National Review Online

On the Ethiopians who were killed in Libya, and why we should expect more to come.

NRO note: This weekend ISIS released a new video showing some 30 Ethiopian Christian men being beheaded in Libya for refusing to convert to Islam (or to pay a tax for refusing to do so). This comes two months after 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian men were martyred at the hands of ISIS for the same reason. Christians and other religious minorities are being targeted, and their future in the Middle East is in peril. Raymond Ibrahim, author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (2013) and The Al Qaeda Reader (2007), and Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and a Judith Friedman Rosen Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum, talks about what we know. — KJL KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: What do we know about the Ethiopian Christians killed by ISIS? RAYMOND IBRAHIM: Like the 21 Copts slaughtered before them in February, they were likely impoverished migrant workers from the days of Qaddafi, trapped in post–“Arab Spring” Libya. ISIS killed them in two sets — the first were shot execution-style in the backs of their heads, the second had their heads hacked off. The video is horrific — the blood and gore puts Hollywood’s gory movies to shame. By way of context: Soon after Qaddafi’s overthrow, Ansar al-Sharia — the “Supporters of Islamic Law” — offered rewards to any Muslim who finds any Christians (most being from neighboring Egypt). In the past few years, scores of Coptic Christians were randomly killed — in one instance, a family consisting of a mother, a father, and their young daughter (graphic pictures here). But since Ansar al-Sharia morphed into an affiliate of ISIS, the slaughter of Christians has been even more systematic. LOPEZ: In the ISIS video they are described as “worshipers of the cross belonging to the hostile Ethiopian Church.” Is the Ethiopian Church hostile, or is this just propaganda? IBRAHIM: This is pure propaganda, more “Muslim grievances” that have no grounding in reality. Here’s another example: When ISIS slaughtered the 21 Coptic Christians, it cited hackneyed grievances against the Coptic Church. The late Coptic Pope Shenouda III was portrayed as “a U.S. agent, an abductor and torturer of female Muslim converts from Christianity, who was stockpiling weapons in monasteries and churches with a view to waging war against the Muslims and dividing Egypt to create a Coptic State.” Such is Islamic propaganda and projection — always accusing others of what Islamists habitually do. These accusations were proven false several times — one woman even appeared on video saying she had voluntarily returned to Christianity — but, regardless, ISIS still cited it in its justification to kill the 21 Copts (as “payback”). Even the 2011 attack on Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad — the attack killed around 60 worshipers, many of them women and children — was blamed on the aforementioned allegations against the Coptic pope in Egypt (as if Iraqi Christians had anything to do with them, even if the allegations were true). Bottom line, as shown in The Al Qaeda Reader (and in this article): The messages that these jihadi organizations send to the world at large are antithetical to the messages they send to fellow Muslims. To the former, they play the grievance card; to the latter, they say Islamic law commands that they attack, slaughter, plunder, rape, and enslave “infidels.” LOPEZ: Why is that propaganda effective? IBRAHIM: The effectiveness of this propaganda is simple: No matter how absurd, there are some in the West who are more than happy to leap on such “grievances” and say “Aha, that’s why Muslims are angry! It has to do with economics and politics, and grievances relating to them — not with hostile Islamic teachings.” Anyone acquainted with the “mainstream media,” Mideast academic departments, and, of course, the White House knows what I mean. LOPEZ: Is this just like what happened with the Coptic martyrs? IBRAHIM: Yes, the recent butchery of the Ethiopian Christians is nearly identical to what happened to the Egyptian Christians. Speaking of propaganda: There is an important but overlooked point to be made here about both groups. They had their heads hacked off because they refused to renounce the Christian Trinity and embrace Islam. Because this little fact does not sit well with ISIS — who are more interested in demoralizing Western/Christian viewers than in inspiring them through the courage of these martyrs — this aspect is not always readily apparent. But ISIS has left many conquered Christians and other non-Muslims who convert to Islam in peace. It has also let some Christians remain, as long as they pay jizya, extortion money, and live as third-class citizens, according