Multiculturalism: Islamic Style

“Schoolchildren banned from singing Silent Night over fears it will offend other religions.” So reads a headline in the Express. Instead of singing the lyrics which might “offend other religions,” schoolchildren in Bresciano, Italy were told to hum the tune.

If you have trouble guessing what other religion might take offense, it probably means that you’ve spent the last eight years in the Galapagos Islands studying the evolution of finches. Either that, or you work for the State Department. Those who have been paying attention know that the religion in question is Islam. The new rule, to paraphrase Robert Spencer, is “When in Muslim countries, do as the Muslims do, and when in non-Muslim countries, do as the Muslims do.”

Thus, in one Italian town, “Silent Night” can’t be sung, and in another, a priest has cancelled a traditional Nativity scene at the local cemetery out of respect for Muslim graves. Meanwhile, in Sweden, the traditional St. Lucy’s Day celebration has been cancelled by several towns and cities so as not to offend other religions. In response, Sweden’s Muslim community has decided to cancel all festivities connected to the celebration of Eid al-Fitr, out of respect for Christians.

I made up that last sentence, of course; Muslims don’t seem to worry overmuch about offending other religions or, for that matter, about offending secular sentiments. As is increasingly apparent, multiculturalism is a one-way street. Christians are expected to make concessions and yield up cultural territory while secularists (on the one hand) and Islamists (on the other) use multiculturalism as an excuse to engage in cultural land grabs.

In reality, multiculturalism is a one-way street to a monoculture. Secularists do not wish for a society with a rich diversity of thought and belief. What they are working toward—as can be seen most clearly on college campuses—is a complete uniformity of thought. To the extent that secularists are interested in other cultures, they are interested in using them to undermine the Judeo-Christian, Greco-Roman inheritance. Muslims also desire a monoculture—although a decidedly non-secular one. However, they are quite willing to take advantage of multicultural orthodoxy in order to advance their own agenda.

Islamists are willing to play the multicultural game, but occasionally their condescending attitude towards other cultures peeps through the veil of taqiyya. Consider this from Islam Question and Answer:

It is not permissible for a Muslim to eat things that the Jews and Christians make on their festivals or what they give him as a gift on their festivals, because that is cooperating with them and joining in with them in this evil…

The authors of Islam Question and Answer are not worried about offending other religions, and neither is popular Indian Islamic preacher Dr. Zakir Abdul Karim Naik. On December 24, he wrote the following on his Twitter account:

Wishing “Merry Christmas” to Christians is Worst Evil, worse than fornication or murder… Please avoid it my dear Muslim brothers and sisters… It’s a big sin…

In the West, Muslims are willing to make a nod toward the Western celebration of diversity. But in Muslim majority nations it’s a different story. To the extent that other faiths are tolerated, they are tolerated only insofar as they accept dhimmi status. The second-class status of Christians was originally set down circa 640 A.D. in the Conditions of Omar. Among other things, the rules stipulated that Christians:

were not to build or repair churches
were not to clang cymbals or bells, or display crosses on churches
were not to raise their voices during prayer or readings or songs in churches anywhere near Muslims
were not to make their religion appealing, nor attempt to proselytize.
must adopt a humble demeanor, and yield their seats to Muslims

The Conditions of Omar largely fell into disuse in the last century, but as Islam scholar Raymond Ibrahim points out, they are being revived:

These debilitations and humiliations which were inflicted upon the Christians of the Islamic world in the past are at this moment being inflicted upon the Christians of the Islamic world in the present, as a natural consequence of Muslims returning to the authentic teaching of Islam. Those teachings … are fundamentally hostile to non-Muslims and their religious worship.

Indeed, it is now possible to speak of a genocide against Christians in the Middle East. Much of this is the work of ISIS and other terrorist groups, but these organizations are themselves a reflection of a widespread animosity toward Christians. According to Fr. Benedict Kiely, founder of Nasarean.org:

…this isn’t just ISIS … it’s Islamic fundamentalism—extremism—attacking Christians. They just don’t want Christians around even in relatively peaceful places like Dubai… They don’t really want Christians around.

