by Rand Paul
By April 2014, only a few more than a hundred Christians remained in the Old City. Father Frans was one of them. He lived in a small brick monastery. The seventy-five-year-old priest’s face was friendly but war worn. A Dutch-born Jesuit, Father Frans van der Lugt had for thirty-five years ministered to the sick and disabled in the Christian and Muslim communities in Homs.
He insisted to all who would listen that he was neutral, and he tried to bring the Christians and Muslims together, arranging meetings in a farmhouse outside the city. When his own food supply grew short, the priest subsisted on a soup made primarily of grass. He helped smuggle medical supplies into the city, and he bartered food from the rebels for elderly Christians. Father Frans also had a coveted talent. He made alcohol out of grape leaves.2
One day Father Frans heard his housekeeper in conversation and went to the gate to see what the commotion was about. There he saw a soldier, a cloth wrapped around his head cloaking his identity, holding an AK-47 in his hand.
The soldier ordered the priest to come with him.
“Why would I go with you?” Father Frans asked. “I can’t even see your face.”
When Father Frans wouldn’t go willingly, the rebel pulled him through the gateway. Outside the monastery was a plastic chair. Father Frans liked to sit there and watch the children from the area, some of them war orphans, splash in the small plastic pool he filled for them. Now he sat there with a gun pointed at his head, a gun that could very well have been paid for by American tax dollars.
The Syrian rebel didn’t care how many Muslims the priest had helped. He didn’t care that Father Frans was a man of peace. He was Christian, and that was reason enough for him to die.
The soldier pulled the trigger.
A hateful ideology drives this violence against Christians. By definition, it owns no empathy, tolerance, or compassion. It simply seeks to destroy what it opposes, and what it opposes is the Christian faith. Much has been written about the destruction of mosques, but little of the razing of Christian churches. Christians are an endangered species in Syria, just as they are in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia. Make no mistake, the war against Christianity crosses the globe, from Egypt to Nigeria to Zanzibar, and even to our own shores. Yes, the war against Christians has reached America.
Yet, unbelievably, it is a war that the mainstream media ignores. If you want proof of this, look no further than the Boko Haram kidnapping in Nigeria. The two hundred schoolgirls who were taken were mostly Christians, a detail that most recognized news organizations decided wasn’t important enough to report—not even when the terrorists released a video showing the girls dressed in Islamic garb and praying to Allah.3
Last year I had the opportunity to meet a young girl who was kidnapped by Boko Haram. My friend the author Doug Wead, a former special assistant to President George H. W. Bush, together with his wife, Myriam, brought the young woman to my office. Her name is Mercy Paul, a fact that led to some good-natured speculation about our being distantly related.
She told Kelley and me that when Boko Haram came to her school they rounded up all of the girls and put them in trucks. They were told that they were to be “married,” and if they tried to flee or jump from the truck they would be shot. This brave girl decided that not being “married” to one of these thugs was worth risking a bullet, and so she jumped. She hid in the roadside brush, frozen in fear, for hours. Miraculously, she survived. The Weads helped her to come to America and are paying for her to go to school. Everyone in my office that day was moved by the courage of this remarkable young girl, and the hopefulness in her eyes as she talked about going to school here in America. When it came time for Mercy to leave, I told her that I would not forget her story, and that if she ever needed my help all she had to do was call.
Mercy Paul is one of the lucky ones. The leader of Boko Haram warned that he would sell off the two hundred kidnapped Christian schoolgirls as sex slaves. As of this writing, their whereabouts are still unknown. Some of the girls are as young as nine. The Nigerian group has ties to al-Qaeda, and the kidnapping is not the worst of their crimes. Many schools were attacked before the girls were kidnapped, including one where fifty-nine students were murdered while they slept in a dormitory. Boko Haram soldiers snuck in and shot them with machine guns. Over the last four years, thousands of Christians have been murdered in northern Nigeria.4
Around the world, the bodies of martyred Christians pile higher by the day.
