OMG, yet another religious ratbag pushing the 'CHRISTIANS ONLY (and maybe a few others if you insist) but MUSLIMS NO FUCKING WAY, OK?' line. But, hey, check out the reason:
"For many years I have pointed out the sufferings of Middle Eastern Christians to anyone who would listen, but with minimal impact. The tide is finally turning. Middle Eastern Christians, like Yazidis, Mandaeans and others, represent the pre-Muslim aboriginal populations of their lands, people who have resisted assimilation largely through their religious faiths and refused to embrace Islam after the Muslim invasions of the early Middle Ages..." (Rev) Peter R Green, Silver Street Baptist Mission (Letter, SMH, 10/9/15)
There's more of course, but the Rev's made his point upfront. Which is that he believes as follows (with apologies to Genesis 1):
1 In the beginning God created the Middle Eastern Christian - the aboriginal, and therefore, rightful inhabitants and owners of the Middle East.
2 Then along came the MUSLIMS from... from... wherever, OK?
3 The Muslims told the Christians: convert or die!
4 Why? This was God's great sifting of souls! (The Bugger always works in mysterious ways, OK?)
5 Many, alas, way too many Middle Eastern Christians converted to Islam, whereupon they ceased immediately to be the aboriginal inhabitants of the Middle East.
6 For some inexplicable reason the MUSLIM invaders and occupiers got tired of slaughtering the rest (I did say the Old Bugger worked in mysterious ways) and so some Middle Eastern Christians miraculously remained in the Middle East to this very day, and it is only they who represent the pre-MUSLIM genuine, dinky-di, true blue aboriginal inhabitants (and hence rightful owners) of the Middle East.
All simple-minded, self-serving bullshit, of course.
Look, it's not that hard really. In the Middle East, over the course of time, the aboriginal tillers of the soil have taken on one new religion after the other - various forms of paganism, various forms of Christianity, and various forms of Islam - but they have always remained the aboriginal tillers, and hence rightful owners, of the soil regardless of religious affiliation. (FYI, see my 11/1/11 post Casual Cliocide (to Oud Accompaniment).)
Do these Selective Samaritans seriously think we're fooled by their sectarian shit?
Thankfully, the following letter to the editor (SMH again) preceded the above nonsense:
"As an Arab Christian my heart is broken when I see the suffering of my co-religionists in the Middle East, particularly in Syria and Iraq, and I offer what support I can to them through established charities (Syrian strikes loom, September 9).
"As an Australian citizen I expect my government to use my taxes to help people on the basis of need, irrespective of religion or race. It is unbelievable that we have elected federal representatives deliberately fomenting religious bigotry by stating that some refugees are more deserving than others based on an arbitrary test. I never cease to be amazed by our federal government's descent to the deepest of depths." Elias Nasser, Sylvania
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2 comments:
I found your comments in a search for letters and articles written by Mr Green.
I find it hard to understand how you reason that this letter argued for the exclusion of Muslims when it specifically said, in the bit you left out, "Prioritising the admission of Christians per se is unacceptable, but we must prioritise members of religious minorities: people who are the most vulnerable to persecution. This would grant extra protection to the native peoples, but give scope to include members of the smaller Muslim sects"
How, too, does the fact that some of the earlier inhabitants converted to Islam and were assimilated show that Christians, Yazidis, Mandaeans and others are not members of the indigenous populations who are now subject to persecution?
On the basis of that letter, read in full, it seems that you have made up most of what you assume the writer's opinions are.
My post hinged on Green's use of the term "pre-Muslim aboriginal populations," which he reserves only for anyone in Syria/Iraq who isn't Muslim (whether Sunni, Shia, Druze, Ismaili etc). All of the latter are just as much indigenous inhabitants of the area as Christians, Yazidis, Mandaeans etc. The fact that Green, almost as an afterthought, went on to concede the inclusion of "members of the smaller Muslim sects" implies that he believes that majority Sunni Arabs should be excluded from our refugee intake, thus making his call clearly discriminatory, and hence warranting my first paragraph comment. Nowhere did I say that Christians, Yazidis and Mandaeans were not indigenous. Please take off your blinkers and re-read the post.
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