French Catholic bishop on burqa ban: “If we want Christian minorities in Muslim majority countries to enjoy all their rights, we should in our country respect the rights of all believers to practice their faith”
The Bishops comments are flawed, especially in terms of the reciprocal rights of Muslims in the West and Christians in Islamic countries, they simply can’t be compared.
The main problem with Bishop Santier’s comments is a false sense of equivalence between the burqa issue and the plight of Christians in Muslim countries. In the former case, a very small number of Muslim women may be restricted from concealing their faces in the interest of gender equality and public safety. Can Muslims in France build mosques? Yes. Can they observe the five pillars of Islam? Yes. Can they proselytize? Yes, and they sure do.
Contrast that with the situation of Christians under Islamic rule. They are at the mercy of the whims of their rulers, and subject to a long and elaborate tradition of abuse that is enshrined in Sharia law. Such restrictions include the inability to build new churches or repair old ones, the inability to openly propagate their faith, the inability of converts to Christianity from Islam to live in safety, and the jizya tax, among others.
And that brings about the heart of the matter: the unwillingness to acknowledge that the subjugation of non-Muslims by any means necessary is called for time and again in the Qur’an itself (see, in particular, 9:29) Hence, there is no comparison between a possible ban on burqas in some areas of French society and the situation of Christians across the Islamic world.
Tags: Christian Persecution
February 2nd, 2010 at 2:54 pm
The issue of Jizya is only one of a number where Islam is in conflict with the modern national government. Payment of Jizya (Or ‘poll tax’) exempts the payor from military service. Taxation and conscription are two functions of the modern nation-state. Even if the laws of that government allow this, issues of this type have historically triggered many wars.
February 8th, 2010 at 5:14 pm
What every Christian should know about Islam: http://crombouke.blogspot.com/2010/01/everything-you-need-to-know-about-islam.html