In Kenya, motorcycle assailants hurled bombs at a Christian ministry. In Indonesia, three girls were abducted on their way to their Christian school and later beheaded. In Guinea, a Muslim mob attacked and killed ninety-five Christians and injured one hundred and thirty.
In Egypt, eighty-two churches were attacked, with hundreds killed and wounded. In Cameroon, two Christians who converted from Islam were murdered. In Libya—the country we supposedly freed from oppression—Benghazi militias tortured and killed Christians.
Last year in Pakistan, our “ally” to which we continue to send foreign aid, seventy-five Christians were killed and several hundred were injured in a church bombing. Christians in Pakistan are routinely falsely charged with blasphemy, a charge that can bring a sentence of public execution.
Such is the case of Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian who sits on death row. In her memoir, Blasphemy (her husband relayed her words from the tiny jail cell to a French journalist), she tells the story of picking fruit with other women on a blistering hot day. She drew some water from a well that was supposed to be used by Muslims only. A Muslim woman approached her. There was a heated exchange and threats. Fortunately, Bibi was able to leave unharmed.
Five days later, however, as she was again picking fruit in a field, she wasn’t as lucky.
The angry crowd approached her, shouting, “Death! Death to the Christian!”
She pleaded for her life.
They pelted her with stones, punched her in the face, and dragged her through the streets. The local imam finally intervened, but only to say, “If you don’t want to die, you must convert to Islam.”
“I’m not going to convert,” she said. “I believe in my religion and in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the sins of mankind.”
The crowd descended on her again, this time with sticks. Finally, the police stopped the attackers, but then arrested her.
For several years now, Asia Bibi has been on death row for her alleged crime. As of this writing, the Pakistani government has moved her to a jail in a remote part of the country, perhaps in the hope she will quietly die far from public scrutiny.
Most times, the accusation of blasphemy arises out of personal grudges or petty disputes—or as a cover of outright theft of property. Christians have no legal recourse in such matters. They’re sent to jail, lose their homes, and often lose their lives without a single word uttered on their behalf. In the first three centuries A.D., the crime of following Christ’s teachings was punishable by death. Pardons were offered to Christians who renounced their faith and offered sacrifices to the Roman gods. Too many Christians now live in the same ancient fear.
Christian women in particular are targets of radical Islam.
In Sudan, Meriam Yahia Ibrahim, who is married to an American Christian, was sentenced to death for converting from Islam to her husband’s religion. Pregnant, she was released from death row in a woman’s prison only to give birth and nurse her child, which is Sudanese law. Luckily, Meriam was granted asylum, and in August she was allowed to come to the United States.
In Saudi Arabia, one of the most intolerant and oppressive countries in the world when it comes to treatment of Christians, thirty-five Ethiopian Christians were jailed for eight months simply for holding a service in a private home. Most of them were women who were subjected to invasive strip searches.5
It breaks my heart to hear the stories of this persecution. Protecting Christians should be a priority of the next administration. It would be for mine. We need a president who will
ensure that our country, our policies, and our tax dollars are on the side of ending this violence.
In January 2014, Open Doors, a nonprofit Christian organization, released its world rankings of the most oppressive countries for Christians. Nine of the top ten are Muslim-majority states. The tenth is North Korea. According to Open Doors, there are more than a hundred million oppressed Christians in the world today.6
Maybe the worst of all radical Islam groups is ISIS, which carries out the systematic beheading of Christians, including women and children.7 When ISIS overran Mosul, in northern Iraq, they went from Christian home and business to Christian home and business and marked each with the letter N, which stood for Nazarene, Arabic for Christian. The mark came with the warning to convert or be killed. Most of the Christians fled. Then, last February, in maybe their most heinous display of barbarity, ISIS videotaped the beheading of at least thirteen Coptic Christians in Libya and then streamed it to the world.
