Garbanzo Toons

Muslims vs Freedom of Speech - Again

I first wrote about Egyptian Coptic priest Zakaria Botros, when I discovered him through Victor Davis Hanson. The gist of Hanson's article was that Fr. Botros, through his radio show, was inspiring huge numbers of Muslims to convert to Christianity. Imagine my surprise, while thumbing through (sort of, since I read it on-line) The Arab American News, that Fr. Botros is carried on a local Detroit station, WNZK (690 AM). If I read the article correctly Botros' program airs every Wednesday from 3:00 to 5:00 PM. According to the whining from the local Muslim community,

Egyptian Coptic priest Zakaria Botros, known around the world for his controversial theological rants about Islam, had been featured regularly for weeks on a Chaldean Christian programming broadcast by WNZK (690 AM), enraging many with frequent assertions that Islam's Prophet Mohammed, was, among other things, a homosexual.


Muslim leaders feared the weekly programs could cause tension between local Christian and Muslim communities, and sought out talks between interfaith leaders and the station owner about pressuring producers and the host of the show to keep the more radical commentaries off the air, said Ghalib Begg, Chair of the Council Of Islamic Organizations Of Michigan.

and

Another local Arab Christian leader, Fr. George Shalhoub of St. Mary Antiochian Orthodox Church in Livonia, said that Botros' outbursts may come from a bitterness felt by many Egyptian Christians, who he said have struggled to practice their faith in that country for years.


"Historically, Christians in Egypt have been persecuted," he said.


Religious life for Copts in Egypt, said Shalhoub, whose congregation is made up primarily of Palestinian, Syrian, Jordanian and Lebanese Americans, is much harder than in other Arab countries with large Christian populations, where, he said, there is mutual respect and tolerance between Muslim and Christian groups.

Mutual what? Between Muslim and infidel dhimmi? Huh? But wait. No defense of Islamic terrorism or the Islamic assault on free speech is complete without the moral equivalence argument.

"Father Zakaria is fueled by desperation, but no one should be condemned by other people's faith," he said. "Just leave him alone and he'll go away… There are fanatics among Christians. There are fanatics among Muslims. There are fanatics among Jews. If we pay attention to fanatics, we become fanatic… Don't forget we have freedom of speech here. No one can silence another by force."

Our intellectual elites have become so weak and degraded that Muslims no longer need force to shut down debate. All they have to do is claim humiliation and hurt feelings. Their prophet has been insulted - oh dear.

It's obvious that local Muslims are up in arms over Fr. Botros. That makes him A-OK in my book. As AM stations sometimes have weak signals, I hope I can still hear the show. As I have to report back to school next Wednesday, this will be an even bigger problem, but I will at least be able to hear part of the show. I have to assume too, that he's syndicated in other markets, possibly on a station near you.

And another thing. The Arab American News has a lot of nerve complaining about so-called hate speech after publishing their assault on the Israel at 60 Celebration. They can dish it out, but when it comes to taking it . . .

As soon as I'm done with this post, I'll be sending a short email to WNZK in support of Fr. Botros. If anyone else is interested, you can contact Operations Manager:
Mr. Sima Birach at Sima@BIRACH.com.

UPDATE: Fr. George Shalhoub, a local "Palestinian" Orthodox Christian priest who is quoted in the article speaking against Fr. Botros. Shalhoub, demonstrates in this article, that he is a well trained, well behaved, dhimmi.

Labels: Arab American News, Muslims, Zakaria Botros

posted by Harry @ 9:01 PM 4 comments

The Thorn in Islam's Side

Victor Davis Hanson's Private Papers has a post about a remarkable Coptic priest.

Though he is little known in the West, Coptic priest Zakaria Botros — named Islam’s “Public Enemy #1” by the Arabic newspaper, al-Insan al-Jadid — has been making waves in the Islamic world. Along with fellow missionaries — mostly Muslim converts — he appears frequently on the Arabic channel al-Hayat (i.e., “Life TV”). There, he addresses controversial topics of theological significance — free from the censorship imposed by Islamic authorities or self-imposed through fear of the zealous mobs who fulminated against the infamous cartoons of Mohammed. Botros’s excurses on little-known but embarrassing aspects of Islamic law and tradition have become a thorn in the side of Islamic leaders throughout the Middle East.

Botros is an unusual figure on screen: robed, with a huge cross around his neck, he sits with both the Koran and the Bible in easy reach. Egypt’s Copts — members of one of the oldest Christian communities in the Middle East — have in many respects come to personify the demeaning Islamic institution of “dhimmitude” (which demands submissiveness from non-Muslims, in accordance with Koran 9:29). But the fiery Botros does not submit, and minces no words. He has famously made of Islam “ten demands,” whose radical nature he uses to highlight Islam’s own radical demands on non-Muslims.

The result? Mass conversions to Christianity — if clandestine ones. The very public conversion of high-profile Italian journalist Magdi Allam — who was baptized by Pope Benedict in Rome on Saturday — is only the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, Islamic cleric Ahmad al-Qatani stated on al-Jazeera TV a while back that some six million Muslims convert to Christianity annually, many of them persuaded by Botros’s public ministry. More recently, al-Jazeera noted Life TV’s “unprecedented evangelical raid” on the Muslim world. Several factors account for the Botros phenomenon.

I hope this is no exaggeration, and I hope his success increases.

Zakaria Botros' website is here.

Labels: Muslims, Victor Davis Hanson, Zakaria Botros

posted by Harry @ 9:50 PM 4 comments