Standing Against the Mob

September is always a popular month for atrocities.  It doesn't take much for the haters to get riled up and unfortunately they seem to be the one's with the loudest voices in the muslim world, not to mention the one's with blood on their hands. What I find appalling is the seemingly complete collapse of the West in the face of the constant onslaught by people intent on making the rest of us conform to their religious beliefs.

So we apologize when they murder us, make nice when they desecrate our churches, invite them into our countries despite the fact that they hate us, allow them to worship freely in our countries even when they refuse to allow us to do so in their countries, give them money when they spit in our face, and worst of all abandon our values to avoid any perceived slights. It's bad enough that Western nations have systematically secularized their societies and most Westerners believe in nothing, now they increasingly kowtow to fundamenatlist muslim extremists who are bent on transforming those very same societies. To be sure there is much that I don't like about western societies but I fear that they will be replaced with something much worse. Societies where women will be relegated to second class citizenship. Free speech and religious tolerance will disappear. In this new world order the gay and lesbian community will not have to worry about whether governments will marry them, they will instead worry about governments killing them.

The flames of hate among muslims are fanned by failed governments desperate to detract attention away from the desperate poverty, hopelessness and their own glaring failures. Scapegoats are always easy to find whether they happen to be Jews, Christians, Hinus or Buddhists. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erodgan, who just days ago said a movie that “insults religions” and “prophets” is not protected by freedom of speech, now is insisting that international bodies pass laws making criticism of Islam a crime. This coming from the leader of a nation that has perpetrated some of the greatest hate crimes of the century, crimes for which there has never been even so much as an attempt to render an apology let alone justice. Now forgotten are the events of another September, fifty-seven years ago when fanatical muslim Turks organized by a supposedly secular government attacked the Greek community of Constantinople. In so doing they perpetrated heinous atrocities against Christians and their religious houses of worship. Atrocities that insult religion much more than any cartoon and YouTube video ever could.  Professor Spyros Vryonis meticulously documented the events of the Sepetember Pogrom in his book Mechanism of Catastrophe. He writes about the systemic desecration perpetrated against the Greek Orthodox Church:

 "Altars, icons, pews, candelabra, the buidings themselves, chandeliers, Crucifixes, in particular, engaged the vandals attention. Not far behind was the desecration of the cemeteries, and the corpses buried therin and the bones in the ossuaries.  Along with the abuse of corpses, defecation was particularly marked in the cemeteries although altars also seemed to have been systemactically polluted with urine and feces. The photographs taken by Dimitrios Kaloumenos bear horrible testimony to this sadder aspect of human behavior and confirm the debt and fury of rioters religious fanaticism." 

Another chronicler of the events of the pogrom, Despina Portokalis writes: "In the district of Vefa they took out from the Church, the large Crucifix and as they were parading it about, from behind they were beating it and throwing stones at it. They did this as they sang lewd songs and mocked it."

In this brave new world of the coming calipahte, "moderate" muslims have been silenced and either look on with indifference or grudging support as the radicals transform their religion. Intolerance and violence are the bedrock on which their faith will be built on. A religion whose followers are afraid to compete in the marketplace of free ideas, and who insist on silencing anyone they disagree with. Violence is condoned, glorified and encouraged among the young. They are the future. Their martyrdom is not about sacrificing oneself as a testament to faith in God but rather about the murder of other human beings considered non-believers. Throughout the Middle East, the Jews have been swept into a small strip of land called Israel with their backs to the sea.  They have nowhere else to flee.  Now the Christians are being targeted. The Orthodox in Syria and Palestine, the Maronites of Lebanon, the Copts in Egypt. All scheduled for extinction. In its very birthplace, Christianity is on life support. 

During the pogrom of 1955, the vast majority of Turks were not part of the mob but they looked the other way as their Greek neighbors and friends were targeted.  In a few instances, some brave souls stood against the mob and saved lives.  Half a century later the civilized world once again, stands on the sidelines. Some cheer on the criminals, others avert their eyes from the horror, bending over backwards to appease them thinking that in so doing they can save themselves.

Only when all decent people, regardless of creed, stand against the mob, will we be able to live in a better world. 

