I used to work with a bunch I liked to hang out with after a
day's work. One of them had the habit of saying: “They are ignorant and they
have the PhDs to prove it.” The other used to badmouth the churches “of the
deep South” for running universities and giving out PhDs in divinity or
theology or some such subject. Even though the two guys had the same sort of
basic ideas, they dickered all the time over the small differences that still
existed between their positions.
That was a long time ago and oh, how I wish they were here
now. If this were the case, we could have had such a good time discussing an
article published in the Wall Street Journal on May 24, 2013 under the title:
“Christian Martyrs to Islam, Past and Present” and the subtitle: “As in the
15th century, Christians are under attack in Muslim lands.” It was written by
Ms. Charlotte Allen who is purported to have a PhD in medieval and Byzantine
studies. I can imagine hearing one of my former coworker say: Here is a
perfectly PhD-ed ignoramus. And I can imagine hearing the other say: She must
have studied in a church basement down in the Deep South .
Given that the title says the article is about martyrs of
the past and the present, the author begins it by mentioning Pope Francis who
canonized 800 residents of an Italian port, martyred in 1480 by a Turkish
Muslim fleet, she says. She then puzzles the reader by calling this moment:
“something that historians gloss over.” And she immediately expresses the
opinion that this is a “pattern of Islamic persecution of Christians that
continues to this day in Muslim lands.”
This done, she mentions Pope Benedict XVI who quoted an
unflattering remark about Islam made in the 14th century by a Byzantine emperor.
She continues to puzzle the reader by admitting that a Catholic magazine
“pronounced the pope's remarks 'ill-conceived'” after which he apologized,
saying that the text did not “in any way” express his “personal thought.” But
Charlotte Allen made sure to mention that the magazine was a liberal one,
though she did not say whether the Pope was liberal too.
She continues to puzzle the readers by writing about the
“secular historians” who have argued that the Italian victims mentioned earlier
were not martyrs but political prisoners who mutinied against their superiors
and were executed. She goes on to say that a similar incident happened
centuries later in Spain
also. But she says the secular historians were wrong, and offers a different
point of view.
Still, she does not stop here in her drive to puzzle the
readers. She goes on to mention the Cordoban emirate in Spain where lavish
praise was heaped by modern historians on the Muslim rulers who created what
can only be called “a model of tolerant coexistence, in which Muslims,
Christians and Jews lived peacefully while the arts and letters flourished.”
She refutes that too and offers that the historians who say this are wrong.
This is how that woman sees the past. According to her,
anything good written about the Muslims can only be false. Perhaps history
should be rewritten to accommodate her views which are to the effect that the
Muslims were a bad people. But that's not all because the Muslims are as bad
now as they were then.
In fact, there is a new book to this effect, she says. It
was written by three authors other than herself who chronicle the contemporary
brutal treatment of Christians in China ,
North Korea
and the Islamic regimes. She mentions an incident that happened to a single
person in each of Egypt , Saudi Arabia and Iran . If these incidents happened
as described, they would be regrettable but would amount to very little
compared to what she says happened in the past. And they certainly would amount
to nothing compared to the killing of several people, some of whom Egyptians,
in Greece , Italy and Germany . These people were murdered
because they were Muslim or because the killers mistook them for Muslims.
She also writes about the “wave of Coptic Christian
church-burnings” in Egypt .
Well, let me tell you something. I am from there, I am in touch with some
members of my family who live there, and in touch with my Coptic community here
in Canada .
What I would say to all those who dream of seeing sectarian troubles erupt in
Egypt by repeating the lie that the troubles already exist, is that their
dreams are not coming true. Nothing is happening in Egypt the way that their
self-delusion is telling them is happening.
You want to know why your dreams are not coming true, my
dear idiots? It's because you're not only dear idiots; you're also useful
idiots. You want me to explain this? Okay, I'll explain it to you: We have here
in Canada
some truly backward ministers. They run around saying things like: we may be
backward in the eyes of the world but we're good in politics because we're
getting the Jewish votes. Ha! Ha! Ha!
And yes, they did the things that used to encourage the
feeble minds in our Coptic community to go to Egypt and try to spark sectarian
incidents there. But the more that you, idiots, talk about troubles which may
or may not exist in Egypt ,
the more that the backward ministers here and their feeble minded followers
believe that they won the day. This contributes to the process of neutralizing
them which, in turn, reduces their destructive activities. A good outcome, if
you ask me.
Charlotte Allen ends her article like this: “Perhaps the
brave men who gave up their lives will remind secular historians that the
fanatics are the people who kill them.”
What I would add to this is that there should be one useful
idiot to accompany every fanatic so as to neutralize their destructive
activities – political or otherwise.