Destroying one Qur’an vs. destroying many Christians; which is worse?

The West responds vehemently to the
burning of one Qur'an. What about
the murders of hundreds of Christians?

Raymond Ibrahim recently wrote a story for Frontpage Magazine about the now infamous Qur’an burning by Florida pastor Terry Jones that resulted in hysteria in the Muslim world.

While the article is written referencing Americans, the word "Westerner" could easily and should replace it.

Ibrahim wrote that in Afghanistan alone, some 20 people, including U.N. workers, have been killed and beheaded. Western leaders around the globe have condemned Jones’ actions, and many are even blaming the deaths in Afghanistan directly on Jones.

Yet, writes Ibrahim, as Western leaders rush to profess their abhorrence at what one American did to one inanimate book, no one seems to be questioning what many Muslims are doing to many living and breathing Christians around the Islamic world—to virtually no media coverage or Western condemnation.

Ibrahim provides a list of recent atrocities:

• Afghanistan: A Muslim convert to Christianity was seized and, according to Shariah’s apostasy laws, awaits execution.
• Bangladesh: A Christian man was arrested for distributing Bibles near Muslims. Since April 6, thousands of Muslims have been rioting, injuring dozens—not because of Jones, but in protestation of women’s rights.
• Egypt: A Muslim mob burned down another Coptic church and dozens of Christian homes; when Christians protested, the military opened fire on them while crying “Allahu Akbar,” killing nine. Another mob cut a Christian man’s ear off “according to Shariah.”
• Ethiopia: Muslims went on a rampage burning down nearly 70 churches, killing at least one Christian, and dislocating as many as 10,000. Christians living in Muslim majority regions are being warned to either convert to Islam, abandon their homes, or die.
• Malaysia: Authorities detained and desecrated thousands of Bibles.
• Pakistan: Two Christians were shot to death as they exited church; a Christian serving life in prison for “blasphemy” died in his cell under suspicions of murder.
• Saudi Arabia: An Eritrean Christian has been arrested for sharing his faith with Muslims and is facing the death penalty; other missionaries continue to languish in Saudi prisons.
• Somalia and Sudan: Christian girls—including a mother of four—were recently abducted, raped and killed for embracing Christianity.

None of these atrocities, says Ibrahim, were performed in retaliation to Jones’ Qur’an burning; they’re just business as usual in the Muslim world. And those are just some of the few stories that actually made it into the media. Many, many stories, says Ibrahim, are of persistent, quiet misery that only the victims and local Christians know.

One would think stories such as these are equally deserving of media attention and Western condemnation as the Qur’an burning.

“Such is the surreal and increasingly irrational world we live in,” says Ibrahim, “where irate Muslims and grovelling Westerners obsess over the destruction of one book while ignoring the destruction of many human lives; where a guaranteed and hard-earned American right—freedom of expression—receives a lot of condemnatory huffing and puffing from those charged with protecting it, while murderous, barbarous—in a word, evil—behaviour is devoutly ignored.”

Read Raymond Ibrahim’s full article here.