Αγιώρ Αγιώρ αφέντη μου St. George and the dragon Greek Cappadocian song

Comments

[Jason Teleras]

Bravo Stavro. Well said. I sometimes despair at the casual indifference shown by many educated people in the West at the growing threat posed to all non moslem peoples by radical islam.

Many of our Greek brothers and sisters have also succombed to this indifference and insouciance. They believe, like their european cousins, that multiculturism and uncritical tolerance of barbarous practices and religious intolerance is the way to deal with radical islam and its many adherents.They foolishly believe that Islam can be coopted and muslims that can be convinced to pursue a path of democrtaic tolerance and pluralisim. This ofcourse is a huge mistake. The Koran demands of its adherents nothing less than the establishment of Sharia Law-a medieval and barbaric code of intolerance and misogyny-which is anathema to all the civilised values and institutions we inherited from our ancients.

[Stavros]

Agreed Jason. Countries like Australia, Canada and the United States have always welcomed immigrants and we are beneficiaries of that welcome. With the opportunities granted to us also come responsibilities and the requirements of citizenship. We must conform to that country's legal system and cannot bring our own set of laws with us as in sharia. Tolerance doesn't mean that religious practices totally incompatible with that country's culture like female circumcision or polygamy can be condoned.

Increasingly we accommodate one religion's customs while denying another. For example, we allow muslim students to pray at school while we deny the right to Christian students. We allow muslim women to wear a head covering while we prohibit the wearing of a crucifix. I could go on and on.

I fear that Islam will never reform itself. The so-called Arab Spring will usher in more of the same corruption and authoritarianism except that these new governments will be much less tolerant their Christian citizens than strongmen like Assad and Mubarak.

Whether we like it or not we are in the midst of a clash of civilizations and Western civilization is not fully committed to its own survival.

[Maria]

Stavros,

I agree with everything you have written. I am shocked and appalled by how various Christian countries continue to appease the Islam world and turn a blind eye to the real danger it poses to the rest of civilized society. If Muslims don’t like the Western world and its values then they should stay out of it. If they chose to live in it, then they should respect it and tolerate it. Islam is a barbaric religion whose adherents are backward, poses minimal rational thinking and are violent...after all these are the same people who won’t hesitate to kill their own daughters at the smallest perceived insult.

It is time the Western world takes it head out of the sand and realizes that it cannot hold hands and sing Kumbaya with these people.

[Stavros]

I used to think that we could encourage the growth of democracy and modernity in these countries, now I'm not so sure their people are ready to change for the better. Perhaps some time under the yoke of their more radical brethren will open their eyes.

[Jason Teleras]

Yes Stavro, I sometimes think that if Muslims were given sharia for a time they may be cured of their zealotry but the cure is working very slowly in Iran and not at all in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other sharia nations.

You really know you are living in a crazy world when people in the west are watching Al Jazeera and our kinsmen in Greece are watching Turkish soap operas whilst Turkey remains in occupation of north eastern cyprus and Greece's territorial waters and air space are being violated on almost a daily basis.

[Stavros]

These nations are powder kegs. Don't be deceived, their people are restive. Religious extremism will only hasten things.

As for the Turks, there isn't a bit of difference between Kemalists and Islamists, scratch the surface and you 'll find rabid nationalists who have an inflated view of themselves. They are the new Ottomans and unfortunately Greece is in no position to defend itself. The Europeans long ago lost the will to survive, in another fifty years, demographically, they will be strangers in their own land. Sad but true.

We are in retreat. May St George protect us from the barbarians because we won't protect ourselves.

Sorry to be so pessimistic.

[Jason Teleras]

Only a re-discovery of our faith and our lost sense of patriotic sacrifice can save us. It is 5 minutes to midnight, but we live in hope.

[Stavros]

http://greekodyssey.typepad.com/my_greek_odyssey/2012/01/το-κλαρίνο-βαρεί-το-μοιρολόι-το-μοιρολόι-και-θαρρείς-πως-κάθε-τ.html

[Joseph]

It is very frustrating and sad to see this hatred. I would hope that the common believes and moral among different religions would bring people together, instead they tore them apart.
In my opinion, Orthodox Christianity is an open minded and people loving religion. I hope its followers will get the right honor they deserve.

[Stavros]

A wise old Geronta (elder) once told me that God will judge us all to the same standard regardless of who or what we are.