A Christian commentator isn’t saying, “I told you so.”
But he could.
With the most recent developments in Uganda, where, according to a Washington Times report, Muslims are now considering “any public statement of the Christian faith,” to be an insult to Muslims.
And then they believe they can “justifiably exact revenge.”
Including violent attacks against Christians making statements about their faith.
It is commentator Robert Spencer who has written at FrontPageMag that the Times report explains the “extraordinary revelation.”
“Muslims now consider any public statement of the Christian faith to be a calculated insult to Muslims, for which they can justifiably exact revenge,” he said. “This is, or should be, sobering news for the comfortable Christians of the West who have made an idol out of ‘interfaith dialogue’ and fastidiously avoid saying anything remotely critical about Islam, even as the Muslim persecution of Christians continues worldwide.”
The Times said, “In June a group of Muslims attacked Christian preachers in eastern Uganda during a ‘crusade,’ where Christians publicly profess their faith and invite others to join. Muslims in the town accused the Christians of mocking Islam by publicly saying Jesus was the Son of God.”
That is, after all, what the Bible teaches.
Christian pastor Moses Saku, however, said in the report that because of the statements, Muslims immediately turned violent.
“They became very angry and began throwing rocks at Christians, chanting ‘Allah akbar.’ Many Christians were injured during the incident,” he said.
The results prompted Spencer to write, sarcastically, “Christians, stop saying Jesus is the Son of God. It provokes Muslims.”
“The Christians appealed to the Muslims to have respect for those of other faith; the Muslims responded with contempt,” Spencer wrote. “One Muslim, Abubakar Yusuf, declared: ‘We have now declared a jihad against them. We are not going to allow anybody to despise Islamic teachings at their church or crusade. We will seek revenge.'”
The Christians, Spencer explained, did no more than preach aspects of Christianity, such as the divinity of Christ.
“Christians, knowing how delicate their situation was, would never have dreamed of actually saying something critical about Islam itself; but to the Muslims who heard them, just enunciating the tenets of their Christian faith was criticism enough. And they refused to stand for it,” he explained.
He pointed out that a few years back, he and Pamela Geller organized the AFDI Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest in Garland, Texas.
At the time, some Christians criticized him for holding the event. It was, they challenged, an uneeded provocation.
“These charitable and enlightened Christians said that Christians should instead be deferential to others’ religious sensibilities. At the time, I responded to these people by explaining that giving in to violent intimidation (our event was a response to the jihad murder of the Charlie Hebdo Muhammad cartoonists in Paris) would only encourage more violent intimidation, and that given the fact that Muslims frequently found even basic expressions of Christian faith to be ‘provocative,’ they were effectively cutting the ground out from under themselves and their children, making it impossible for them to practice Christianity in the future,” he said.
“These incidents in Uganda are proof that this was correct. In declaring jihad and stating that the Muslims were now on a quest for revenge, Abubakar Yusuf and the Muslims who agree with him are in effect saying that the public expression of the Christian faith mocks Islam and despises Islamic teachings.”
The Times originally reported now Muslims are attacking those who refuse to convert to what used to be known as Muhammadism.
Christians have been killed by Muslims for such an offense in recent months, and Christian churches have been vandalized, the report said.
WND has reported, too, on a movement at the level of the United Nations among Muslim nations to create a worldwide ban on any criticism of Islam.
The efforts date back at least a decade, and so far have not been successful.
But leaders from Pakistan now say they are “spearheading efforts to get countries to sign onto the “International Convention on Preventing the Defamation of Religions,” which would provide Islam with that special protection.
That document states “freedom of speech is an insufficient pretext for hurting the world’s Muslims.”