by Raymond Ibrahim, The Stream
In a recent article, we cited the strong reaction that Ieronymos, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, had to Egypt’s now-rescinded court decision to turn St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai — a UNESCO World Heritage site—into a museum. At one point, he warned:
“The Egyptian government has effectively chosen to dismantle every notion of justice and, with a single stroke, attempt to erase the very existence of the Monastery — abolishing its religious, spiritual, and cultural function.”
Erase. That is the key word.
Erasure has long defined the Islamic approach to pre-Islamic civilizations. Historically — and as we’re witnessing now — Islam has not simply appropriated the lands of others; it has actively sought to erase the memory of those who came before.
What’s Going On
At this very moment, for instance, Muslim-majority Azerbaijan is systematically erasing the Christian heritage of Artsakh and other Armenian lands it recently seized through war. Churches are being demolished, crosses removed, cemeteries desecrated, and propaganda spread to claim these lands which have been Christian for nearly two millennia were always Turkic or even proto-Muslim. (I’ve discussed this is several Stream articles, see here, here, here, and here.)
This method of conquest and subsequent historical erasure is not incidental; it’s strategic. By rewriting the past, Islam legitimizes its place in the present. Thus, the idea that the Muslim world has always been Muslim persists widely.