The Religious And Ethnic Cleansing By The Muslim World

Voting is underway in southern Sudan on a referendum whether to secede from the Republic of Sudan and establish their own independent state. Southern Sudan is expected to secede from the Arab, Islamic state and form their own independent African, Christian and animist nation.

On his blog, Pressure Points, Elliott Abrams writes about the vote in the context of the Muslim persecution of Christians:

There are many ways of seeing the independence vote, but surely one is the failure here—again—of an Arab government to make it possible for Christians to live in peace and security. In fact the only Christian community in the Middle East that appears to be growing is that in Israel. The last few weeks have seen violence against Christians in Egypt and Iraq, and the rise of Hizballah in Lebanon has cornered the Maronite community there in many ways as well. Here the southern Sudanese are lucky, for the geography of those other countries makes thoughts of independence for their Christian minorities impossible. Christians in most of the Middle East will have to continue their difficult struggle for civil equality, personal safety, political power, and full religious freedom.

But the problem goes further than what President Sarkozy referred to as the "religious cleansing" of Christians.


Jennifer Rubin quotes from an email she received from Cliff May, the head of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He looks beyond the most recent Muslim persecution of Christians to the general religious and ethnic cleansing that is now going on in the Muslim world:

I think what's taking place is nothing less than the religious and ethnic cleansing of the Muslim world.

Christians are being particularly targeted -- churches attacked in Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Indonesia, the Philippines; the assassination in Pakistan of a Muslim politician who dared defend a Christian woman sentenced to death for "insulting" Islam.

Other religious and ethnic minorities are also suffering intense persecution -- the black Muslims of Darfur, the Bahai of Iran, the Kurds, Sufis and Ahmadis in Pakistan, and of course the vicious anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism one finds throughout the region.

I think this is the most important issue not being reported by the mainstream media, not being studied by academics, not being taken up at the UN or made a priority by the large human rights groups. [emphasis added]

After looking the other way for decades while Muslim anti-Semitism continues to flourish in the Muslim world,  perhaps we should not be surprised that it has taken the media and the UN so long to realize the full extent of what is going on and finally start responding to it.

Still, we can expect the Jewish minority in the Middle East to be ignored.
Except when it defends itself.

Technorati Tag: Muslim Persecution Of Christians and Ethic Cleansing and Religious Cleansing.