‘Western Christianity in denial about radical Islam’
First Eastern Christianity was destroyed. Now it’s Europe’s turn, according to an Italian author.
By BENJAMIN GLATTAn Iraqi Christian soldier guards the church of Saint Barbara after it was recaptured from Islamic State, near Mosul(photo credit: AHMED JADALLAH / REUTERS)
The West is still in denial about radical Islam’s goal to eradicate Christianity, according to an Italian journalist and author.Once radical Islam gains a foothold in Europe, there is nothing suggesting that it can't easily dismantle Western Christianity, just as it did Christianity in the Middle East, wrote Giulio Meotti, cultural editor for Il Foglio, in a Gatestone Institute article this week.“If Eastern Christianity can be extinguished so easily, Western Europe will be next,” he wrote.“While natural disasters such as tsunamis or earthquakes spur solidarity throughout the West, the disappearance of entire Christian populations and their ancient civilizations never seems to disturb anyone,” Meotti said in the essay titled “Europe: Destroyed by the West’s Indifference?” “Perhaps it is a sign of denial by the West.”Meotti struck a similar tone to a piece written by CAMERA Christian media analyst Dexter Van Zile, who said that the reason many churches take to blaming Israel is because the Jewish state is a safe target, while offending a jihadist would offer a different result.“Our media and intelligentsia are always on the alert to defend everything coming from Islam, whether women’s veils or the ‘right not to be offended’ by cartoons,” Meotti wrote. “The same establishment, however, lies in a coma when Christian symbols come under attack.”Meotti recalled that when in 2015 the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters liberated Sinjar and rescued tens of thousands of Yazidis and Christians, an unidentified soldier – on Easter Sunday – had erected a cross in the area where a church had once stood.“It was a declaration of the resurrection of life after the onslaught of the Islamic State,” he said. “This cross was like the flag raised in Iwo Jima.”But, the Italian said, not one Western newspaper published the photograph. “Our general unwillingness to address any threat indicates a Western impotence in the face of barbarism,” he said. The Media Research Center found that US television devoted more than six times the amount of air time to the death of a gorilla in comparison to the air time given to the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya in 2015.“How is it possible that the killing of a gorilla moves the Western public more than 19 Yazidi girls burned alive in a cage?” he said. “Few people saw the photograph of Khaled al-Asaad, the brave archaeologist who refused to lead ISIS to the antiquities of Palmyra. The henchmen of ISIS beheaded him and hung him upside down. We turned away in horror.”The Unity Coalition for Israel, which monitors attacks against Western democracy and the State of Israel, echoed Meotti’s statements following the New York terrorist attack this month.“Let’s be clear: radical Islamic terrorists have been launching attacks here in the United States for years, with the deadliest occurring on September 11, 2001,” the group’s Democracy Under Attack editorial said. “These attacks are not going to stop unless we first admit that we have been and are under attack and – finally – take strong steps to prevent further attacks.”
