by Ralph H. Sidway
This year marks the 1700th anniversary of the Edict of Milan in 313 A.D., the historic guarantee of religious liberty to Christians by the Roman Empire. The Edict was of explicitly universal significance in the Empire, as it was agreed upon by both Constantine (who controlled the West) and Licinius (in the East) upon their meeting in Milan in February, 313.
The Edict protected Christians’ rights to worship freely, organize, and to build churches, and it provided for the return of confiscated property to Christians.
If the wording of these rights sound familiar somehow, it may be because we see their explicit reversal under Islam, via the harsh and demeaning terms of the Conditions of Omar and the dhimma contract of ‘protection’, which forbids Christians from publicly displaying signs of their faith or worshipping openly, from building new churches or repairing existing ones, and requires payment of the crippling jizya tax, together with an assortment of other demeaning restrictions designed to sap the will and vibrancy of the Christian populace under Islamic rule.
Islam, beginning with Muhammad and the Koran, and further codified by the caliph Omar, offers three choices to conquered Christians: reject Christ and convert to Islam; if not that, accept second class status under Islamic rule and pay the jizya tax; if they refuse even that then it is death. Per the Koran and key hadiths about Muhammad:
Fight against those who believe not in Allah, nor in the Last Day, nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth [i.e. Islam] among the people of the Book [Jews and Christians], until they pay the jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. (Koran 9:29)
Muhammad said, “I have been commanded to fight people until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and perform the prayer, and pay zakat. If they say it, they have saved their blood and possessions from me, except for the rights of Islam over them. And their final reckoning is with Allah.” (Bukhari, 1:2:25, also Sahih Muslim, Book of Faith, 1:10:29-35)
Islam’s demeaning treatment of conquered Christians thus abrogates the Edict of Milan, and specifically reverses and denies the rights conferred by that landmark Roman ruling.
Wherever Islam conquered by the sword — from the Christianized Levant, North Africa and the Iberian peninsula in the seventh century, to Constantinople, the Balkans, and Central Asia in the Ottoman period — this repeal of the Edict of Milan was forcefully applied. It was only in the nineteenth century with the rise of the Great European Powers that Islam’s dominance was blunted and eventually dismantled.
The Ottoman Empire was eventually forced by Britain, France and Russia to legally grant equal rights to Christians in the Balkans, though this was applied inconsistently at best, and did nothing to prevent the Muslim Turks from committing genocide, causing the deaths of some 4 million Christians from 1894 to 1923.
Now, with the violent rise of Islamist movements like the Muslim Brotherhood, Wahhabism, Salafism, Al Qaeda, Al Nusra, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab and the rest of their grisly gamut, we are seeing played out before our eyes the very extermination of Christians from their ancestral homelands.
While U.S. administrations have, for decades now, wrongheadedly sided with Muslim extremists to achieve various foreign policy goals, it is only under President Barack Hussein Obama that an explicitly pro-Islamist policy has been enacted. From Obama’s open support of the Muslim Brotherhood early in his first term, to his inclusion in his administration of Brotherhood-linked officials, to his direct support of Al Qaeda-linked factions in Libya and Syria, he has accomplished a polar shift in American foreign policy away from forces which embrace human rights, pluralism, and religious liberty — liberal Western concepts which derive straight from Christian principles of tolerance, love of neighbor, and care for the downtrodden — and towards what can only be described as forces of evil, persecution and bloodlust.
In one of the most damning examples of this new American alliance with darkness, Secretary of State John Kerry recently warned Nigeria’s government against infringing on the human rights of the murderous Boko Haram Islamist group, which continues to slaughter thousands of Christians, destroying their homes, churches and villages. Similarly, the Obama administration ignores Muslim Brotherhood persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, and Al Qaeda’s slaughter of Christians in Syria, siding instead with the Islamist persecutors.
Moving far beyond the opportunistic, temporary alliances of past U.S. administrations with Muslim extremists, Obama grounds his support of the Islamists on appeals to their fundamental rights. But unlike the liberal Western notion of human rights (“my rights end where another’s begins”), the Islamist’s rights always supersede the rights of non-Muslims, and that is indeed their stated objective. Whether Muslim Brotherhood, Wahhabi, Salafi, or Al Qaeda, their goal is always the institution of an Islamic state or caliphate, under which the sharia would rule, the Conditions of Omar would be applied to Christians, and the last vestiges of the Edict of Milan would finally be swept away. Obama’s support for these groups is support for their objectives.
