signed the protocols with full knowledge of this, and this heralded the beginning of change in ninety-five years of the policy of denial…. “an apology to the Armenians is on its way,” or so we thought. Apparently, this wasn’t the case; instead you had some “oriental inscrutability” in the works. You were going to continue the ninety-five year old policy of denial while fabricating a resolution to the problems that have plagued our relationship with Armenia. This is hard to believe, but it is apparent from everything that you have done thus far.

Mr. Prime Minister and Mr. Arınç, I ask that you put this bit of information somewhere in the corner of your minds: you will never resolve the problem of 1915 by repeating a lie that has been memorized over ninety-five years. If it could have been resolved by rote repetition, there were those before you – who were much louder – who would have already achieved it. A black stain was smeared on the brow of the Turkish nation in 1915. The ones who did this were the Unionist murderers. If you don’t identify that stain and if you don’t put some distance between yourselves and those who placed that stain upon the brow of the Turkish nation, you won’t be able to take a single step forward on this issue. Don’t even bother trying.

Mr. Prime Minister, you’ve called what happened in 1938 in Dersim a massacre. It’s true we don’t know exactly how many were killed, but you are acting like a bully towards those who condemn what happened in 1915, an event that involved at least ten to fifteen times more human beings than those who perished in Dersim. On the subject of war crimes committed by Israel against the residents of Gaza, you have shown your displeasure and lifted your voice in opposition, with justification. But when the subject of 1915 comes up, an event that involved killings on a level that can’t even begin to be compared with the violations of human rights in Gaza, you made absurd remarks like “No one can force me to admit that Moslems commit murders. My forebears were not murderers.” Don’t you think others are going to look at that and say, “Who is he kidding?”

You are the ones who have changed the traditional line that’s been followed on the Kurdish question. You are the ones who have fought to push the military out of political life. Why are you parroting the same ninety-five year old lies that have been told by this military and this bureaucracy? Let me give you an example. You weren’t able to make any progress on the Kurdish and military matter by siding with the ones who called those involved in the Şemdinli event [a bombing of a bookshop in the town of Şemdinli suspected to be a false flag operation] “our boys.” (2) You were only able to make progress after so many painful experiences, once you put distance between those “good boys” and yourselves. The subject of 1915 is no different.

“Our boys” are the ones who continue to deny that Armenians were annihilated in 1915! They’re the ones forming the Talat Pasha Committees and organizing the memorial meetings for Kemal, the murderous Mayor of Boğazlayan. And, let’s not forget, they are the same ones who have planned assassinations against you and have tried to overthrow your administration…Don’t you realize that you will never be able to solve anything regarding 1915 by holding onto the same position of those who want to dig your graves?

Mr. Prime Minister and Mr. Arınç, the answers to the problems that are the legacy of 1915 can’t be found in the denialist policies of Veli Küçük, Doğu Perinçek [leader of the nationalist Workers’ Party], Şükrü Elekdağ and Yusuf Halaçoğlu. Don’t search for the answers there. You won’t get anywhere repeating the chorus they’ve been singing for ninety-five years. They are your adversaries on the issue of 1915, just as they are when it comes to the Kurdish issue and the issue of the military’s place in politics. You cannot construct your response to 1915 by holding rank with those who want to drag the country into chaos, who murdered Hrant Dink, who have planned massacres against Christians, and who have been plotting coups against you.

If you are going to respond to 1915, you need to search for that answer in a place that is different than the answers given by Ergenekon [an alleged Kemalist terrorist organization] or by the ones who plotted the coups. For this, you should follow your Moslem roots in Anatolia that have risen alongside your party and take a closer look at what these roots did during 1915.

Mr. Arınç, these words are for you. With reason, you were angered by the way the women of CHP in Mersin tore up the Muslim veil. (2) Do you realize, however, that with the position that you have taken you have torn the deep fabric of Anatolian Islam, have ripped apart the cultural legacy of Anatolian Moslems who can walk head held high for bravely challenging the murders of 1915? Do you know that when the Unionist gangs were murdering Armenians in 1915, the ones who put up the biggest fight, who challenged them the most were the Moslems of Anatolia? Did you have any idea that it was the Moslem community of Kastamonu that marched upon the Governor’s office demanding “we won’t stand for our neighbors being murdered”? Or that it was the Moslems of Yozgat who opposed Killer Kemal of Boğazlayan yelling “there’s no place in the Koran for the murder of innocents!”? Have you never heard of the important role played in the hanging of Killer Kemal by the written testimony of the Grand Mufti of Boğazlayan, Abdullahzade Mehmed? Did you know that in opposing the murders being committed by Killer Kemal, this Moslem Mufti said “Allah stands above us all. I fear his wrath”?

