Gates of Vienna:
The following editorial was published on Wednesday in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten, and has been kindly translated for Gates of Vienna by Henrik Ræder Clausen
Persecuted Christians
During Easter of 2003, the invasion of Iraq had already begun, designated by President George W. Bush as a crusade against terrorism — bringing up memories of the Christian Crusades from 1096 to 1272, and the words of Pope Urban II about the necessity of holy war against the infidels.
In particular among militant Islamists, whose ambition is to bring down Christianity as such.
Christianity lives on as the world’s largest religion. Of all the faith systems on earth, it remains the largest, with over two billion adherents, more than one third of all religious persons in the world. Islam is the second largest with 1.6 billion believers. And the influence of Christianity is growing, not least in China, where the number of Christians — in spite of their problems in the most populous country of the world — is projected to reach 400 million in 15 years’ time.
But Christianity is under threat in many countries, not least in the same Iraq that was the target of the war initiated by President Bush after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
On a more optimistic note, despite the bullying tactics of Muslims and an alarming increase of Muslim conversions in Western nations, there is a growing number of Muslims deserting Islam and either becoming Atheists or converting to Christianity.
The ‘death to apostates’ stance taken by Islam is one of its most formidable strengths but likewise is also a noticeable Achilles heel.
What many Muslims do not realise is that despite their boast that they are the World’s fastest growing religion, their own apostasy laws make it impossible for them to monitor the true statistics. Many ex-Muslims remain Muslim in name only because they are secret apostates.
The growing house church movement in Iran and a massive underground Christian network in Saudi Arabia confirm that Islam is decaying from within. The real statistics suggest that Christianity is growing at a faster rate than Islam. Muslims are persecuting Christians more forcefully now than they have done in decades, but this is only an act of desperation on their part. They are actually losing the battle!
@ Softlt Bob
I actually believe what you wrote. I am not totally convinced but I am more than 50% convinced.
Red all of the evidence I have seen says Bob is right, in Iran worship at the Mosques is down drastically and the reports are of conversion not only to Christianity but also to Zoroastrianism and Buddhism.
From what I remember if we had hit Iraq at the time we first planned on there would have been an upraising in Iran that would have been begging for our military support.