President Obama Proves Jesus' Premise

As Christians in the Middle-East, we were not comfortable. It seemed like we always had to be looking over our shoulder and behind our back to be sure that there wasn’t somebody waiting to stab or shoot us. It is just the reality of life under Islamic dominated states. It is the cost of being Christian in any Islamic state.

We should not surprised by the fact of persecution. Jesus told his disciples in John 15:18-20, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” The first disciples of Jesus were persecuted just as Jesus predicted, and we find ourselves in the same situation even today.

But I thought that Jesus’ prediction might not be entirely true. Maybe Muslim minorities in secular states are being persecuted too. I thought that might be just the nature of the world and not necessarily a Christian spiritual fact. But I was wrong.

Muslims in secular countries are as strong as in Islamic countries. When Iranian president Hassan Rouhani visited the Italian Museum, the nude statues were covered and the wine was banned in respect to his Islamic law. I wonder if Rouhani would do the same thing for the Pope if he would visit Tehran! Would the Pope be allowed to enter the mosque without first performing the Islamic cleaning rituals? Can Hillary Clinton visit Tehran without her head being covered with a scarf? 

I don’t think so. Islam always wins in the Middle-East and in the West. Christians seem to have no rights in either place. And that makes Jesus’ premise and prediction come true. In the Middle-East we are being persecuted, arrested, offended and threatened for doing nothing legally wrong. I have never seen a government official, a parliament member, or a president say anything in regard to this, let alone pay us a visit to ensure our safety or our right to exercise our religious or political life.

In America, as soon as there was tension in the air against Muslims due to the events in France and California, every governmental official started apologizing to the Muslim minorities. Muslims themselves have been protesting and yelling and defending their political and religious rights. I wish we could do the same thing in the Middle-East. In America, even President Barack Hussein Obama paid the Baltimore Mosque a visit as a gesture to ensure the safety of Muslim minorities and their right of practicing their religion without fear. Which again, made me wish that we had the same right in the Middle-East, as well as the same president like Obama, who proved Jesus’ premise to be correct. It is not the nature of the world that brings persecution upon Christians, but the animosity of the world toward Christ and the Christian Church.