Mr. Arınç, are you aware of the order given by Kamil Pasha of the Third Army in 1915? He stated, “Who ever tries to hide Armenians in their homes will be executed before his front door and his home will be burned to the ground.” Despite this order, do you know that Haji Halil, a Moslem from Urfa, hid an Armenian family of eight in the attic of his home, in the market of Urfa for one full year despite the threats of death and burning? Go to Eastern Anatolia and ask the members of parliament from your own party. They’ll tell you dozens, hundreds of stories like this.

I don’t need to make the point that when the Unionists were massacring Armenians in Anatolia, pious Moslems opposed what was happening and saying that the murder of innocents has no place in the Koran. Whenever I’m talking with Armenians today, they tell me, “If we are alive today, it is without a doubt because of the aid of some Moslems.” But they’ll also add, “Because of your government’s policy of denial, we can’t talk about it openly.”

Mr. Arınç, you can’t build a future on the backs of murderers. You can build a future on the backs of those righteous Moslems in Anatolia who challenged the murderers. In the same way that you can’t resolve today’s problems by supporting Hrant’s murderers, the “Samats” and the “Veli Küçüks”, you won’t get anywhere supporting the murderers of the Hrants of the past. The answers to 1915 can’t be found in the answers of Doğu Perinçek or Veli Küçük. They are members of the Ergenekon gang that killed Hrant Dink; it’s natural that they defend the murderers of the Hrants of the past. Let the “Veli Küçüks” defend the murderer Samat of today and the murderers Talat, Enver and Kemal of yesterday. Your place is not at the side of Veli Küçük. Your duty is to stand by the side of the “Haji Halils,” to stand up for those Moslems who put themselves and their families at risk opposing the massacres.

I would like you to recognize one more thing. Because of the ninety-five years of denialist policies and the defense of murderers, there is, from an international perspective, a second stain on the brow of Turkishness and Islam, next to the one created by 1915. Because of the policies followed by the Şükrü Elekdağs and the Veli Küçüks, Turks are perceived as a people who enjoy murdering, who defend murders. We need to rescue Turkishness and Islam from the Talats and the Envers of yesterday and the Samats of today and to not allow the Elekdağs and the Küçüks to define it. Turkishness and Islam are identities that are too honorable to be left at the hands of murderers and their defenders. I have an Armenian friend, and he once said to me, “Until yesterday, when I heard Turkish, I felt a hatred for it. I called it the language of my enemy. But since getting to know you, I’ve begun to say it’s the sound of my friend, a Turk.”

We need the honest and honorable cry of Turkishness and Islam. Let Doğu Perinçek, Veli Küçük and the ones who planned your assassination defend the murderers of yesterday and today. You must see, by now, that the ones who defended Talat, Enver and Dr. Nazım in the past are the same people who defend Oğün Samat today.

If we can walk with a shred of self-respect today, head held high, it’s because we can point to Hrant’s killer and call him what he is. You need to see that once we acknowledge the murderers of the Hrants of 1915, we will walk with our heads held high, self-respect intact. Nazim Hikmet has the best words for describing what needs to be done in connection with 1915. I’d like to conclude this letter with him.

Grocer Garabed’s lights are on
He hasn’t forgiven, this Armenian citizen,
The way his father was slaughtered in the Kurdish mountains
But he loves you because you haven’t forgiven either
The stain that’s been drawn on the brows of the Turkish people

Mr. Prime Minister, I know that you like to read poetry. The Turkish person and the Moslems of the Middle East want to hear these verses from you!

(1) This references an incident where a book store in a Kurdish city was bombed. Officers in the Turkish military were suspected of having planned and/or executed the deed. The Chief of the General Staff was quoted as saying the officers were “our good boys”.

(2) This is in reference to an incident during “International Women’s Day” where women members of the CHP (Republican People’s Party) tore up symbolically a Muslim headscarf.

Taner Akçam is associate professor of history and the Kaloosdian/Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies, at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Clark University (Worcester, MA). This article originally appeared in Turkish for the newspaper Taraf on March 13, 2010. Special thanks to Dr. Akçam for providing this English translation.

Source: History News Network