To traditional Christians, Obama’s support for same-sex marriage and abortion, his lawfare and legislative assault on Christian churches, organizations, businesses, and individuals, coupled with the cult of personality which surrounds him like an aura (children do pray to him, after all), clearly makes him an antichrist figure. But in the geopolitical realm, there should be an ominous realization dawning upon all observers with a long view of history:
Obama is the anti-Constantine, whose chief goal seems to be the final and complete repudiation and overthrow of the Edict of Milan.
Put another way, Christian tradition holds that Constantine saw a vision of the Cross in the sky, with the words, “In this sign conquer.” Obama, on the other hand, looks at the Cross and hears a command: “Conquer this sign.”
Not convinced? In April 2009, the White House had Georgetown University, a Roman Catholic institution, cover the Cross and the ‘IHS’ monogram of Jesus Christ before Obama’s speech there. By his words and policies before and since that highly symbolic event, Obama has proved he seeks to do far more than merely cover up the Cross. He seeks to conquer it.
Obama is the anti-Constantine.
Starting in the 1990’s the US has been supporting jihadis that are raping and killing Christians and also Muslims that say No to the 7th century in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Nagorno-Karabakh, Libya, Egypt, and now Syria since Obama started the US destabilization of Syria in 2011.
The Syrian government is trying to protect their Christians. The US is helping the jihadis that are killing them. Russia is trying to help Christians and the repair of Churches in the region. The US is only helping in the repair of Mosques.
US policy is making me sick; it is pure evil. This evil is not coming from nowhere. It is coming out of the sociopathic US elites. This evil is coming back to the US heartland. You can see it in the DHS, in the militarization of the civilian police, in the recent gestapo-like actions of the National Park Service, in the manipulation of the people by a government/media complex.
Just like with Rome, the Empire starts on the periphery and comes back to the center. What you see the US supporting in the Middle East will be supported by the US government against the American people.
Arius, If you examine the history of the US State Department, they have a century long legacy of supporting Nazis, tyrants, jihadis, Arab dictators, petty Muslim kings and fascists. They did everything in their power to try to convince Truman not to vote in favor of the re-establishment of Israel in 1948 and the State Department was one of the leading advocates of closing the immigration rolls to Jews before and during World War Two. Compared to the State Department, Obama is an amateur Jew hater.
There’s an Internet “rule” that the first party to invoke Hitler loses the argument. Please see “Godwin’s law”, a Wikipedia article at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law
which states, in part:
Godwin’s law (also known as Godwin’s Rule of Nazi Analogies or Godwin’s Law of Nazi Analogies is an assertion made by Mike Godwin in 1990 that has become an Internet adage. It states: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.” In other words, Godwin said that, given enough time, in any online discussion—regardless of topic or scope—someone inevitably makes a comparison to Hitler or the Nazis.
Godwin’s law applies especially to inappropriate, inordinate, or hyperbolic comparisons of other situations (or one’s opponent) with Nazis – often referred to as “playing the Hitler card”.
Godwin’s law does not claim to articulate a fallacy; it is instead framed as a memetic tool to reduce the incidence of inappropriate hyperbolic comparisons. “Although deliberately framed as if it were a law of nature or of mathematics, its purpose has always been rhetorical and pedagogical: I wanted folks who glibly compared someone else to Hitler or to Nazis to think a bit harder about the Holocaust”, Godwin has written.
First of all, invoking godwins law does not change the truth. The state dept has a long history of opposing Israel’s re-establishment and opposing allowing European Jews sanctuary before and during WW2. That is a matter of public record.
You know what you can do with godwin’s law, right! The truth is that the state dept has a long standing arabist policy and a long standing anti israeli /anti jewish bias.
Remember the St.Louis
Am Yisrael Chai!
I apologize.
I read your post much too quickly. This was the first time I’ve seen this website, and I arrived here by clicking on a link in a Christian website. I was appalled by the hate expressed herein, from both the author and commenters, towards Jews and Obama. The broad exchange of insults BETWEEN commenters is not to be missed either. When I read “amateur Jew hater” at the end of your post, I went a little postal (small pun intended).
