"Israelis Want To Maintain The Idea That ... The Church Is Siding With Zionism Against Islam": anti-"Islamophobia" Christians gunning for Israel

"Over the course of its history, the WCC [World Council of Churches] – an umbrella organization of 350 Protestant and Orthodox churches – has worked assiduously to demonize the Jewish state while remaining silent about the sins of its adversaries. It has also made bowing and scraping in the face of Islamic violence a central plank of modern-day ecumenism. Speaking up forcefully on behalf of the victims of such violence is simply beyond the ken of the WCC. The organization is simply incapable of speaking the truth about this problem."

That justifiable indictment is made by the Christian Media Analyst at the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, Dexter Van Zile, in his article (hat tip: reader Ian) about the WCC's just-concluded conference in Lebanon.

Van Zile goes on:

'The WCC set itself up for failure even before the conference began. Prior to the conference, which lasted from May 21st to May 25th, the WCC described the upcoming meeting about Christians in the Middle East as giving voice to “ecumenical Christian concerns about the presence of Christians in the Middle East” which the organization stated, “differ from those who seek to kindle Islamophobia.”

The May 15th press release announcing the meeting also reported that the speakers would include Palestinian diplomats Afif Safieh and Samir Morcos, and a former assistant to Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, a man who has utterly failed to protect Coptic Christians in their homeland.

This pre-conference press release, issued on May 15th, served as fair warning that meeting’s attendees would sweep the problem of Islamist violence under the rug and then accuse anyone who would talk openly about the impact of jihad against Christians in the Middle East of being Islamophobes. It also served as fair warning that the attendees would try to steer the conversation toward Israel.

And that is exactly what happened.

In the statement issued after the conference, the attendees lamented the kidnapping of two Christian clergy in Syria and said they “pray and hope that their speedy release, and assistance of the leaders of Muslim and Christian communities, will strengthen inter-religious co-operation.” The leaders in question are still in custody.

The reference to the captivity of these two leaders was about the only mention of Muslim wrongdoing in the document, which condemned Christian Zionism as an ideology that enables “the manipulation of public opinion by Zionist lobbies, and damage[s] intra-Christian relations.” ....'

Read the entire article here

As reader Ian added, regarding a book mentioned in the article and published, in 2000, with the WCC's assistance (Jutta Sperber’s book Christians and Muslims: The Dialogue Activities of the World Council of Churches and their Theological Foundation):

'The book is also pretty revealing. In her assessment of the WCC’s dialogue with Muslim leaders, Sperber gives the game away:

“The solution of the Palestinian problem in the sense of the West’s abandoning its pro-Israeli attitude became the criterion to judge the credibility of the Christian/Muslim dialogue, and indeed, of inter-religious dialogue in general. This attitude was not only adopted by Muslims but also by Arab Christians.”

In other words, if the WCC was going to have good relations with Muslim leaders, it needed to attack Israel’s supporters in the West.'

On reading the above article I thought, inevitably, of the recent, notorious Church of Scotland report that seeks to undermine Jewish claims to Eretz Israel by disavowing Scripture itself.

I see that anti-Christian Zionism crusader, Anglican vicar Stephen Sizer ("Don't bother blogging about him, he's not worth a pitcher of warm spit" advises one friend), has been talking up the report's significance to a reporter from the propaganda channel of the Ahmadinejad regime, on which he (who's visited Iran twice, I understand) not infrequently appears.

"It's news that the Israelis don't want because they want to maintain the idea that they have the Church in their pocket, that the Church is siding with Zionism against Islam – well, this report questions that premise," the clerical anti-Israel warrior explains to the already highly opinionated Amina Taylor in that deceptively soft voice of his:

And he appears on Press TV a little later to help justify BDS:

But what, I wonder, do Sizer and the rest of the Israel-demonisers (sorry, human rights activists), religious and secular, who readily give interviews to Iran's Press TV excoriating the little Jewish State and attempting to justify BDS make of such reports as this, and this:

'The attacks against Baha'is in Iran represent one of the clearest cases of state-sponsored religious persecution in the world, said Heiner Bielefeldt, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief.

Speaking 6 March 2013 in Geneva at a side event during the 22nd session of the Human Rights Council, Dr. Bielefeldt discussed the release of a new report by the Baha'i International Community, which documents rising violence against Iranian Baha'is and the utter impunity enjoyed by attackers.

 "It's really one of the most obvious cases of state persecution," he said, noting that the repression faced by Baha'is spans "all areas of state activity, from family law provisions to schooling, education, and security."

He asked participants at the side event – which drew some 50 representatives from governments, the UN, and non-governmental organizations – to visualize the impact such wide-ranging persecution has on an individual as he or she moves through the stages of life.

 "Imagine what that means for a child, in school, maybe even kindergarten, sometimes even in the preschool phase, of young life. To be exposed to the stigma, to be told there is something wrong with your family, that you have to change, you have to adapt ...Then, as the child gets to the age of higher education, now the problem is how to get access ... We have lots of cases of Baha'is who have been expelled from universities and other sectors of higher education. Imagine what it means if a person wants to gather position in life, to get a job. There is not the slightest possibility for a Baha'i to take a position in any public sector [job]. But even in the private sector, there is mobbing and stigmatization."

"How can a person start a family life, if in family law there is no official space for Baha'is to conclude valid marriages?" he asked, noting that this deficiency affects concerns ranging from inheritance to rights of custody.

 Attacks do not even end with death, he added. "There is the experience of desecration of cemeteries... [of] cemeteries being also bulldozed down by someone."

Pointing to the report, titled "Violence with Impunity: Acts of aggression against Iran's Baha'i community," Dr. Bielefeldt said that the increasing violence against Iranian Baha'is – and the degree to which attackers escape prosecution for their crimes – is clear.

"Not only do Baha'is have to expect a lack of protection – government agencies are very often inimical, hostile forces."'