by Jules Gomes, Focus on Western Islamism
Islamists Seek to Push Western Christians into Dhimmitude, Scholar Warns
Islamic supremacists are inciting their followers to target Christmas markets as part of a wider strategy to force Christians into dhimmi status under shari’a law, with the “blasphemous” doctrine of the incarnation serving as the basis for their calls to action.
That’s the message from Martin Parsons, an Islamic scholar and Middle East expert, who warns that recent efforts to disrupt Christmas celebrations in Europe are almost certainly a response to a specific call from the Islamic State (ISIS) in its weekly newsletter, Al-Naba, of September 18, urging jihadis to attack Jews and Christians in the West.
While the call to jihad is “a move which appears to have been an attempt to claim credit for the recognition of a Palestinian State due to be announced at the UN by several Western governments a few days later,” the primary provocation against the celebration of Christmas is theological, Parsons, a former aid worker to Afghanistan and founder of The Lindisfarne Centre for the Study of Christian Persecution told Focus on Western Islamism (FWI). Parsons offered this warning after police in Germany and Poland thwarted Islamist plots targeting Christian Christmas markets and as French officials moved to cancel or scale back Christian festivals in response to the threat environment.
Subjugating Christians to Shari’a Law
“Jihadists object to the public celebration of any non-Islamic festivals. Part of the Islamic law which jihadists wish to impose on Christians and Jews is dhimmi status,” Parsons explained.
“That is why countries enforcing strict shari’a observance, such as Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and Brunei, ban any public celebration of Christmas,” Parsons said. “By attacking Christian festivals, jihadists are signalling they wish to enforce this in the areas they attack.”
Subjugating Christians as dhimmis effectively renders them non-citizens but allows them to remain in the country, provided they worship in private and do not display their religious symbols or celebrate their festivals in public to be seen or heard by Muslims, Parsons added. The rules are rooted the Pact of Umar imposed on Christians in Syria by Islamic conquerors in the 7th century.
“In the case of Christmas, the Qur’an contains an entirely different Christmas story from the Bible,” Parsons stressed. It emphatically denies the biblical significance of Jesus’s birth as God becoming incarnate by sending his Son after revealing himself through the biblical prophets.