But, it seems you’re different. Your comments are, IMHO, intelligent and serious. I have read about Preston Bush’s Hitler “business”, which to Bush was, “just business, right?”. Guess money was, well, money until the world pointed out that the red stains were blood, not ink. However, I know nothing about institutionalized anti-Semitism as you’ve described. Thank you – I’ll do some research.
Regarding BHO, I just searched on “does obama hate jews”. The results are – guess what – varied. Some say he does, some say he doesn’t hate Jews, just Israel. A guy named Mark Levin comes up 2-3 times in the top ten results, and had a short video front and center. So, I watched it. Yup, per Mr. Levin, Obama is horrid in ways too many to count, but afterwards I felt like I needed a shower to wash the rhetoric and ugly off.
So, looking for a little objective truth, I looked at plain, ordinary answers.com. In “Does Barack Obama hate Jews?”, crowd-sourced at
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Does_Barack_Obama_hate_Jews
the brief article says
“Answer:”
“No, he does not, and contrary to unproven claims made by his political opponents, there is no evidence the president is anti-Jewish. In fact, he is very close friends with several rabbis, and two of his closest advisers are Jewish; Michelle Obama’s cousin is also a rabbi and has said that the president is very supportive of Jewish beliefs. President Obama has also held two Passover Seders at the White House. He has also expressed his opposition to anti-Semitism, and has been very public in his stance against prejudice.”
“That said, you may be asking a political question: it is widely reported that the president does not get along with the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr. Netanyahu is a hawk and is very aligned with members of the Republican party in America. But other members of the Israeli government acknowledge that President Obama has been a strong friend of Israel and has repeatedly taken stands to help Israel, even if he does not agree with some of Mr. Netanyahu’s policies.”
So, Mr. Levin engages in slightly-addled mudslinging, while answers.com gives us a quick answer at middle school level, one that I could have written based on knowing virtually nothing.
I have been distressed by Mr. Obama’s unseemly public discord with Mr. Netanyahu. But are we seeing a simple conflict of personalities, or a glimpse of more than is generally known about our countries’ relations? It appears Mr. Obama merits more investigation, too.
Again, I apologize for “jumping the gun”. I appreciate your thoughtful and measured writing here, and in other comments. Your lucid suggestion of a modern succession of institutionalized bias is alarming, and prompts one to take a better look.
Thank you.
I do appreciate your apology To be honest, I am an editor of a major news website and a political columnist and it is sometimes very difficult to remain unbiased.
As someone who is Jewish and who lost 298 family members in the concentration caps ( as documented by Yad Vashem) I have a personal aware of what Jew hate can lead to.
My feeling about Obama are my personal feeling. I just don’t think he cares for Jews and I think he has a particular dislike of Israel. He behavior towards Netanyahu is terrible. He treats him like a vassal of the United States and expresses outrage when Netanyahu does what he is elected to do, which is represent the best interests of his nation, Israel.
No President since Jimmy Carter, who is in my mind an open Jew hater, has treated Israel as badly as Obama. Israel is a sovereign nation, surrounded by implacable enemies, all of whom are ‘Islamic States,” yet the refuse to accept the existence of one Jewish state alongside 57 Islamic states.
I contend it is not the place of an American president to tell the leader of another nation where he can build hoses or where he can have his nation’s captial. The mythology that has been passed off as truth by this and the last administration is just that mythology. The so-called Palestinians are simply Arabs who come from Arabia. They invaded Israel in 638 and ruthlessly crushed all other faiths until Jerusalem was finally reunited under Israel’s flag in 1967.
For the first time since Islam declared its intentions to be the only religion for all of mankind, as written in the Qur’an itself, the city of Jerusalem is now open to all religions to worship without restriction under the Israeli flag. Until 1967, the Jordanian ruled Eastern half of Jerusalem was a place where no one could ring a church bell, all the Synagogues were demolished and Jewish headstones were uprooted from cemeteries and used to build public latrines.
I rest my case.
Brilliant! Connecting the connections. Once again we see how important it is to know your stuff.
Obama has proved he seeks to do far more than merely cover up the Cross. He seeks to conquer it. He wants to replace it (and us) with Islam.
Nobody can conquer the cross.
You have conquered the cross with your pathetic demonization of the Jews.
Seema ” nobody can conquer the cross ” Where did the cross from the Byzantine Empire went?
