exists than the treatment of non-believers on the respective holy days
of each religion. I recall fondly the many times that I have
participated in the Passover seder at the invitation of Jewish friends
and have each time been awed at the profound meaning attached to every
element of the seder which is designed to illustrate the fascinating
historical narrative of the Jewish people over the millennia that is
the foundation of both the Christian and Islamic faiths.
I also remember the occasion several years ago when a Chinese friend
of mine who was finishing his PhD at Ohio State joined my family and me
for our Christmas Eve celebrations. After joining us for worship, he
told us with tears in his eyes how that was the first time that he had
ever heard the gospel message that Jesus Christ had come into the world
to save sinners -- a message that had been branded as
counter-revolutionary and been outlawed in his own country. Needless to
say, we were delighted when he joined us again the following year for
Christmas Eve, where he was anxious to tell anyone at church who would
listen how he had embraced the free offer of the gospel and become a
Christian the previous year. Having returned home to China, my friend
is now a leader in the underground Church there.
But if I wanted to join my Muslim friends next week on the Hajj, I
would have to bear in mind that my reception would not be as friendly.
I would be forbidden to bring my Bible or any Christian literature with
me on my trip to Saudi Arabia, and be required to remove anything
identifiably Christian from my person (crosses, etc.). There are no
Christian churches allowed in the "Land of the Two Mosques", so there
would be no opportunity for me to join with fellow Christians there in
our weekly celebration of the Lord's Day, and I would constantly be
under watch by the Wahhabi Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice
police to ensure that I didn't share my Christian faith with anyone
else.
Even having arrived in Saudi Arabia and complying with the absolute
ban of any expression of my faith, as I approached the holy city of
Mecca, I would be denied entry. Despite all of the supposed Quranic
endorsements of the "People of the Book" (i.e. Jews and Christians), as
a kafir, my presence is not welcome at the Hajj. We should remember
that the cardinal offense that prompted Osama bin Laden and his
al-Qaeda lackeys to declare war on the "Crusaders and Zionists" in 1996
was the presence of American troops in the Arabian Peninsula, though
nowhere near the sacred cities of Mecca or Medina.
For Muslims in the West, they have as much freedom as any other to
practice their faith openly and freely without any fear of being
molested. The number of mosques popping up all over America is a
testament to that freedom.
Such is not the case for Jews and Christians in Islamic lands,
however, where people of those faiths are subject to countless acts of
intimidation and violence on a daily basis. Even in their synagogues
and sanctuaries, believers are not immune from attack. In fact, many
are prevented from approaching their own holy sites. In the Holy Land,
Muslims occupy the Temple Mount -- the historic location of the ancient
Jewish Temple -- and Jewish worshippers are subject to regular assaults
by stone-throwing Muslim crowds at the nearby Wailing Wall and other
sacred sites. And it was the mere presence of a Jew -- Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon -- near the Temple Mount in September 2000 that
sparked the second intifada that has claimed the lives of hundreds of
Jews, Christians and Muslims in recent years. Jews have also been
forbidden from visiting the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron --
Judaism's second-most holy site -- since it was converted to a mosque
in 1266.
And earlier this month Turkish authorities feared that Pope Benedict
might take the opportunity while touring the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul
-- one of the greatest churches in the world that was seized by Muslims
after 1,000 years of constant use by Christians -- that he might
actually try to pray there.
It isn't just the Hagia Sophia that has suffered the inglorious fate
of being converted from its original use as a Christian church to be
taken over by invading Islamic forces and made into a mosque. In her
book, The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam. From Jihad to
Dhimmitude, Bat Ye'or chronicles how innumerable Christian and Jewish
holy sites, such as the Church of St. John in Damascus that was
demolished by the Islamic Caliph Abd al-Malik in 705 and had the
Umayyad Mosque built over it, were taken over for the exclusive use for
Islamic worship during the constant waves of Islamic conquest. It is
worth noting that even the Kabaa, the central location of worship in
Mecca, was seized by Mohammad from non-Muslims.
Getting back to my original point -- one of the constant complaints
of Muslim apologists is that Westerners just don't understand Islam.
Fair enough; but is that entirely the fault of non-Muslims who are shut
out of Islam's most important rituals? And might it be the case that
those of us, Christians and Jews alike, who are angered at the
treatment of our brethren in Islamic lands do so not because of our
alleged "Islamophobia", but rather on the basis of real grievances?"
Happy Hajj! You're Not Invited!
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