A Baptist ethicist accused Newsweek magazine of feeding fear with a cover story headlined “The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World.”
“The narrative of a global war on Christians is a cousin of the myth about a war on Christmas and the myth of a drip of persecution of Christians in America,” Robert Parham, executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics wrote in a Feb. 13 article on EthicsDaily.com.
“For whatever reason, some U.S. Christians need to think and feel that they are persecuted,” Parham said. “Maybe it makes them believe they are more akin to figures of faith in the Bible.”
The Newsweek article was written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somalian-born former member of the Dutch parliament who now works for the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute. Ali said media portrayals of Muslims as victims of abuse in the West and combatants against tyranny in Arab Spring overlook a “rising genocide” of Christians in the Muslim world who are being murdered because of their faith.
Persona 
Dear Sir,
I have no idea what dictionary are you using to define words, but I doubt anybody who speaks decent English and thinks straight could describe Parham’s attitude as ‘cynical. Unless they have no scruples. Or are blinded by ideology.
What Parham (and myself) are denying is that there is an intentional global plan made by the Muslim world for the destruction of Christianity.
This obsession of the ‘global war on Christians’ is obsessive and paranoiac in nature.
We are not denying the persecutions of Christians and other religious minorities in the world. I have written and I will continue to write about it on my blog. Even today.
But to allow irrational fear and hate to inform our attitudes towards Muslims has nothing to do with the Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount.
If you want to spread that, of course, it is your right, as long as you are using legal means. Bu, please,t don’t pretend you are a Christian when you do it. That would takes us for fools.
And, finally, if we are to talk about legitimacy, I can show you my scars from 35 years of opposing the communist regime in Romania and fighting against the persecution of Christians.
What are your credentials, please? Or you were talking self-critically when you mentioned in a ridiculously disparaging manner the ‘ego-centric armchair intellectualoid’?
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Mr Parham has taken cynicism to new levels when he attempts to discount the sufferings of Christians the world over–usually at the hands of Muslims.
To be sure, not all victims of persecution are Christian, but in overwhelming numbers, Christians are at the receiving end of religious hatred–and usually at the hands of Muslims. What’s happening in Nigeria and Egypt is merely the tip of the iceberg.
Nor can this global war on Christians be equated with Bush’s war on terror for, indeed, Christians do not possess tanks and aircraft with which to strike back.
And, Ayaan Hirsi Ali (who had to leave Holland because of her views)–who was compelled to walk the Muslim walk against her will–is better qualified to talk the persecution talk than any ego-centric armchair intellectualoid.
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I fully agree and my blog is a proof of that.
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I made quite a few mistakes in my paragraphe above, but what I wanted to say is that while I think the use of therms such as Global War on Christians is not appropriate, the reality seem to prove that Christians are persecuted today around the world.
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There is no need for an outside enemy when Christians are doing such a good job fighting each other
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I agree with you, Maria. That is why we, Christians, need to stay suspicious about this use of politics in the sphere of religion.
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I agree, Vali, and I do not deny that. What I deny is that there is a global Islamic war on Christians.
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I know his position. Although I read with interest what he writes, he is onviously a typical neocon, promoting an aggressive stance towards everything that does not fit that ideology.
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Dear Danut,
Please see Dragos Aligica article on this subject. I think that his opinion is more close to Newsweek article.
http://www.hotnews.ro/stiri-opinii-6802644-persecutia-crestinilor-realitati-intrebari.htm
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I don’t think that a radical reaction is the answer to this article I am not impresse with at all. Informations given by seious and honest organizations have prouved that Chairstianity is the most persecuted religion in the warld today. Nevertheless I do not agree with terms such as Global War, etc. It remind me too much the words used by former president Buch delcarin War on terror. Can one do that? He acctually spread it and kept the people in a sort of panic in the US to agree with the invasion in Irak. I do not agree though that what the Islamists are doing transcends religion, they do it because of their religion. I am think on the other hand that politics are using religion for their purposes.
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Still, Danut, one needs to recognise that there are many more churches attacked by Muslims than mosques attacked be Christians in our times. Even on your blog you posted many articles on this respect. A global war against Christians does not exist, but a local war in some parts of the muslim world seem to exist (at least from time to time).
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I could not agree more with Robert Parham. This psychotic fear is rooted in the Islamophobic paranoia manifested and promoted, often for the most debased political reasons, by Christian fundamentalists, particularly in the United States of America.
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