Arab Christian Victims of Islamophobia

Well it seems that a gang of aspiring rocket scientists vandalized an Arab (Assyrian) Christian church in Detroit thinking it was a mosque. In spite of the fact that there were a "number of crosses adorning the building," the words "1 God Jesus" and a cross were painted on a wall by the vandals...so obviously these Neanderthals thought they were defacing a non-Christian institution. If they had only managed to kill themselves in the process, this would have been a incident worthy of submission to the Darwin Awards...but alas.

Based on the stupefying level of ignorance prevalent in your typical Islamophobe, I don't find this hate-mongering misadventure surprising in the least. Disgusting? Yes. Surprising? No. Keeping in mind that after the 9/11 attacks a number of Sikhs in America were mistaken for Muslims and violently attacked (and even killed in at least one case), only makes this ugly incident in Detroit easier to believe. For those wanting to know more, articles detailing this hate crime can be found here and here.

For my non-Muslims readers who don't know, please let me explain: Not all Arabs are Muslims and not all Muslims are Arabs...and vandalizing places of worship is wrong regardless of who we're talking about. Thus please realize that the word Arab identifies someone as a member of an ethno-linguistic group, not religion or ideology. While it is true that most Arabs—roughly 90%—are Muslims, about 5%-10% (depending on which statistics you believe) of Arabs are Christians. Additionally, there are also Arabs who are Jews, atheists and adherents of every other religion and ideology under the sun. This is easy enough to comprehend once one realizes that being an Arab is an ethno-linguistic, not religious, classification.

Also, in spite of anti-Islamic propaganda to the contrary, when Islam spread, Muslims didn't offer people the choice of converting or being put to the sword. If this were true, there would have been no Christians or Jews left in the Middle East, but—believe it or not—there are substantial Arab Christian minorities living in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine and Egypt...and there are even Arab Jews in Morocco and Yemen...after over fourteen centuries of Muslim rule. And it's worth noting that this is a much better record than pre-Enlightenment Christianity had in regards to dealing with adherents of other religions, and the fact that the actions of some Arab Christians in the modern Middle East have sometimes been less than stellar as well.

For those wanting to know more about the Christian Arabs of the Middle East, I suggest reading The Arab Christian: A History in the Middle East, by Rev. Kenneth Cragg, From the Holy Mountain: A Journey among the Christians of the Middle East, by William Dalrymple, Who Are the Christians in the Middle East?, by Betty Jane Bailey and J. Martin Bailey, and (now out-of-print) The Forgotten Faithful, by Said K. Aburish. Although these books tend to be rather one-sided, they do offer detailed and interesting information about Arab Christians and their current plight in the contemporary Middle East. While you're at it, you also might want to take a look at Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People, by Jack G. Shaheen, and "Evil" Arabs in American Popular Film, which document how Arabs have been demonized by Hollywood to a degree that would make Joseph Goebbels proud.

That having been said, we need to also address the "All Muslims are Arabs" myth, which is a very common misunderstanding. Generally, the fastest way to expose this myth as completely false is to put forward the fact that only about 15% to 20% of the Muslims in the world are Arabs. Indeed, there are more Muslims in India than there are Arab Muslims, and yet still more Indonesian Muslims than Indian Muslims! Believing that Islam is only a religion for Arabs is a fallacy that was spread by the enemies of Islam early in its history. This mistaken assumption is possibly based on the fact that most of the first generation of Muslims were Arabs, the Qur'an was revealed in Arabic and the Prophet Muhammad—salla Allahu 'alayhi wa salam—was an Arab. However, both the teachings of Islam and the history of its spread show that the early Muslims made every effort to spread their message of Abrahamic monotheism to all nations, races and peoples. Yes, from the very beginning, followers of the Prophet Muhammad—salla Allahu 'alayhi wa salam—came from a wide spectrum of individuals. There was Bilal, the African slave; Suhaib, the Byzantine Roman; Ibn Salam, the former Jewish Rabbi; and Salman, the Persian—which is a rather diverse group of followers even by today's standards.

Also, since children of Adam are one universal brotherhood, Islam teaches that Almighty God's final revelation is meant for all people regardless of race, nationality or linguistic background. Taking a look at the Muslim World—from Nigeria to Bosnia and from Malaysia to Turkey—should be enough to prove that Islam is a universal faith—as well as the fact that significant numbers of Europeans and Americans of all races and ethnic backgrounds continue to embrace Islam.

Anyway...back to the misguided attack on the Arab Christian church in Detroit...which seems to have been carried out by Christians who made a spray-painted effort to teach the Arab congregation that there's "1 God Jesus"...well if I was morally deficient enough to adopt the twisted methodology of Islamophobic propagandists like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, at this point I would start asking questions like: "What's wrong with Christianity?" and "Why aren't Christian leaders condemning this?"...and then ignore it when they do.

Since we're on the subject of Islamophobia and its oft accompanying double-standards, I suggest taking a look at the humorous (and very sarcastic) Call that humiliation?, by Terry Jones, which appeared in The Guardian Unlimited on Saturday.

Deen on...