What do you expect when our government has its share of members of the terrorist group called the Muslim Brotherhood the likes of Mohamed ElIbiary and Rashad Hussain and the sordid Huma Abedein
It is very revealing that Egyptians after their disastrous encounter with the Muslim Brotherhood will be banning this terrorist group and Morsi is being charged with inciting violence and oh Egyptians believe that Obama supports terrorists
Obama ruined the prestige of the US in that part of the world
Obama is just a puppet of the Zionist who put him they. he is a Muslim and he is the devils handy man. The Jews hate Christ and will do everything to oppress the Christians. Christian will be the target in the Western world because they have walked away form their law of God and the Jews will use this Muslim and are using the the brain dead Muslims to kill Christians. Christianity. will never be beaten, those who stand to the end will be rewarded with a golden crown. stand your ground and don’t worry about Obama we all knew he is cursed and is now doomed.
You disgust me. Blame the Jews, it’s their fault!
Arius, I agree with you, but I also remember that our mothers always warned us not to feed the trolls. Maybe we should just ignore the poor dear.
or maybe we should just continue to humiliate her. Why don’t you decide.
Here we go again, another hateful idiot spewing her venom and blaming the Jews for Islamic Jihad.
Obviously, you didn’t absorb one word of what Jesus was teaching, especially when he said:
“Judge not, that ye be not judged.
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”
And here’s a little wake up call for you. Jews don’t hate Jesus. He was a respected Rabbi and Jewish teacher. I bet it really galls you that Jesus was born a Jew, lived his life as an observant Jew and died a Jew. JESUS WAS A JEW, YOU WRETCHED MORON.
wollfb . You are so right. And Jesus was a Jew same as mo-ham-mad’s ancestors were Jews too. Both Christianity and Islam has come out of Jewish religion like Buddhism , Jainism and Sikhism come out of Hinduism . Seema have to have her head examined, she is sick
Seema Sophia Kapoor. From your name it suggest you were a low cast Hindu who converted to Christianity for some gain. ” Obama is just a puppet of the Zionist who put him they [ you mean there ].. The Jews hate Christ and will do everything to oppose the Christians….” Are you thick and stupid? It is the muslims who hate Jews and Christians .From Muslim’s Quran Sura 5:51 ” O’ Believers take neither Jews nor Christians for your friends and protectors for they are friends and protectors of one another. Whoever of you seeks their friendship and support them shall become one of their numbers, Allah does not guide the wrong doers ” Quran is full of hate towards Jews and Christians. You are a little piece of S£$% for sure .
Go back to your oven.
China _Rising ” Go back to your oven ” I’m already in over ,how about you coming in with me ? You muzzis are amazing
Muslims are your cousins you dumb Jew.
I’m as much related to your cousins as I am related to you – that is, not at all.
Obama is Julian the Apostate!
Only one problem with your theory Ray, without his teleprompter and his team of professional speech writers to whisper in his ear, Obama would have no idea what the Edict of Milan is. Frankly, I give three months pay to look at Obama’s college records. I’m guessing he had a C- average, if he was lucky.
GOOD GOD: Again – tired, ridiculous, usually hate-based, garbage that BHO is a Muslim.
BHO is a Christian, attends St. John’s Episcopal in DC. Rev. Joshua DuBois leads daily devotionals at the White House. BHO came to Christianity as a young man, no family help, and was baptized as an adult in the Trinity United Church of Christ. You’ll find two OBJECTIVE articles about this on about.com. The first, at
http://christianity.about.com/od/religionpolitics/p/obamafaithss.htm
is titled “President Barack Obama”, dated 01/30/2012, and written by By Mary Fairchild, About.com Christianity Guide.
The second, at
http://atheism.about.com/od/barackobamareligionfaith/a/ObamaReligion.htm
is titled “Barack Obama’s Religious Beliefs & Background: What Does Barack Obama Believe? / Barack Obama has a More Religiously Diverse & Secular Background than Most”, undated, and written by By Austin Cline, About.com Agnosticism / Atheism Guide. Who better to research a Christian than the opposition? I take comfort in that an atheist scholar will know best that BHO ain’t one.
These encyclopedic articles are written by OBJECTIVE experts. In contrast you said: “Obama has proved he seeks to do far more than merely cover up the Cross. He seeks to conquer it.” Sorry, I can’t subscribe to your ridiculously unsupported “proof” that “Obama is the anti-Constantine, whose chief goal seems to be the final and complete repudiation and overthrow of the Edict of Milan…Obama is the anti-Constantine.” Seriously?
