The Religious Character of the Massacre at Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad

Saturday, January 15, 2011

markdurie.com blog

The massacre of Christians at Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad on October 31 2010 gained extensive world-wide media attention. This Assyrian Catholic church was taken over by jihadis, and during the course of the several hours during which they controlled the church, the insurgents killed many of the worshippers, until the Iraqi army forces finally stormed the church.

I have been viewing reports from survivors of the massacre, posted on YouTube. From these, and earlier published reports, a picture emerges of the jihadis as religiously motivated people who engaged their victims in theological conversations about Islam, and justified their actions based on the Islamic sharia.

It is good to note well the testimony of these survivors, because there is a view, widespread among the secular professional terrorism analysts of Western nations, that contemporary terrorism is not essentially religious in nature, but is a political movement which exploits the religion of Islam to serve what are in reality political goals.

One of the dangers of this rhetoric is that it causes the Western media to overlook or ‘filter out’ incidents of terrorists attacking indigenous Christians (and other religious minorities), because these attacks cannot be accommodated in the category of ‘political violence’.

However there was no political advantage to be gained by killing unarmed Christian worshippers in Baghdad. It was a purely religious act. Thus, according to the survivors, their attackers:
Cried out Allahu Akbar ‘Allah is greater’ each time they shot Christians.
Called the Christians kafir ‘infidel’.
Witnessed to the Christians that Allah is one.
Said it was halal (religiously permitted in Islam) to kill them, because they were Christians.
Rebuked their victims for ‘worshipping’ the cross and Christ and told them not to do so, e.g. they said, ‘Don’t worship the cross’.
Selectively targeted young men for killing: one of the attackers said ‘Don’t leave a young man alive.’ This is in accordance with the laws of jihad, which stipulate that male captives can be killed. Authentic hadiths (traditions) of Muhammad report that when he eliminated the Jews from Medina, he had the men executed. (A Jewish boy called Atiyyah later reported that when an examination revealed he had not yet begun to grow pubic hair, he was allowed to live).
Declared that they themselves would go to paradise but their Christian victims would go to hell. They seemed to presume that they would be killed as an outcome of the seizure.
Refused to put a wounded victim out of her misery, by ending her life, although she was begging for this, on the grounds that it was fitting for her to suffer in this life because she was on her way to hell anyway.
Deliberately targeted Christian symbols for destruction, e.g. destroying crosses and a statue of Christ. (It was a tradition reported by Waqidi that Muhammad would destroy anything he saw which had a cross on it: W. Muir, The life of Muhammad. Volume 3, p.61, note 47.)
Of course many Muslims have been horrified by and deplored this shocking act, as well as several other more recent attacks on Christians in the Middle East. My point is simply that the attackers claimed to be motivated by religious principles, their talk was dominated by religious references, and their behavior was in certain respects consistent with well-documented aspects of Islamic sharia.

This massacre was an attack motivated and shaped by religious principles.

Mark Durie
markdurie.com

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From Ramez Attallah. Ramez is Director of the Bible Society in Egypt. Here is his response to the recent bombings in Alexandria.

Dear friends,

On New Year’s Eve, just after midnight, a bomb exploded outside a Church in  Alexandria just as worshipers were beginning to leave the Church. 21 were  instantly and brutally killed (four others died later) and more than 70 were  wounded.

Since the terrible explosion last October in a Catholic Church in Baghdad,
El-Qaeda terrorists in Iraq have threatened to attack Churches in Egypt as
well. Despite increased security by Egyptian police at the more than 3000
Churches in Egypt, with thousands of worshippers entering and exiting
services, it is humanly impossible to prevent ill-intentioned incidents like
that in Alexandria on New Year’s Eve.

