Jihad against Christians is due to … climate change?

By Raymond Ibrahim

While Western media portray Hungary as lacking in compassion – unlike most Western nations, it refuses to take in (and suffer from) Muslim migrants – Hungary continues to expose Western hypocrisy.

Last year, for instance, Hungary condemned the West “for denying” the ongoing pandemic of Christian persecution. According to one report,

Hungary’s right-wing government has condemned the West for allegedly playing down the persecution of Christians after Islamists in Africa killed and injured dozens of believers on Sunday, including a priest.

Tristan Azbej, state secretary at Hungary’s foreign ministry, said politicians in the West “must stop their denial.” He added that “a dozen Christians a day are not murdered because of climate change or local clashes, but because of their religion.”

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Indeed, as part of their gross denial, Western leaders and media, who have nearly exhausted every possible pretext to downplay the Muslim persecution of Christians – “grievances,” “economics,” etc. – have most recently added “climate change” to their arsenal of excuses.

Thus, on Pentecost Sunday, June 5, 2022, after Muslims massacred some 50 Christians as they peacefully worshiped inside their church, the president of Ireland, Michael Higgins, issued a statement condemning, not Muslim violence, but climate change and global warming. Others have done the same thing.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Christians in Nigeria are being purged in a widely acknowledged genocide: Some 60,000 Christians “have been butchered or hacked to death” in Nigeria since 2009, and approximately 20,000 churches and Christian schools have been torched by “Allahu Akbar” screaming Muslims.

As Sister Monica Chikwe, a Nigerian nun, once observed, “It’s tough to tell Nigerian Christians this isn’t a religious conflict since what they see are Fulani fighters clad entirely in black, chanting ‘Allahu Akbar!’ and screaming ‘Death to Christians.'” Or as the Christian Association of Nigeria once asked, “How can it be a [secular or economic] clash when one group [Muslims] is persistently attacking, killing, maiming, destroying, and the other group [Christians] is persistently being killed, maimed and their places of worship destroyed?”

While calling out Western indifference, Hungary’s Azbej pointed to the burning alive of a Christian priest – one of many Nigerians to be burned alive by Muslims in recent times – and said that “condolences were not enough” and that the “international community should take proactive steps.”

Far from doing anything “proactive” against the genocide of Christians in Nigeria, the Biden administration – which perhaps best embodies the hypocrisy – has taken the “denial” one step further: In late 2021, the Biden State Department removed Nigeria – this nation where one Christian is butchered every two hours – from its list of Countries of Particular Concern, that is, nations that engage in, or tolerate violations of, religious freedom.

Many observers responded by slamming the Biden administration for this inexplicable move. As Sean Nelson, of the Alliance Defending Freedom, noted:

“Outcry over the State Department’s removal of Country of Particular Concern status for Nigeria’s 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 … are targeted, killed, and kidnapped, and the government is simply unwilling to stop these atrocities. … Removing Country of Particular Concern status for Nigeria will only embolden the increasingly authoritarian government there.”

Similarly, John Eibner, president of Christian Solidarity International, frankly said:

“The State Department’s decision to de-list a country where thousands of Christians are killed every year reveals Washington’s true priorities. … Removing this largely symbolic sign of concern is a brazen denial of reality and indicates that the U.S. intends to pursue its interests in western Africa through an alliance with Nigeria’s security elite, at the expense of Christians and other victims of widespread sectarian violence. … If the U.S. CPC list means anything at all – an open question at this point – Nigeria belongs on it.”

Such is the current state of affairs: Jihads of genocidal proportions are being waged against Christians in various parts of the world – along with Nigeria, one can add Armenia – even as American media and government cover for the terrorists, deflect to “climate change” and pretend that the real humanitarian problem is that nations such as Hungary do not want to take in and suffer from Muslim migrants like the rest of Europe.

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Raymond Ibrahim

Raymond Ibrahim, an expert in Islamic history and doctrine, is the author of "Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam" (2022); "Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West" (2018); "Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians" (2013); and "The Al Qaeda Reader" (2007). He has appeared on C-SPAN, Al-Jazeera, CNN, NPR and PBS and has been published by the New York Times Syndicate, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, Weekly Standard, Chronicle of Higher Education, and Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst. Formerly an Arabic linguist at the Library of Congress, Ibrahim has guest lectured at many universities, including the U.S. Army War College, briefed governmental agencies such as U.S. Strategic Command, and testified before Congress. He has been a visiting fellow/scholar at a variety of Institutes – from the Hoover Institution to the National Intelligence University – and is currently the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Friedman Rosen Fellow at the Middle East Forum. His full biography is available here. Follow Raymond at Twitter and Facebook. Read more of Raymond Ibrahim's articles here.


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