Opinion

Some Inconvenient Truths About the Christchurch Massacre

Christian Post (July 3, 2018): “Church leaders in Nigeria have said that Christians are experiencing ‘pure genocide’ as 6,000 people, mostly women and children, have been murdered by Fulani radicals since January.”

CBS News (Sept. 13, 2018): “A new report tracking the roots, spread and effects of violent Islamist extremism found that 121 groups that share elements from a common ideology are now operating worldwide. Their activities resulted in the deaths of 84,000 people – nearly 22,000 of them civilians – in 66 countries in 2017, the report found.”

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The following article was written by Bill Muehlenberg who is an American-Australian Christian. He serves as the  Secretary of the “Family Council of Victoria” and lectures on Christianity, society, politics, Family, and the Culture Wars. He lives in Melbourne, Australia, where he lives with his wife and children. The article originally appeared on his “Culture Watch” website (March 16, 2019).

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The horrific shooting in Christchurch has left a nation numb, and has forced many people to ask plenty of questions. And lots of questions do indeed remain, although we are now learning much more about the main (sole?) gunman, Brenton Harrison Tarrant.

But so many predictable responses are already upon us. As usual, the lamestream media already stands condemned here. While the New Zealand attack was terrible in the extreme, every single day we have massacres of infidels by devout Muslims taking place.

Yet it is almost always crickets chirping from the media. For example, what about the recent Muslim attacks on Christians in a church in Nigeria with 32 deaths; or in Egypt, leaving 9 dead; or the Philippines church attack that killed 20; or the 8 dead in a Somalia market attack, etc. The list is endless.

As one group that monitors all these points out, in the month of February 2019 alone there were 150 deadly Islamic terror attacks in 22 different countries. These resulted in 883 deaths and 547 people being injured. This is routine stuff, yet when was the last time the MSM ran with any of it? (The Religion of Peace)And we have had some rather fuzzy thinking by many. Catholic commentator Greg Sheridan, writing in the Australian, said that ‘we are all Muslims’. Um, no. We are all human beings made in the image of God, and we certainly should pray for those in Christchurch right now. But making rather foolish statements like this helps no one.

And hyper-leftist American politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez immediately sought to politicize this tragedy, writing on Twitter: “At 1st I thought of saying, ‘Imagine being told your house of faith isn’t safe anymore.’ But I couldn’t say ‘imagine.’ Because of Charleston. Pittsburgh. Sutherland Springs. What good are your thoughts & prayers when they don’t even keep the pews safe?”

Thankfully there was an immediate and powerful reaction to her insanity. Plenty of people castigated her for saying such stupid things, and rightly so. Here are just two of countless tweets offered in response. One person tweeted, “She also uses this to attack people who pray for others. AOC is an opportunistic scumbag.” Said another, “She reacts to a Mass Shooting in a Foreign Country with ‘Yeah, but like, the NRA is totally bad right?’”

And of course, absolutely no one is surprised that the left-wing Prime Minister of New Zealand is already demanding a crackdown on firearms. Jacinda Ardern said this: “Our gun laws will change. Now is the time for change.” Yep, happens every time.

Of real interest in this regard is the following headline (assuming it is true): “Man Who Stopped New Zealand Mosque Rampage Turns Out to Be ‘Good Guy With a Gun.’” The article begins:

One of the shootings at New Zealand mosques Friday reportedly ended when an armed prayer-goer returned fire, causing the attackers to flee. The man was a worshipper at the Linwood Mosque, which was targeted along with the Al Noors Mosque in a pair of attacks in central Christchurch that left 49 people dead, local media reported. At least 10 people were killed in the Linwood shooting. According to the New Zealand Herald, the “well known Muslim local” chased the shooters with a rifle or shotgun, and fired two shots at them as they sped off in a car. (Pluralist.com)

Consider another inconvenient truth. Often when an Islamic jihad attack takes place – be it 9/11 or something else – we will see some Muslims celebrating in the streets over the death of the infidels. In marked contrast, consider the Israeli response to the Christchurch massacre:

Israel’s president and prime minister on Friday joined with world leaders to express condolences and condemnation following the deadly attacks on mosques in New Zealand. “I condemn the terrorist attack on the mosques in Christchurch in the strongest possible terms and send my condolences on behalf of the people of Israel to the families of the victims, the injured, the government and the people of New Zealand,” said President Reuven Rivlin. (Times of Israel)

As to the gunman himself, we do have his rather rambling 74-page manifesto, “The Great Replacement,” which is already being pulled from some websites but can still be found here and there. In it, he describes himself in various ways. Consider this list of questions and answers:

Were/are you a conservative?
No, conservatism is corporatism in disguise. I want no part of it.