This extremist attitude was building long before ISIS came into existence. And as a result, the Christian population of the Middle East has dropped precipitously since the mid-twentieth century. For example, in 1950 the Christian population of Palestine was 15 percent; today it is 1.3 percent. The population of Bethlehem in the 1950s was 86 percent Christian; today it is 12 percent.

European Christians and secularists who think that opening their borders to millions of sharia-shaped migrants is going to result in increased diversity ought to take a lesson from the experience of Christians in the Middle East. If Muslim colonization of the West follows suit, it’s not just Christmas songs and celebrations that will be endangered, but Christianity itself.

The multicultural vision of a harmonious melding of different cultures and traditions is based on the shallow assumption that underneath the “superficial” differences, all cultures subscribe to the same decent and humane values that are taken for granted in the West. It is increasingly apparent, however, that this is a dangerous assumption to make. Groups such as ISIS and Boko Haram consider sex slavery and beheadings to be legitimate expressions of their faith and culture. And many of the refugees pouring into Europe carry that mindset with them. As their number increases, we can expect an increase in attacks on infidels—more sexual assaults on unveiled women, more attacks on churches and synagogues, and more targeting of shoppers at malls and Christmas markets. The road to the multicultural promised land is already paved with many skulls.

The Italian schoolchildren who were not allowed to sing the lyrics of Silent Night were participants in a “Winter Recital.” Formerly it was called a “Christmas Concert.” All over the U.S. and Europe, similar name changes have been offered up to the god of multicultural diversity. For instance, in Belgian school calendars, Easter Vacation is now Spring Vacation, Christmas Vacation is Winter Vacation, Lenten Vacation is Rest and Relaxation Leave, and All Saints’ Day is now referred to as Autumn Leave.

Autumn Leave? How does the song go? Oh, yes—“The falling leaves drift by the window/The autumn leaves of red and gold.” The leaves of appeasement have been drifting by our window for some time now. The thing about autumn leaves, however, is that they turn rather quickly from red and gold to a uniform dull brown. The kind of concessions that the Belgian schools, along with the Italian schools, and the Swedish communities are making are not harbingers of a bright, multicolored future, but of a grey monochrome one.

Editor’s note: Pictured above is a scene from the day after a bombing during Mass at St. Mark’s Coptic Cathedral in Alexandria, Egypt on December 10, 2016. (Photo credit: CNS photo / Amr Abdallah Dalsh, Reuters)

The conditions of Omar:
The Points:

