Since the start of the
Danish cartoon controversy earlier this year, Vatican officials have
expressed sympathy with Islamic outrage over the depictions of
Muhammad. This sympathy comes from knowing what it's like to have your
beliefs treated with disrespect and even contempt. Yet in much of the
Islamic world, that sympathy isn't a two-way street.
That's why the Vatican issued a statement "urging Islamic
countries to reciprocate by showing more tolerance toward their
Christian minorities." As Angelo Soldano, the Vatican's Secretary of
State put it: "If we tell our people they have no right to offend, we
have to tell the others they have no right to destroy us . . . "
Destroy is not
too strong a word. The anger originally directed at Denmark is
increasingly being directed at Christians. In Turkey, a priest was
murdered in an attack that the Turkish media has connected to the
cartoon controversy. In Pakistan, protesting mobs have ransacked
churches and beaten Christians. In Beirut, which, unlike Pakistan, has
a large Christian population, a Christian neighborhood was attacked by
a Muslim mob.
By far the worst attacks
have occurred in Nigeria. In the state of Borno, attacks left as many
as fifty-one Christians dead, including a priest. The Christian
property destroyed included at least six churches, both Catholic and
Protestant, the Bishop's home, and a Christian bookstore.
The rioters, who went on
a rampage after hearing a Muslim cleric denounce the cartoons, sent a
clear message with their choice of targets: These are our true enemies,
the Christians. This led to a deplorable, yet predictable, response:
Nigerian Christians retaliated against Muslims, killing one and burning
a mosque. This is tragic.
And where Christians
aren't under physical attack, they still face restrictions that far
exceed the ones being decried by Muslim protesters. These restrictions,
which have been chronicled on "BreakPoint," include bans on public and,
in Saudi Arabia, even private worship.
This lack of
reciprocity, along with the violence in places like Nigeria and
Pakistan, has the usually conciliatory Vatican saying, "Enough!" Pope
Benedict told the Moroccan ambassador that peace requires a reciprocal
"respect for the religious convictions and practices of others . . . "
Other Vatican officials
were even sharper. The Secretary of its supreme court told an Italian
newspaper, "Enough now with this turning the other cheek! It's our duty
to protect ourselves."
His frustration arises
from the well-founded doubts that the West will do anything about
Muslim persecution of Christians. He noted that "half a century" of
relations with "Arab countries" had not produced "the slightest
concession on human rights."
Sadly, he's right. While
countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are cited for their violations
of religious freedom, there are not any sanctions. So, the message
is that we are not really serious about freedom and democracy.
Without religious
freedom, efforts to spread democracy are futile, because societies that
don't respect the rights of religious minorities cannot be expected to
respect any other human rights.
What this tragic turn of
events really proves is that, contrary to the politically correct
wisdom of our day, not all worldviews or religions are alike. And the
differences really matter—just ask the Christians living in the Islamic
world.
