September 11th, 2012 - Multifaceted Attack on U.S. Embassies

In commemoration of September 11^th, Islamic rioters have stormed American embassies in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Tunisia, killing several people, burning American flags and hoisting the Islamic flag.

Religion and ideology are the soul of a country because it informs a country’s values and beliefs.  In the United States, for example, the concepts of “mercy”, “forgiveness”, “acceptance”, “freedom”, etc, come directly from the Judeo-Christian ethic.  Even though many want to drive religion out of both public and private life, it is a simple fact of history that values don’t just come out thin air.  “Mercy”, “forgiveness”, “acceptance”, and “freedom”, don’t just exist because all humans believe in them.  They exist because of values that have been passed down through cultural history—in this instance, specifically Judeo-Christian history.  These four values come directly from the Christian belief in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, which means, for those who believe, “mercy”, “forgiveness”, “acceptance”, and “freedom”.  Jesus said that the greatest command was to love God above all else, and love neighbor as much as self.  The rest of the New Testament speaks frequently on the new-found freedom that believers have in Christ, and on the need to love and accept others regardless of race, language, or gender.

These values mean very little throughout the Islamic world.  In their place are cultural values like “honor”, “unquestioned submission”, and “loyalty to tribe”.  These values are directly informed by Islamic doctrine, especially Arab culture and the Qur’an. 

Whereas in the West we are appalled when someone is beheaded simply for converting to a different religion, in much of the Islamic world this is an accepted cultural custom.  When a father kills his daughter for dating a non-Muslim, or wearing a skirt, we are appalled.  However, this is widely accepted in the Middle East and in Islamic parts of the world (Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan).

The secular world seems to foolishly think that we can simply impose our values on countries that do not share our values at all.  They completely forget where our values came from in the first place and why our society continues to function while upholding them.

We have now supported, funded, and in some cases, even fought for, the overthrow of the semi-secular governments in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Yemen.  What was the result?  One evil was replaced with an even greater evil.  Islam, unhindered by Mubarak, Ben Ali, and Qaddafi, was allowed to become supremely dominant through mob rule.  Islamist governments have risen to power, killing anything that stands in their way.  Christians and secularists have been literally crucified in front of the Presidential Palace in Egypt, as just a small example.  Churches have been burned to the ground and Christians are fleeing all over the Middle East.

On September 11^th, 2001, this Islamist problem was confined to the backwoods of Afghanistan and a few cells scattered throughout Egypt and Saudi Arabia, but now, thanks to our government and her allies, the Islamist problem extends from northwest Africa all the way to central Asia.  Even the Kemalists in Turkey, the one example of secular Islam in history, have been done away with by the now firmly implanted Islamist government of Tayyip Erdogan.

Also disturbing is this constant refrain about “Moderate Islam”.  Yes, “moderate Muslims” certainly do exist, but they are the ones who do not take the Qur’an literally.  If a Christian takes the Bible literally, he is commanded to “turn the other cheek”, love his neighbor as much as himself, care for the poor and needy, and lay down his life in defense of others.  If a Muslim takes the Qur’an literally, he is commanded to “smite off the heads of the infidels”, behead apostates, reject Judeo-Christian history and beliefs as a “corruption” of reality, and, if feeling merciful, impose a tax on unbelievers if you don’t wish to behead them.

Survey after survey in the Middle East has shown that support for Islamic-dominance, terrorism, Shariah law, suicide bombings, and specifically targeting civilians has WIDESPREAD support.  Even in “secular” Turkey, support is upwards of one-third the entire population.  In Jordan and Lebanon it is well over half.  In Egypt, after the overthrow of Mubarak, over a million Egyptians gathered in Tahrir Square, and led by a previously-exiled Imam, chanted that they would next march to Jerusalem and “kill every Jew”.

I continuously hear fellow Christians speak of “tolerance” and “acceptance”, yet their appeal often has an interesting way of diluting the Truth of the Gospel (that Christ is the Only Way) and the need to confidently and boldly proclaim God’s Word.  It is a redundant argument that says “Christ hung out with sinners”, but forgets that He always called them to repentance and out of sin—and never sinned with them.  It forgets that Jesus declared, frequently, that on a future day He would separate the sheep from the goats.  It forgets that Jesus is soon returning—this time with a rod of iron, a white horse that will make Bucephalus look like Bambi, and a sword dripped in blood, with which He will conquer sin.

Amazingly, the weak-willed/lukewarm Christian problem is the same problem that preceded World War II.  Many Christians said of the Nazis that we just need to “understand” and “accept” them.  Many Christian countries took this to the extreme point of placating them with money and land—thinking that when Jesus said, “turn the other cheek”, He meant that they should refrain from speaking truth and confronting sin.  The result was a continent in ruins, and tens of millions dead.

Can we honestly not see the same problem today?  Consider Iran.  Week after week their leadership declares that they will completely wipe Israel “off the map” (an interesting allusion to Psalm 83:4?).  The IAEA has also just found “smoking guns”, including intelligence which shows Iran is literally calculating the explosive force of their nuclear bombs.  Yet, despite this, we choose to stick our heads in the sand and believe them when they say that their nuke program is just for “peaceful purposes”.

Wake up Christians.  Please.  Before it’s too late.  Hold firm to the Truth.  And speak up too.

 

Psalm 83.

O God, do not remain silent;
do not turn a deaf ear,
do not stand aloof, O God.
² See how your enemies growl,
how your foes rear their heads.
³ With cunning they conspire against your people;
they plot against those you cherish.
⁴ “Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation,
so that Israel’s name is remembered no more.”

⁵ With one mind they plot together;
they form an alliance against you—
⁶ the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
of Moab and the Hagrites,
⁷ Byblos, Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia, with the people of Tyre.
⁸ Even Assyria has joined them
to reinforce Lot’s descendants.^[b]

⁹ Do to them as you did to Midian,
as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon,
¹⁰ who perished at Endor
and became like dung on the ground.
¹¹ Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,
all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
¹² who said, “Let us take possession
of the pasturelands of God.”

¹³ Make them like tumbleweed, my God,
like chaff before the wind.
¹⁴ As fire consumes the forest
or a flame sets the mountains ablaze,
¹⁵ so pursue them with your tempest
and terrify them with your storm.
¹⁶ Cover their faces with shame, Lord,
so that they will seek your name.

¹⁷ May they ever be ashamed and dismayed;
may they perish in disgrace.
¹⁸ Let them know that you, whose name is the Lord—
that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.

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