The end of January brought with it the launching of a new Islamic propaganda campaign called “We are all Mary,” its name referring to the mother of Jesus, and its content purporting to show the world the suffering of Arab women in Jerusalem as a result of the “Zionist occupation’s” persecution aimed particularly at them. The public relations campaign began in Istanbul, probably the initiative of Hamas operatives, but spread quickly all over the Islamic world thanks to the widespread use of social media.
The “Palestine On-line” website posted a news item regarding the campaign, sent by its Jerusalem correspondent, Mustafa Zabar, in which he wrote:
Jerusalem activist Zena Amar praised the “We are all Mary” initiative, telling the “Falestin” newspaper: “…the goal of the campaign ‘We are all Mary’ is to show everyone the suffering of the Jerusalem woman who experiences pain – and hope – in Jerusalem, because she is uprooted from her family in order to be there when arrested or is denied entry to Jerusalem. The Jerusalem woman is either the mother of a prisoner or the mother of a son who is a shaheed or who has been wounded. The world remains silent despite the crimes of the occupation against Jerusalem’s women. That is why the campaign bears the name of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who lived under difficult conditions, similar to those of today’s Jerusalem woman.”
Jerusalem activist Hajja Khawid commented: “Jesus’ mother Mary gave birth to the best of all men and the Jerusalem woman gives birth to the men who are best at protecting Al Aksa, the city of Jerusalem and its holy places. Thanks to these women, men stand strong, while women are at the helm in all our battles – and that is why the occupation concentrates on punishing the Jerusalem woman. ”
The significance of all this is clear: The Palestinians have joined forces with the Turks to appropriate the symbol of Mary, mother of Jesus, in order to cast themselves as victims of Israeli oppression in the same way Mary suffered from the Roman conquerors and those Jews who collaborated with them. The Muslims have taken possession of a Christian symbol, Mary, so as to use her role in history as part of their battle against the Jews.
This is nothing new After all, in his speeches Arafat would often talk about liberating “Jerusalem’s mosques and churches” from Jewish “occupation”, turning the Palestinians, all other Arabs and all Muslims into protectors of Christianity. The fact is, however, that quite the opposite it true, as a brief look at recent history shows. For example, while Bethlehem was under Israeli rule, it was a city with a large Christian majority – about 85% of its residents were Christian. Nearby Beit Jala was 100% Christian. Under PA rule over Bethlehem and Beit Jala, beginning in 1994, thousands of Christian residents were forced to flee their homes and move overseas after Muslims, mainly the Bedouin of Beit Sachur, threatened them, attacking them, their wives, daughters and churches. And after all this, the mostly Muslim Palestinian Arabs are now attempting to adopt Mary as if they are interested in protecting Christianity.
In addition, the persecution of Christians does not end with the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria. It flourishes in Gaza, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and in every other Islamic country with a Christian minority. Most intriguing is the fact that in Istanbul, the city where the “We are all Mary” campaign was launched, one of the largest mosques – the Blue Mosque—is actually the Hagia Sofia Church which the Muslims turned into a mosque in 1453. Has the world also forgotten the massacre of Armenian and Assyrian Christians perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks during WWI?
Behind this stands the Islamic belief that Christianity, like Judaism, is “din elbatal”, a false religion, while only Islam is “din alkhak”, a true religion, and the Christians – according to the first chapter of the Koran – are those “who strayed from the right path.” That is why Allah punished them with having to live under Islamic subjugation as “dhimmi,” protected ones, who have only limited rights. The Christians, like the Jews, must pay a special head tax, the jizya, and are also humiliated as the Koran demands in chapter 9 (“Repentance”), verse 29.
The above explains why looting churches and turning them into mosques was accepted Muslim practice in Ramle, Damascus, the Balkans, Spain, Sicily and many other places, because if Christianity is an invalid religion, why do its followers need churches? Churches in Iraq, Pakistan, Nigeria, and other countries became mosques, and those functionaries holding positions in those churches were humiliated, attacked and sometimes killed over a period of many years.
And in today’s Europe? Muslim immigrants attack women of European extraction all the time, and that is just because they are Christians. Not a few Muslim migrants believe it is perfectly permissible for a Muslim to do as he will with the daughters of the heretics. In their opinion, He who is on high granted Muslims the lands of the unbelievers, their property, wives and even their lives.
The battles taking place today in several Arab and Islamic states – Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan – are interpreted by some Muslims as a war of Christianity (Western or Russian Orthodox) against Islam, and therefore those Christians living in Arab lands must pay the price.
The friendly relationship between the Christian West and Israel, since the time of the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and up to the Trump Declaration recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017, is understood by some Muslims as a Christian-Jewish scheme meant to humiliate the Muslim world, harm it and enforce the desires of Jews and Christians. It is for that reason Muslims make a point of saying that Balfour was an Evangelist, and that Trump is also close to Evangelist groups, to those who long to witness the return of the Jewish people to its land.
Many Muslims have not forgotten what the European Crusaders did to their forefathers in the 11th century: they conquered the nations on the eastern Mediterranean coast, established a Christian state, massacred Muslims and threatened to conquer Mecca. Salah ad-Din’s victory over the Crusaders two hundred years later is still used as an example of what the Muslim world is obligated to do to the Christians invading Muslim lands. Several important texts whose source is the ideology of ISIS discussed the need to conquer Rome (the center of Western Christianity) after the Muslim conquest of Constantinople (Istanbul) destroys the center of Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
The situation in the world today is diametrically opposed to what Islam is willing to accept: Christian states – the USA, Europe, Russia – control the world’s economy, reign over international politics, mechanisms and organizational systems that run the world, such as the UN. This is the case despite the fact that according to Islam, the Christians are supposed to live under Islamic subjugation with limited rights. This drives some of the Muslims out of their minds, and they are ready to do anything in order to bring the world back to the “correct” order as Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, phrased it in a Hadith: “In order that the word of Allah is supreme and the world of the heretic lowly.”
The Koran is filled with verses casting doubt on Christian dogma, as are the Hadiths. All the verses in the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem are anti-Christian in nature. It is possible that the reason for this is the rivalry between Christianity and Islam over hegemony In the city, because the churches located in the Old City are older and more impressive architecturally than the few nondescript mosques in that area.
In sum, it is possible to say that what characterized Islam’s attitude to Christianity was and still is a mixture of jealousy, hatred and a clear desire to take over the Christian world and force it to recognize Islam’s superiority. That is why the campaign that began several days ago with the title “We are all Mary” is based on a falsification of history, but replete with proofs of Islam’s negative opinion of Christianity.
The world, however, and especially Europe and the US, barely understand the motivations behind the PLO, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other “righteous Islamic” propaganda which tries its best to malign Israel by using Christian motifs, as if there were any connection between Christianity, a religion founded on Judaism, and the Palestine Liberation Organization whose entire raison d’etre is to cancel the Jewish people’s right to a state in its historic land, which happens to be the birthplace of Christianity as well.
Reprinted with author’s permission from Israel National News