to Koran 9:29 and the Conditions of Omar. In the video, ISIS says that the Ethiopian Christians did not pay jizya (likely because they didn’t have any money). This means that the Ethiopians were given Islam’s classic three choices: convert to Islam, pay jizya and remain Christian, or die (according to Islamic prophet Muhammad’s teachings). If they had no money, it came down to convert to Islam or die. Their execution is proof that they refused to convert. It’s the same with the 21 Copts before them — some of whom could be seen uttering Christ’s name in prayer seconds before being barbarously beheaded. And it’s the same with the four Iraqi children who were beheaded for “loving Jesus” and refusing to profess Muhammad the prophet of God. LOPEZ: This latest video also shows people claiming to be Christian in Raqqa saying that life is peaceful as long as they pay a tax for being Christian. Do we have reason to believe that? Shouldn’t that be unacceptable even if true? IBRAHIM: Well, as mentioned, according to strict Islamic law, as long as the extortion money is paid, Christians are allowed to live, but they must follow any number of humiliations (also according to Koran 9:29), including rising up for a Muslim, not building or even renovating churches (a deprivation Egypt’s Christians experience habitually, so that some had to hold Easter outdoors), never showing a cross or a Bible, etc. Incidentally, thanks to Mideast academics in the West, everyone now refers to jizya as a “tax” or “poll tax.” It’s not. It’s money given to purchase one’s life from the sword of jihad. For example, Georgetown professor John Esposito speaks of jizya in almost glowing terms, saying that it was money Christians paid to Muslims to buy their protection against “outsiders,” when in reality the money was, and is, to buy protection against Muslims themselves. LOPEZ: Why should we believe the warning to the West in that video: “You won’t have safety, even in your dreams, until you embrace Islam.” Why isn’t this just propaganda? IBRAHIM: Because it is Islamic law. According to classic, mainstream Islamic teaching, the Islamic world is supposed to be at perpetual war with the non-Muslim world until the former subsumes the latter. Consider the entry for “jihad” in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, published in an era before political correctness hijacked academia: The “spread of Islam by arms is a religious duty upon Muslims in general. . . . Jihad must continue to be done until the whole world is under the rule of Islam. . . . Islam must completely be made over before the doctrine of jihad [warfare to spread Islam] can be eliminated.” Of course, there are exceptions — much of Islamic law is based on circumstance — best caught by the phrase “when weak, preach peace; when strong, wage war.” The Islamic world is currently not strong enough to wage an all-out assault on the West. Currently. But if you want to know how Islam behaves toward those “infidels” under its authority, you need look no further than to the plight of Christian minorities from one end of the Muslim world to the other, where they are being slaughtered, their churches burned, their women raped, and their children enslaved (for hundreds of anecdotes from the last few years, see Crucified Again). In short, the hate for Christians and other non-Muslims, including secularists/atheists in the West, did not begin with ISIS, al-Qaeda, Ansar al-Sharia, Boko Haram, or Al Shabaab. It began with Muhammad and his companions, 1,400 years ago. LOPEZ: What worries you most about Christians living in the Middle East? IBRAHIM: The long and the short of it is, if nothing is done, if nothing changes, there will no longer be any Christians in the entire Middle East, even though they are the most indigenous inhabitants of the region, predating Islam and Muslims by many centuries. Worse, Christians will not simply “disappear” or just “leave.” Many of them — and there are still millions in the region, especially Egypt — will face the fate that the Copts and Ethiopians faced: Choose Islam or death; and many will die, in holocaust fashion. LOPEZ: What worries you most about the White House’s calling this senseless violence? IBRAHIM: That people here are kept in a bubble, oblivious to what is going on — and, more important, why it’s going on. Make no mistake: As mentioned earlier, the slaughter is happening over there, now, but once the opportunity to wage an all-out jihad here presents itself, the slaughter will be coming to the West as well (the beheadings of “infidels” that occurred in London and Oklahoma will not be so rare). “You won’t have safety, even in your dreams, until you embrace Islam” is not an empty threat. Yet, according to Obama and all the “experts,” ISIS has “nothing to do with Islam.” Given such a disconnect, expect the unexpected to happen.

