When Freedom Doesnt Ring While Americans celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr., the rest of the world is a long way from his peaceful legacy. Terror swept across Africa and Asia over the weekend, as radical Muslims set fire to churches, smashed glass, destroyed villages, and brutally murdered innocent Christians in protest of Frances Charlie Hebdo. Pastor Zakaria Jadi, whose church was engulfed in flames, told the BBC, I just rushed and told my colleagues to take away their families from the place… When I came back I just discovered that everything has gone. Theres nothing in my house and also in the church. In Niger, there were smoldering ashes where 45 churches used to be, charred bodies inside one Cathedral, and a Christian orphanage leveled in retaliation for the Wests millions-strong march for freedom. Non-Muslim businesses, schools, and restaurants were looted -- or, worse destroyed. Some of us stayed barricaded in our homes, said a Christian mechanic. I have never been so scared in my life. For Pakistanis, the riots hit a fevered pitch when a photographer was shot and others tried to breach the French embassy with guns. The violence is so widespread that the counter-protests have claimed nearly as many lives as the attacks that inspired them, laments one reporter. Next door in Nigeria, families lucky enough to survive the nightmare of Boko Haram watched helplessly as the barbarians, yelling Allah is great! set fire to almost a hundred homes and took 50 hostage. Another suicide bomber detonated in town, massacring four and wounding 35 others. We are dealing with barbaric people, lawless people, said one Cameroonian. Nothing can prevent them from assassinating. On Saturday, Nigers president was beside himself that Christians were targeted. Those who loot these places of worship, who desecrate them and kill their Christian compatriots have understood nothing of Islam. Meanwhile, the media seems quick to rally around Charlie -- but what have they said about these Christians? Will there be protests and newspaper headlines across Europe and the U.S. for the tens of thousands of Christians brutally slaughtered, tortured, or forced to flee their country for their faith? While its important to stand up for our freedoms, we cannot ignore the one from which all others spring: the freedom of religion. President Obama is particularly guilty of this, as his administration continues its own march to sanitize the public square of faith. Yet on occasions like Fridays Religious Freedom Day, words hardly matched up to the White Houses actions. The First Amendment prohibits the Government from establishing religion, the President proclaimed. It protects the right of every person to practice their faith how they choose, to change their faith, or to practice no faith at all, and to do so free from persecution and fear… Promoting religious freedom has always been a key objective of my administrations foreign policy… Could have fooled us. The world is in tatters, in part, because the United States hasnt led on the very liberty this nation was founded on. Fortunately, its never too late to start. Lets hope these latest atrocities push the United States to pick back up the torch of freedom and use it to light the way for our nation -- and others. Tony Perkins Washington Update
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 00:56:41 +0000
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