THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIV, Issue # 122, June 12, 2012
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
A TALE OF TWO AMERICAN MARTYRS
By Raymond Ibrahim
CHRISTIANS IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD PERSECUTED & KILLED BY MUSLIMS: ANTI-CHRISTIAN POGROMS WAGED BY ISLAMIC FANATICS AGAINST BOTH
INDIGENOUS & NON-INDIGENOUS CHRISTIAN MINORITIES IN MUSLIM-MAJORITY COUNTRIES -- CHRISTIANS MASSACRED BY AN ISLAMIC ANIMOSITY BASED ON
ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE
FULL STORY:
Apologists for Islamic persecution of Christians regularly argue that the animosity is not driven by religion, but rather a "sectarian" divide, by any number of
"indigenous" factors poverty, intertribal conflicts, political machinations, etc. Other times, persecuted Christians are portrayed as Zionist agents and rapists,
spies and traitors anything other than people killed for their Christian faith.
Consider, however, the following two stories which deal with, not indigenous Christians that is, not members of the native framework with its complex
socio-political factors but American Christians; not Zionist spies, but teachers who were, nonetheless, killed last March for sharing their faith with Muslims,
for behaving like Christians.
First, on March 1, 2012, Jeremiah Small, a "beloved teacher and friend" who taught at a Christian school in Iraq, was shot to death by an 18-year-old student,
even "as he bent his head to pray at the start of a morning class. The 33-year-old teacher from Washington state took bullets to the head and chest and died at
the scene." According to students, "Mr. Jeremiah's hands were still folded in prayer when he fell"; others say a day before the shooting "a heated discussion"
broke out "during which the pupil threatened to kill the teacher because of conflicting religious views."
The official story, however, as reported by the mainstream media, such as the Wall Street Journal, is that the source of the quarrel is a "mystery," and
religion is unlikely; mention that he was murdered during prayer is also withheld.
Yet, there are more indicators that he was likely murdered for sharing his Christian faith. According to this article, which interviews family and friends, Small
"was a devout Christian who frequently praised Christianity and prayed in the classroom, and his friends in Washington said his evangelism is what motivated
him to teach in Iraq
but he wasn't pushy." A pastor who once interviewed Small says: "He knew he was putting his life on the line
He felt this was a way to
serve and touch some lives for God." His parents who wrote on Facebook "Our oldest, Jeremiah was martyred in Kurdistan this a.m." do not
appear to doubt the context of his murder. Finally, it is interesting to note that the Muslim father of the pupil who killed Small condemned Christian evangelists,
portraying them as "more dangerous than al-Qa'ida."
Speaking of al-Qa'ida, on March 18, Joel Shrum, another American teacher, was shot dead in Yemen by gunmen on a motorcycle. The assassins, who escaped
after the attack, are members of the al-Qa'ida linked "Supporters of Sharia" (which recently beheaded a "witch"). The group issued a message saying, "This
operation comes as a response to the campaign of Christian proselytizing that the West has launched against Muslims," calling Shrum "one of the biggest
American proselytizers."
Shrum's employers strongly denied the charge: 29-years-old, Shrum "was an American development worker who had been working in Yemen with his wife and
two children since 2010. Unfortunately, Joel S. has been accused of being a part of a proselytizing campaign, but the staff of ITDC, which consists of Muslims,
Christians and other religions working together, has continually focused on human development, skill transfer and community development," adding that "Joel
S. was a very professional employee who highly respected the Islamic religion." (Note the boilerplate kowtowing to Islam, which one would have thought
unnecessary at least in this context.)
However, an interview with Shrum's wife makes clear that, not only was Shrum a devout and open Christian, likely to share his faith:
"He lived in the reality that we are all created in the image of God
and that nothing can separate us from the love of God
. These
truths were an inspiration for everything that he did."
Moreover, there is no reason to doubt his Islamic murderers when they say he was killed for "proselytizing." There are many other Americans in Yemen: if
al-Qa'ida was simply targeting American infidels in general, there would be more random killings.
To conclude, Small and Shrum were not missionaries devoted to proselytizing Muslims if so, they would have probably been killed earlier but they were
Christians who were not hesitant to share the Gospel with anyone showing interest, including the Muslims of Iraq and Yemen. This was enough to kill them
the one by a student, the other by al-Qa'ida.
Finally, it is well to recall that these two Americans had nothing in common with the indigenous Christians of the Muslim world; the arguments used to dispel
the persecution of the latter sectarian strife, political machinations, etc. do not apply to the former. Instead, the only thing they have in common is
Christianity. This reaffirms, yet again, that the animosity that killed the Americans Small and Shrum, is the same animosity that persecutes and sometimes kills
the Islamic world's Christian minorities an animosity based on religious intolerance, nothing more nor less.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Raymond Ibrahim, a historian of Islam, Islamism and the Middle East, is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom
Center, an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum, a guest lecturer at the National Defense Intelligence College, and
the editor of The Al-Qa'ida Reader, a collection of tranlations of key texts and documents of the Islamist movement.
Ibrahim's translations of the religious texts and political propaganda comprising this collection help readers comprehend
the origins, development, history, and serious danger of the Islamist war doctrines of Usama bin Laden and Ayman
al-Zawahiri, the Founders of Al-Qa'ida.
The foregoing article by Raymond Ibrahim was originally published in Front Page Magazine, June 12, 2012, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-ΰ-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(URL: http://www.meforum.org/3260/american-martyrs)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
June 12, 2012
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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