Note: The following is an excellent article published by the Gatestone Institute and written by Uzay Bulut, a freelance Turkish journalist based in Ankara. Titled, "Churches in Turkey on the Verge of Extinction," it closely examines Turkey's historic and modern antipathy for Christians and their faith:

While Eastern Orthodox Christians recently celebrated their Easter holy week, a historic church in Istanbul — the once magnificent Christian city of Constantinople — is witnessing yet another abuse at the hands of its current authorities.

"The historic Istanbul cathedral and museum, Hagia Sophia, witnessed its first Quran recitation under its roof after 85 years Saturday," reported the state-run Anatolian News Agency of Turkey. "The Religious Affairs Directorate launched the exhibition "Love of Prophet," as part of commemorations of the birth of Islamic Prophet Muhammad."

Even though Christians are a tiny minority in Turkey today, Christianity has a long history in Asia Minor, the birthplace of many Christian Apostles and Saints, including Paul of Tarsus, Timothy, Nicholas of Myra, and Polycarp of Smyrna.

All of the first seven Ecumenical Councils were held in what is today Turkey. Two out of the five centers (Patriarchates) of the ancient Pentarchy — Constantinople (Istanbul) and Antioch (Antakya) — are also situated there. Antioch was the place where, for the first time, the followers of Jesus were called "Christians."

Turkey is also home to the Seven Churches of Asia, where were sent the Revelations to John. During the centuries that followed, countless churches were established throughout the region.

One of them, Hagia Sophia, was once the grandest cathedral in the Christian world — until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans on May 29, 1453, followed by a three days of unbridled pillage.[1]

Hagia Sophia was not exempt. Pillagers made their way to the Hagia Sophia and battered down its doors. Trapped in the church, congregants and refugees became spoils to be divided among the Ottoman invaders.

The historian Steven Runciman writes in The Fall of Constantinople, 1453:

"They slew everyone that they met in the streets, men, women and children without discrimination. The blood ran in rivers down the steep streets from the heights of Petra towards the Golden Horn. But soon the lust for slaughter was assuaged. The soldiers realized that captives and precious objects would bring them greater profit."[2]

After the fall of the city, the Hagia Sophia Church was converted into a mosque.

A mosque with the name Hagia Sophia (in Greek Ἁγία Σοφία, "Holy Wisdom") is possible if the church is brought under the control of an Islamic theocracy. It is like having a mosque called "the Armenian Mosque of the Holy Cross".

In the 1930s, the Turkish government made it into a museum. But turning a church into a museum is also not a trait of a truly democratic state. One of the common features of the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey seems to be their intolerance of churches.

In 2013, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister, Bulent Arinc, expressed his hope to see the Hagia Sophia Museum be used as a mosque, and even referred to it as the "Hagia Sophia Mosque."

"Turkey is not converting churches into mosques because there is a need for more mosques, and Turkey does not have the resources to build them," wrote Constantine Tzanos. "The message conveyed by those in Turkey who have achieved the conversion of Christian churches into mosques and demand the conversion of Hagia Sofia is that Turkey is an Islamic state and no other religion is tolerated."

In November 2014, Pope Francis paid the fourth ever visit of a Pope to Turkey. Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Tanju Bilgic told reporters that during the trip, the issue of an "alliance of civilizations, dialogue between cultures, xenophobia, the fight against racism and political developments in the region" would be on the agenda.

The agenda of Pope Francis should actually have included the churches of Turkey that have been destroyed, damaged or converted into many things, including stables — like the historical Armenian Gregoryan Church in the province of Izmir (Smyrna). "Some citizens put their cows and horses inside the church, while the inhabitants of the neighborhood complain that the church has been turned into a site of drug addicts and alcoholics," reported the newspaper Milliyet.

Another victim of Turkey's intolerance of churches, the Agios Theodoros Byzantine Church in Istanbul, was first converted into a mosque during the rule of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II; it was named after Mollah Gurani, the fourth Sheikh-ul-Islam (the authority that governed religious affairs of the Muslims in the Ottoman Empire).

It was reported in March 2014 that the entrance area of the former church-mosque has become a "house," and its upper story turned into a "flat." A shanty has been built inside its garden. The priest's room is now a toilet.

Centuries later, the habits of Ottoman Turks seem not to have changed.

Today, Turkey has less Christians as a percentage of its population than any of its neighbors — less than Syria, Iraq and Iran. The greatest cause of this was the Assyrian, Armenian and Greek slaughters or genocides between 1915 and 1923.

At least 2.5 million indigenous Christians of Asia Minor were killed — either massacred outright, or victims of deportations, slave labor or death marches. Many of them died in concentration camps of diseases or starvation.