The ruler would provide security for the Christian believers who follow the rules of the pact.
Prohibition against building new churches, places of worship, monasteries, monks or a new cell. Hence it was also forbidden to build new synagogues, although it is known that new synagogues were built after the occupation of the Islam, for example in Jerusalem and Ramle. The law that prohibits to build new synagogues was not new for the Jews, it was applied also during the Byzantines. It was new for the Christians.
Prohibition against rebuilding destroyed churches, by day or night, in their own neighborhoods or those situated in the quarters of the Muslims.
Prohibition against hanging a cross on the Churches.
Muslims should be allowed to enter Churches (for shelter) in any time, both in day and night.
Obliging the call of prayer by a bell or a kind of Gong (Nakos) to be low in volume.
Prohibition of Christians and Jews against raising their voices at prayer times.
Prohibition against teaching non-Muslim children the Qur’an.
Christians were forbidden to show their religion in public, or to be seen with Christian books or symbols in public, on the roads or in the markets of the Muslims.
Palm Sunday and Easter parades were banned.
Funerals should be conducted quietly.
Prohibition against burying non-Muslim dead near Muslims.
Prohibition against raising a pig next to a Muslims neighbor.
Christian were forbidden to sell Muslims alcoholic beverage.
Christians were forbidden to provide cover or shelter for spies.
Prohibition against telling a lie about Muslims.
Obligation to show deference toward Muslims. If a Muslim wishes to sit, non-Muslim should be rise from his seats and let the Muslim sit.
Prohibition against preaching Muslim to conversion out of Islam.
Prohibition against preventing the conversion to Islam of some one who wants to convert.
The appearance of the non-Muslims has to be different from those of the Muslims: Prohibition against wearing Qalansuwa (kind of dome that was used to wear by Bedouin), Bedouin turban (Amamh), Muslims shoes, and Sash to their waists. As to their heads, it was forbidden to comb the hair sidewise as the Muslim custom, and they were forced to cut the hair in the front of the head. Also non-Muslim shall not imitate the Arab-Muslim way of speech nor shall adopt the kunyas (Arabic byname, such as “abu Khattib”).
Obligation to identify non-Muslims as such by clipping the heads’ forelocks and by always dressing in the same manner, wherever they go, with binding the zunar (a kind of belt) around the waists. Christians to wear blue belts or turbans, Jews to wear yellow belts or turbans, Zoroastrians to wear black belts or turbans, and Samaritans to wear red belts or turbans.
Prohibition against riding animals in the Muslim custom, and prohibition against riding with a saddle.
Prohibition against adopting a Muslim title of honor.
Prohibition against engraving Arabic inscriptions on signet seals.
Prohibition against any possession of weapons.
Prohibition against teaching children the Koran.
Non-Muslims must host a Muslim passerby for at least 3 days and feed him.
Non-Muslims prohibited from buying a Muslim prisoner.
Prohibition against taking slaves who have been allotted to Muslims.
Prohibition against non-Muslims to lead, govern or employ Muslims.
If a non-Muslim beats a Muslim, his Dhimmi is removed.
The worship places of non-Muslims must be lower in elevation than the lowest mosque in town.
The houses of non-Muslims must not be taller in elevation than the houses of Muslims.
Houses of the non-Muslims must be short so that each time that they would enter or exit their houses they would have to bend, in a way that it would remind them of their low status in the world.

If they can yell Allah Akbar when going ape shiite in public, then children can sing Christmas Carols in their own churches.

Exactly the problem with why Christianity is dying and islam is not.

If they can yell Allah Akbar when going ape shiite in public, then children can sing Christmas Carols in ~~their own churches~~ public, too.

Don't keep hiding it in churches!

Jesus told us to GO and preach the gospel, not hide in our little enclaves patting each other on the back and getting all kumbyah while the world outside is going to hell. Literally.

It's past time for Christian men and women to stand up and act like the children of God they are.

We're not going to see things change unless WE do it.

Song from Matt West

Do Something

I woke up this morning
Saw a world full of trouble now
Thought, how’d we ever get so far down
How’s it ever gonna turn around
So I turned my eyes to Heaven
I thought, “God, why don’t You do something?”
Well, I just couldn’t bear the thought of
People living in poverty
Children sold into slavery
The thought disgusted me
So, I shook my fist at Heaven
Said, “God, why don’t You do something?”
He said, “I did, I created you”

If not us, then who
If not me and you
Right now, it’s time for us to do something
If not now, then when
Will we see an end
To all this pain
It’s not enough to do nothing
It’s time for us to do something

I’m so tired of talking
About how we are God’s hands and feet
But it’s easier to say than to be
Live like angels of apathy who tell ourselves
It’s alright, “somebody else will do something”
Well, I don’t know about you
But I’m sick and tired of life with no desire
I don’t want a flame, I want a fire
I wanna be the one who stands up and says,
“I’m gonna do something”

We are the salt of the earth
We are a city on a hill (shine shine, shine shine)
But we’re never gonna change the world
By standing still
No we won’t stand still
No we won’t stand still
No we won’t stand still

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