Were/are you a Christian?
That is complicated. When I know I will tell you….

Were/are you “right wing”?
Depending on the definition, sure.

Were/are you “left wing?”
Depending on the definition, sure.

Were/are you socialist?
Depending on the definition. Worker ownership of the means of production? It depends on who those workers are, their intents, who currently owns the means of production, their intents, and who currently owns the state, and its intents.

Were/are you a supporter of Donald Trump?
As a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose? Sure. As a policy maker and leader? Dear god no….

Did you always hold these views?
No, when I was young I was a communist, then an anarchist and finally a libertarian before coming to be an eco-fascist.

Later he wrote, “Conservatism is dead. Thank God.” And he said there is “no democratic solution” to our problems. Hmm, hardly a card-carrying conservative or a born-again, Bible-based Christian. He is all over the place here. We could say he is another nut-job, but even if he is, he has caused so much pain and suffering for so many.

But again, many of our elites will use this to further condemn all so-called Islamophobia. They will likely further crack down on conservatives and Christians and use this tragedy as another excuse to further implement stifling statism and further reduce individual rights.

Srdja Trifkovic has just penned an article on all this which is worth quoting from. He begins:

Terrorist attacks against Muslims in the Western world are extremely rare. This morning’s carnage in two mosques in New Zealand, with the death toll currently at 50, is the first major event of its kind since the Quebec City mosque shooting—over two years ago – which killed six persons. (As for the alleged “Islamophobic incidents” in general, overwhelmingly they are either unverifiable or too trivial to be taken seriously.)

While 56 dead in two years is 56 too many, this regrettable incident will dominate the headlines infinitely more than any comparable carnage involving Christians, notably the 2017 Palm Sunday church bombings in Alexandria; it killed 45 people, and was all but ignored by the Western media and politicians. The developing frenzy of compassion with the victims of Christchurch will result in a number of mathematically predictable consequences:

The ruling elites and their media cohorts all over the Western world will have a field day equating “violent extremism” (which has nothing to do with “true Islam,” of course) with the neo-nazi, right-wing, white, Christian-inspired racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and all other traits of the deplorables; and yes, it will be Trump’s fault to boot.

Various Islamic activists in the West, such as the sharia-promoting CAIR in the U.S. and its fellow-conspirators elsewhere, will clamor for ever more stringent laws criminalizing “Islamophobia,” effectively defined as any form of meaningful debate of Islam, its scriptural message, historical practice, and current ambitions.

He then offers this list of Muslim-induced fatalities in just one country – France – from a very short period of time:

7-9 January 2015: Charlie Hebdo attacks kill 22 people.
26 June 2015: In Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, a Muslim decapitated a Frenchman and rammed a van into cylinders at a gas factory trying to start an explosion.
13-14 November 2015: The horrendous Paris attacks killed 137 people in the single deadliest terrorist outrage in French history
13 June 2016: At Magnanville, a policeman and his wife were murdered by a jihadist.
14 July 2016: A truck was driven into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in Nice. The driver, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, killed 86 people.
26 July 2016: In Normandy two jihadists attacked a church during mass, killing an 86-year-old priest.
1 October 2017: A Muslim stabbed to death two young women at a Marseille train station. Before he was shot dead he shouted Allahu Akbar.
23 March 2018: A Muslim stole a car in Carcassonne, killing the passenger, went to Trèbes, attacked a supermarket, killed three people and injured several others.
12 May 2018: A Chechen-born “Frenchman” stabbed to death one pedestrian and injured several others near the Garnier Opera in Paris.
11 December 2018: In Strasbourg a gunman opened fire just outside the Christmas Market, killing 5 and injuring 11.

That makes 261 dead and many more injured, in attacks by Muslims on non-Muslims, in less than four years, in only one country, France (pop. 66 million). With 66 dead a year on average, Frenchmen are exactly ten times more likely to be murdered by a Muslim than a Muslim being killed by a non-Muslim terrorist anywhere in the Western world. (Chronicles Magazine)

I said in my earlier piece that we need to keep all those impacted by this massacre in our prayers. I still urge us to do just that. But at the same time, we must be aware of how so many on the left will use this as part of their ongoing assault on conservatives and Christians.

We need to be very wise and cautious here as the days grow ever darker.

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