Your writing suggests that you are, at best, misguided; at worst, an unhinged nutcase. Hate, dark metaphysical conspiracy, and unfounded religiosity all wrapped up in the cloak of loving Christianity? Disgusting: I feel like I need a shower.
Are you a Christian? Really? Are you?
Obama is probably an atheist/ humanist who knew to get elected in America, you have to attend Church. I do not believe he is a sincere Christian or a Muslim. I think he is a politician playing the game and it worked.
BHO became a Christian long before he knew he would become a politician. Beyond that, neither you nor I can see into his heart. While I’m NOT an Obama fan, I understand that he has been a good father and husband. Ask yourself: Could he have been faking it for 20+ years, and, crazy and untenable as that is, why would he?
Sure, he’s skilled at “playing the game”, but atheist? Nah, no way. I do appreciate that you’re not one of those repeating “Muslim”. Any way one wishes to dress it up, it is hate speech, unfounded total crap that started as hate, dressed up (a little) for political gain. It strains credulity beyond breaking to think that anyone still screaming “Muslim, as does this website’s authors, and many commenters, doesn’t understand the inherent bigotry.
YUCK ugly, and NOT Christian, hypocrites.
I do not consider Jeremiah Wright’s brand of liberation theology to be Christianity, therefore I do not believe attending Wright’s church for 20 years makes Obama a Christian. But neither you or I know for sure, now do we?
Obama’s profession of faith took place long before he moved to Chicago. But, so what? This country was founded as a secular state, and we supposedly remain one. Why do you, I, or the many folks here rabidly care whether BHO is a real, true Christian?
You’ve decided that attendance at Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, under longtime pastor J. Wright, disqualifies BHO as a Christian. That’s wonderful and all, but please tell us: What exactly makes one a true Christian? What qualifications must one possess to judge?
@johnrysf, you’re speaking nonsense. Where in this piece does Mr. Ibrahim say ANYTHING that implies, in your words, that “BHO is a Muslim”? Did you even read the piece?
Your long digression into Obama’s profession of Christian faith is a giant red herring. What difference does it make either to Obama’s actions or to Ibrahim’s thesis here what his personal faith is? This is commentary on his ACTIONS (which, as far as I can tell, are not in dispute) and their CONSEQUENCES (about which, since they deal with eventualities not certainties, reasonable people might disagree — have you any substantial critique of Ibrahim’s analysis, or only red herrings?)
This article attempts to establish, then concludes that Christian-hating, pro-Islamist “Obama has proved he seeks to do far more than merely cover up the Cross. He seeks to conquer it. Obama is the anti-Constantine.”
Further, we’re told that “To traditional Christians, Obama’s support for same-sex marriage and abortion, his lawfare and legislative assault on Christian churches, organizations, businesses, and individuals, coupled with the cult of personality which surrounds him like an aura (children do pray to him, after all), clearly makes him an antichrist figure. But in the geopolitical realm, there should be an ominous realization dawning upon all observers with a long view of history:
Obama is the anti-Constantine, whose chief goal seems to be the final and complete repudiation and overthrow of the Edict of Milan.”
IMHO, what a load of crap, conjecture based on imagination. YES, I dispute this article’s crazy account of “ACTIONS” and “CONSEQUENCES”, but, NO, I don’t wish to critique Ibrahim’s goofiness. Political popularity makes one the Antichrist? Wow.
Rather, my “long digression” was, in fact, pretty brief. It was only as long as necessary in order to reference two expert sources who have decided that BHO is a Christian. For sure, I make a leap to suggest that this article fits right in with the dog-whistle, low-intellect, racist meme of “tired, ridiculous, usually hate-based, garbage that BHO is a Muslim”. That’s not a red herring. It’s a call-out to tag mendacious garbage.
Wow. I just self-published Forty Men, Legion of Thunder to Kindle, It’s about the 40 martyrs of Sebaste – Forty Roman soldiers who were sentenced to death as a direct consequence of Licinius breaking the Edict of Milan and his subsequent command that all soldiers in his legions make public sacrifices to the Roman gods of state. I felt the story was timely given the current pressure on Christians in our military to basically deny their faith and allegiance to Jesus. Terrific article. Amazing timing.