In the fuss over whether to build an Islamic center blocks away from Ground Zero, one of the most smug — and, so far as I can tell, mostly unchallenged — arguments is that there are no Christian churches in Muslim nations. (Skip, for now, the bizarre implication that we should give up freedom of religion because other nations don’t have freedom of religion.) The Christian superiority and persecution exaggerations can get pretty wild:
Go to any Christian country and carry a Koran in public. Nothing will happen to you. Try carrying a Bible openly in any Islamic country – you will be arrested, and may be executed. There is no comparison. (emphasis added)
OK, let’s stop for just a moment to challenge the first part of that statement by noting that hate crimes in the United States against people of Middle-Eastern descent increased from 354 attacks in 2000 to 1,501 attacks in 2001. Thanks to the ignorance of American bigots, non-Muslims and non-Arabs were caught up in the anti-Islamic fever, including several Sikh men attacked for wearing their religiously mandated turban. The bigots don’t always miss, of course: 45% of students and 37% of Arab Americans of the Muslim faith report being targeted by discrimination. Then there’s the conservative leader who recently said “no more mosques, period” in the U.S.” He also said he thought we should kick American Muslims out of the country and send them to Muslim nations. And there’s this from just a bit ago:
About a dozen right-wing Christians, carrying placards and yelling “Islam is a lie,” angrily confronted worshippers outside a Fairfield Avenue mosque Friday.
“Jesus hates Muslims,” they screamed at worshippers arriving at the Masjid An-Noor mosque to prepare for the holy month of Ramadan. One protester shoved a placard at a group of young children leaving the mosque. “Murderers,” he shouted.
Oh yeah, being muslim in America: Good times, good times….
But back to the garbage about there not being Christian churches in Islamic nations: We could swamp them with facts (see below), but complete sentences seem too much for the average wingnut mind to handle, so let's try pictures instead. Jump with me now to a photographic refutation of the bizarre assertion that there are no Christian churches in Islamic nations and that practicing Christianity "in any Islamic country" will get you executed.
Inconvenient, but conveniently overlooked, facts (examples, not an exhaustive list): Indonesia, Bangladesh and Malaysia have a huge numbers of Hindu, Christians and Buddhists. They are allowed to practice their religions, build places of worship and even have missionary schools and organizations. Some Muslim countries nationally observe Hindu, Christian and Buddhist holidays (as you'll see in the photos). In Syria, there are millions of Christians, and they have many hundreds of independent privately owned churches. Two chief justices of Pakitstan's Supreme Court were Hindu and Christian. The constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran recognizes Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism as official religions -- granting them the right to exercise religious freedom and 5 seats in parliament.