Unfortunately, the rapid dissemination of awful pictures of dismembered
bodies has been the “straw which broke the camel’s back” for many
disgruntled Christians across the nation. The sense that they are
discriminated against as a minority, the many incidents of attacks on
Christians in the past few years, and the general economic crisis, all have
built up frustration which, when sparked by this tragedy, exploded like a
volcano. Many took to the streets in anger and violence directed at anyone
or anything which happened to be around!

Church leaders have been working hard to calm and restrain this mob reaction which is against the spirit of forgiveness and peace taught by our Lord.

Also, the majority of Muslims have expressed deep sorrow about what happened in Alexandria.

Let me try to clarify, from my perspective, the situation of Christians in
Egypt:

The Christian minority (12%) in Egypt is unique in that it represents a
remnant of the original Egyptians (descendents of the pharaohs) rather than  a group who have come to Egypt for refuge. In spite of the discrimination  against Christians in Egypt, and in spite of the many limitations they  experience and the perception of some that they are “second class” citizens,  many Christian businessmen have thrived with the new free market economy  since President Sadat ended the socialist regime in Egypt in the early  seventies, and it is estimated that they now control nearly 30% of Egypt’s  wealth.

Many churches in Egypt are flourishing with plans to expand their facilities
to accommodate the growing numbers of weekly worshippers. In spite of the  great difficulty in getting permission to build new Churches, dozens of new  Church buildings are opened every year. Christian ministries of all sorts  are also booming, with expanded programs and modern facilities to help  accomplish their activities.

So what’s the true picture of Christians in Egypt: “a persecuted minority”
or a “thriving community”? Both of these statements are true. Like
Christians everywhere in the world, those who name the name of Jesus are
often ridiculed or scorned. Although Jesus is respected by all Muslims as a
prophet and they affirm His Virgin birth, the tensions are escalating within
the country between the advocates of a totally Islamic State (which would be  very much more restrictive than at present) and moderate Muslims and
Christians who are working peacefully within the present legal system for a
more balanced democracy which respects human rights for all.

So how do we want brothers and sisters in the West to pray for us?

1. DISTINCTIVE CHRISTIAN BEHAVIOR

All Church leaders are distressed by the violence and anger expressed by
mobs of so-called Christians around the country at this time. Please pray
that those who consider themselves Christians will express their deep
frustrations in a Christ-honoring way, rather than in unbridled rage and
violence.

2. CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICES

On Thursday night January 6th Christians across Egypt will be in Church
celebrating Eastern Christmas. Some have called for people to stay at home
for fear of being attacked, but the general mood is one of defiance and
confidence and it is expected that Church attendance this Christmas Eve will  be greater than ever before. Many prominent Muslims have promised to attend  services with Christians, to show solidarity with them and to send a message  to terrorists that if they attack Churches they will be harming Muslims as  well as Christians. Christmas Eve is also the time when Muslim government  officials (Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers, City officials) attend  services with Christians to share with them in their feast. So hundreds of  Muslim government officials will also be at Church Thursday night. Please  pray for protection on every Christmas service across the country.

3. BIBLE SOCIETY SCRIPTURE SELECTION

Our Bible Society colleagues in Alexandria visited as many of the wounded as  possible and were warmly welcomed as they distributed appropriate portions  of Scripture. One young girl was very excited to receive an illustrated  Bible and her mother, in delight, commented “this is just the book you have  been waiting for!” During their visits they also came across some wounded  Muslim soldiers who were guarding the Church and gave them appropriate gifts  for which they were very thankful.

We have also produced a selection of Bible verses which we hope will be
distributed in all Churches on Christmas Eve. The cover which I am
attaching is a montage of various newspaper headings related to this
incident. The title is “Pray for Them” and, of course, everyone assumes we
are asking people to pray for the wounded and the families in mourning.
Instead the focus is a call to prayer for those who committed this atrocious
crime!

The content is as follows:

Whom should we feel sad for? (Thessalonians 1:4-8)

Whom should we fear? (Matthew 10:26 & 27)

For whom should we pray? (Luke 23:34; Acts 7:60; Matthew 5:44)