|
Coptic Christians pray during Palm Sunday mass inside the St. Sama'ans
Church on the Mokattam hills on April 17, 2022 in Cairo, Egypt. As
Covid-19 restrictions ease, Coptic Christians in Cairo return to their
Easter celebrations and traditions. Egypt's Copts are the largest
Christian community in the Middle East and one of the oldest in the
world. |
Raymond Ibrahim : On October 29, Donald J. Trump posted:
To the Coptic Christian community living throughout the
United States, I deeply admire your Steadfast Faith in God, Perseverance
through Centuries of Persecution and Love for this Great Country. I am
Counting on your support and vote to help uphold our shared Social and
Family Values and continue to Make America Great Again!
Ironically, this message coincides with my rereading of Adel Guindyās excellent book, A Sword Over the Nile.
Based on previously unknown or untranslated primary sources, page after
page wholly validates Trumpās assertion that the Copts have experienced
ācenturies of persecution.ā
At any rate, Trumpās message to the Copts is a reminder that he is
the only president in modern times ā certainly when compared to his
predecessor and successor ā who actually acknowledges the plight of
Christians under Islam.
Doing Something About It
For example, in 2020, while still president, Trump issued a statement
noting the āongoing challenges facing the largest Christian group
[Copts] in the Middle East,ā adding that it is ātime for us to
acknowledge the importance of religious freedom and reaffirm our
commitment to promoting and defending this core tenet of a free society.
Tragically, far too many people the world over face persecution on
account of their faith.ā
That same year, Trump said
in an interview that the treatment of Christians in the Mideast is
ābeyond disgraceful,ā that Christianity is being ātreated horribly and
very unfairly, and itās criminal.ā
During a 2019 UN speech, Trump also called on world leaders āto take
action to put an end to all attacks by state and nonāstate actors
against citizens for simply worshipping according to their beliefsā¦ No
one should fear for their safety in a house of worship anywhere in the
world.ā
This, of course, was a reference to the nonstop attacks on churches,
which take place constantly in Egypt both at the hands of the state
actors who regularly ban churches and the non-state actors who regularly
burn and bomb them. Just last week, a group of Copts had to hold a
funeral in the street alleys because the authorities had sealed off
access to their church since 2006.
Most notably, in May 2017, after Islamic gunmen massacred 28 Coptic Christians ā ten of whom were children while they were traveling home after visiting a monastery, Trump said:
This merciless slaughter of Christians in Egypt tears at
our hearts and grieves our soulsā¦ America makes clear to its friends,
allies, and partners that the treasured and historic Christian
communities of the Middle East must be defended and protected. The
bloodletting of Christians must end, and all who aid their killers must
be punished.
The Evil of Omission
Now compare Trumpās position concerning persecuted Christians with those of Obama and Biden.
At the height of the worst state-sanctioned terrorist attack on Egyptās Christians in modern history ā the 2011 Maspero Massacre,
when the government shot at and ran over with tanks dozens of Copts for
daring to protest the burnings and closures of their churches ā Obama issued āa
pointedly even-handed statement that calls equally on Christians and
the military to show restraint.ā (Because, you know, Egyptās beleaguered
Christian minorities needed to ārestrainā themselves against the tanks
running them over and the soldiersā rifles shooting them in the head.)
This, of course, was par for the course: For Obama and his ilk, Christians can never
be āpersecuted.ā That would run completely afoul of their Marxist
ideology, which sees Christians unequivocally as āoppressorsā in every
circumstance.
Thus, when Muslims bombed three churches in Sri Lanka on Easter
Sunday in 2019, killing some 300 Christians, Obama and Hilary Clinton
could not even bring themselves to identify the slain victims as
āChristiansā ā the way they most certainly would had the perpetrators
been Christian and the victims Muslim. Instead, they condemned a
āterrorā attack on āEaster worshippers.ā
In fact, not only did Obama fail to acknowledge (much less do
anything about)the Muslim persecution of Christians, he aided and
abetted it (see here, here, here, here).
ISIS, which committed heinous atrocities against Christians and other
non-Muslim minorities, was something of Obamaās āparting giftā to the
world, as they rose to power in the final years of his tenure.
Conversely, ISIS was eliminated under Trump.
A Glorious Interlude
But it is perhaps in the context of Nigeria, where a bona fide genocide of Christians
has been taking place since Obama first entered the White House that
the differences between Obama and Biden, on the one hand and Trump on
the other emerge most clearly. On average, a Nigerian Christian is
martyred every two hours, and that has been the case since Obama entered
the White House.
Although jihadists slaughtered and terrorized Nigeriaās Christians
all during Obamaās eight-year tenure, and although the United States
Commission on International Religious Freedom had, beginning in 2009 and
every year afterwards, repeatedly urged the State Department to
designate it as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC ā a reference to
nations that āengage in, or tolerate violations of, religious freedomā)
the Obama administration refused.
Under Hillary Clinton, the State Department went so far as to refuse
to merely designate Boko Haram as a āterroristā organizationāeven
though it is a notorious jihadist group that has slaughtered more
Christians and bombed more churches than the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria combined.
It was only in 2020, under the Trump administration, that Nigeria was finally designated as a CPC. Moreover, with characteristic bluntness, Trump forthrightly asked
Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari ā whom many Nigerian officials say
Obama helped bring to power ā āWhy are you killing Christians?ā
Back to Business
But once Biden got into office, is was business as usual: his State Department, under Antony Blinken, went out of its way to remove Nigeria from the CPC list.
At the time, many observers responded by slamming the Biden administration. As one human rights lawyer noted:
Outcry over the State Departmentās removal of Country of
Particular Concern status for Nigeriaās religious freedom violations is
entirely warranted. No explanations have been given that could justify
this decision. If anything, the situation in Nigeria has grown worse
over the last year. Thousands of Christians ā¦ are targeted, killed, and
kidnapped, and the government is simply unwilling to stop these
atrocitiesā¦. Removing Country of Particular Concern status for Nigeria
will only embolden the increasingly authoritarian government there.
And so, as election day draws nigh, here is one more difference to
note between Trump and Harris: Trump has a record of speaking up for and
acknowledging the persecution of Christians, whereas Harris ā who just
denounced the claim that āJesus is Lordā ā will simply further the
Obama-Biden legacy.
Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West and Sword and Scimitar,
is the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute
and the Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.