Many Greeks who survived the slaughter were driven from their homes in Asia Minor in the 1923 forcible population exchange between Turkey and Greece.

The physical devastation was followed by a cultural devastation. Throughout the history of the Turkish Republic, countless Christian churches and schools have been destroyed or turned into mosques, storehouses and stables, among other things.

The columnist Raffi Bedrosyan reported in the Armenian Weekly that

"There are only 34 churches and 18 schools left in Turkey today, mostly in Istanbul, with about less than 3,000 students in these schools." ... "Recent research pegs the number of Armenian churches in Turkey before 1915 at around 2,300. The number of schools before 1915 is estimated at nearly 700, with 82,000 students. These numbers are only for churches and schools under the jurisdiction of the Istanbul Armenian Patriarchate and the Apostolic Church, and therefore do not include the numerous churches and schools belonging to the Protestant and Catholic Armenian parishes."

Walter Flick, a scholar with the International Society for Human Rights in Germany, says that the Christian minority in Turkey does not enjoy the same rights as the Muslim majority.

"Turkey has almost 80 million inhabitants," he said. "There are only around 120,000 Christians, which is less than 1 percent of the population. Christians are certainly seen as second-class citizens. A real citizen is Muslim, and those who aren't Muslim are seen as suspicious."

According to a 2014 survey, 89% of the Turkish population said that what defines a nation is belonging to a certain religion. Among the 38 countries that participated in the question of if belonging to a specific religion [Islam] is important in defining the concept of a nation, Turkey, with 89% of its population agreeing, ranked number one in the world. [3]

"In some ways, Ankara's policies against Turkey's Christian citizens have added a modern veneer and sophisticated brutality to Ottoman norms and practices," wrote political scientist Dr. Elizabeth H. Prodromou and historian Dr. Alexandros K. Kyrou. "In the words of an anonymous Church hierarch in Turkey fearful for the life of his flock, Christians in Turkey are an endangered species."

On April 4, 1949, the signers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Washington D.C. announced: "The Parties to this Treaty reaffirm their faith in the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and their desire to live in peace with all peoples and all governments. They are determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilisation of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law. They seek to promote stability and well-being in the North Atlantic area. They are resolved to unite their efforts for collective defence and for the preservation of peace and security."

Being part of the European Union and NATO requires respecting the Jewish, Christian, Hellenic and secular humanist values that have characterized Western Civilization, and contributed to civil rights, democracy, philosophy and science, from which everyone can benefit.

Sadly, Turkey, a NATO member since 1952 and reportedly a candidate for membership in the European Union, has largely succeeded in destroying the entire Christian cultural heritage of Asia Minor.

All this is reminiscent of what ISIS and other jihadist armies have been doing in the Middle East. In Turkey, the remaining Christian population, the grandchildren of genocide survivors, are still exposed to discrimination. The old habits of Ottoman Turks do not seem to die.

Uzay Bulut, born a Muslim, is a Turkish journalist based in Ankara.

[1] Runciman, Steven (1965). The Fall of Constantinople, 1453. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[2] Ibid.

[3] In 2014, Professor Ersin Kalaycioglu of Sabanci University and Professor Ali ‎Carkoglu of Koc University conducted a survey, "Nationalism in Turkey and ‎in the world," based on interviews with Turkish citizens ‎above the age of 18 in 64 cities across Turkey. "So according to [Turkish] citizens in the streets, a Turk is the one who is a Muslim," said Prof. Carkoglu.

During Catholic Mass today held at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis confessed that today's Church is a "Church of martyrs" and even referenced several of the attacks on Christians by Muslims — without of course mentioned the latter's religious identity — in recent days. This happened during his commentary on the biblical passage which speaks of the martyrdom of Stephen by stoning in the Book of Acts.

Said Pope Francis:

In these days how many Stephens there are in the world! Let us think of our brothers whose throats were slit on the beach in Libya [by the Islamic State]; let’s think of the young boy who was burnt alive by his [Pakistani Muslim] companions because he was a Christian; let us think of those migrants thrown from their boat into the open sea by other [African Muslim] migrants because they were Christians; let us think – just the day before yesterday – of those Ethiopians assassinated because they were Christians… and of many others. Many others of whom we do not even know and who are suffering in jails because they are Christians… The Church today is a Church of martyrs: they suffer, they give their lives and we receive the blessing of God for their witness.