We cannot turn a blind eye to the plight of our Christian brothers and sisters around the world anymore. We can begin by putting a stop to foreign policies that put innocent Christians at risk. Any country that fosters the war on Christianity or, for that matter, any country that allows an unchecked hatred for the United States should be excluded from receiving foreign aid. They get not one penny. Period.
At the start of the Iraq War, Christians in Iraq numbered around 1.5 million. Estimates today have that number at fewer than 450,000. As recently as 2010, the Islamic State in Iraq specifically targeted Christians. A mission statement posted on their website read: “all Christian centres, organizations and institutions, leaders and followers, are legitimate targets for the muhajedeen [holy warriors] wherever they can reach them.”
Since we deposed of Saddam Hussein, leadership in Iraq has been a revolving door, but the persecution of Christians has remained a constant. Still, we continue to give billions of dollars and military support to a government that allows the purge of Christians.
Just months before the final withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, members of the Afghanistan parliament called for the extermination of any Afghans who converted to Christianity—a provision for executing Christian converts is in the country’s constitution.8 We have spent over $100 billion rebuilding the Afghan infrastructure. If their government insists on laws that unjustly jail and persecute Christians, then they can rebuild their own country!
Egyptians climbed to the roof of our embassy in Cairo and burned the American flag on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. According to a Pew poll taken in early 2013, just 16 percent of Egyptians had a favorable view of America.9 Yet we send Egypt $1.55 billion in aid every year.10 Although the Muslim Brotherhood was forced from power, new elections are unlikely. The Egyptians have traded one despot for another. Coptic Egyptians are still persecuted and live under the threat of Islamic fundamentalists. Copts have been in Egypt since St. Mark the Evangelist wrote his gospels. Before the Arab Spring, Christianity flourished in small outposts, like those of the Coptic Christians in Egypt. I had hoped that the Arab Spring would bring freedom to long-oppressed people throughout the Middle East, but I fear the Arab Spring is becoming an Arab winter—especially for Christians in the Middle East.
Until the persecution of Christians stops, these countries should not get one penny from us.
I know withholding aid will work. I have already used the tactic when Americans were detained in Egypt for running democratic organizations. At the time, Hillary Clinton was the secretary of state and had repeatedly ignored the abuses of countries receiving our aid and certified them as “democratic.” Even as they arrested the sixteen American democracy workers, including the Transportation Secretary’s son, Egypt received certification from Mrs. Clinton.
When asked why, Mrs. Clinton responded that Egypt was democratic and still warranted our endless foreign aid.
Likewise, when the Muslim Brotherhood took over in Egypt, Mrs. Clinton continued to certify them as worthy of our aid. Even when the generals prevailed in a military coup, Mrs. Clinton continued to certify Egypt as behaving in a democratic way worthy of American tax dollars.
Only when I brought a bill to the floor that sought to end ALL foreign aid to Egypt—economic aid, military aid, all aid—in thirty days unless our citizens were set free did Egypt finally back down and release the Americans. The threat alone was enough. Imagine how compliant they would be if we shut off the money completely?
Even if Christians weren’t being subjected to persecution in these countries, we simply don’t have the money to engage in this foolishness. We borrow the money that we send to Pakistan from China. The countries we send money to are not our true allies, and no amount of money will make them so. They are certainly not allies of Israel, and I fear that one day the money and military arms we have paid for will be used against Israel.
In fact, the leader of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Riyadh Al-Shaqfa, has already declared his intention to take back the Golan Heights. “It is our right. Are we supposed to acquiesce to the occupation of our land?” he said on Dubai television. If and when he tries, his forces might be carrying American weapons.
I have spoken at conferences and gatherings of pastors and Christians for over a year now on the topic of Christian persecution, trying to get pastors across the country to rally to this cause. We might not be able to force what’s left of the Obama administration to change its stripes and stop hiding the inconvenient fact that there is a war on Christians, and, frankly, it will be an uphill battle to get the mainstream media to stop calling the violence “sectarian.”
We can start by raising our own voices in protest. As Christians, we understand that the rights to life and freedom of religion exist prior to all government. These rights are not granted to people by other people, these rights are granted to us by our Creator. We need to shout this from the rooftops. We can’t let one more innocent person die in silence.
I am certainly not talking about a crusade here. I am not in favor of fighting a conventional war against radical Islam, as some of my colleagues seem to be. It has been proven that massive military deployment does more harm than good in the fight against terror. It would certainly be the same in the war against Christian persecution. Millions of radical Muslims are spread out across the globe. The Iraq War only fostered more Islamic extremism. The same is true after a decade in Afghanistan. Conventional war will continue to prove ineffective and too costly against an unconventional enemy that numbers in the tens of millions. According to a recent Pew Research poll, 21 percent of Egyptians, 13 percent of Pakistani Muslims, and 15 percent of Jordanians find terrorism acceptable if not laudable. Some of these people are supposed to be our friends.
As Christians we should prepare for war but actively seek peace. Ronald Reagan said we should strive for peace through strength, and I agree.
But we should not be naïve about our enemy’s motives.
Two days after the attack on the World Trade Center, Frank Silecchia, a tough Brooklyn construction worker with a Fu Manchu mustache, was assisting firefighters in a search for survivors in the wreckage. No one who remained in what was left of the buildings, however, had survived. In the smoldering pit littered with the giant broken shards that was once World Trade Center 6, Frank came upon what he considered a miracle. Overcome with emotion, Frank dropped to his knees. Not too far from Frank, Father Brian Jordan stood in the rubble, consecrating remains.
“Come, Father,” Frank yelled. “You have to see this.”
It took a few moments for Father Brian to see what Frank saw. In the middle of what looked like a grotto made of jagged chunks of cement and wire mesh stood a seventeen-foot-tall cross made of the steel beams. While the fires that smoldered for months at Ground Zero burned, the cross became a sanctum where firefighters, steelworkers, and volunteers brought their battered faith and found solace.
Father Brian blessed it on October 4, 2001.
You can believe that what came to be ca
lled the World Trade Center cross was a sign from God or not—I’d like to think that it was. Yes, you can believe, and certainly won’t be alone in your belief, that the attack on the World Trade Center had nothing to do with Christianity. You can also believe the bombing of the Boston Marathon had nothing to do with Christianity. If you do, you have to discount the reports that the radical Islamist preacher Feiz Mohammad, who urges young Muslims to kill infidels, was an influence on Tamerlan Tsarnaev. You must also discount the ideological hate that propelled the hijackers into our buildings.
The message of the gospels is not war, but the God I believe in does not condone the persecution of the defenseless. The country I would lead would not either.
Finally, there is something else that can put a stop to the war on Christianity, something over which we have little direct control.
Most Muslims today describe Islam as a peaceful and tolerant religion, and it certainly once prized inquiry over contempt, education over exclusion, and the scientific method over fanaticism. At one time, Arab countries were the cultural and intellectual centers of the world. Islam once carried the light of learning. Math and science flourished in its glow.
The great medieval physician Rhazes identified smallpox and measles. For centuries, his writings were essential medical texts in European universities. In 1025, the physician and philosopher Ibn Sı¯na¯—Avicenna—produced The Canon of Medicine, still one of the most famous medical encyclopedias ever written.11 As a physician, I know about Islam’s early advances in medicine. The Muslim world then understood better than any other culture how disease spreads and how it can be healed, and the medical arena was only part of the faith’s contribution to civilization.
The Persian poet and mathematician Omar Khayyám is one of the fathers of modern algebra. He devised a calendar that is more accurate than the Gregorian. He is probably best remembered, however, as the author of The Rubáiyát.12 When translated, his poem became one of the most popular in the English language: