Chairman’s Report for March 22nd, 2013

 Saudi Arabia – The Root of Islamic Evil

In February, 53 Ethiopian Christians were arrested in the Saudi Arabian city of Dammam for the crime of praying together in a private home. I reported on this and previous arrests of Christian guest workers in Saudi Arabia in the February 28^th edition of the Chairman’s Report. At the time only one congressman had spoken out about the arrests and brutal treatment of the African Christian workers. There was at the time, and continues to be, a solid wall of silence from the rest of the congressmen and Senators as well as from the White House.

Despite Saudi Arabia being an absolute monarchy/dictatorship, there is never a word of criticism from Western leaders or the Western press against the atrocities there. Rather, Western leaders – including President Obama – often travel to Saudi Arabia to bow before the royalty to either beg for loans or in an attempt to sell arms to them.

15 of the 19 hijackers on 9-11 were well educated Saudi citizens

It is virtually never mentioned in the press that fifteen of the nineteen jihad attackers on 9-11 were Saudi citizens, all well-educated with oil money. Radical mosques around the world are financed with Saudi money and the entire anti-Semitic movement in Europe is paid for with Saudi money. In Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, DC, the Saudi Academy teaches Islamic and Arab supremacy, anti-Semitism, and it also instructs students that democracy is an apostate religion that must be destroyed! Virtually all the children of Arab diplomats attend the Saudi Academy and the state of Virginia gives it special benefits.

The material used in Islamic private schools and in 90% of mosques is furnished by the radical Wahhabi government of Saudi Arabia, using oil profits. The material teaches hatred against Europeans, Jews, infidels and democratic forms of government. Maps do not show Israel and refer to Spain as “occupied Arab territory.” Many of the graduates of Saudi funded Islamic schools in the United States and Europe are now fighting jihad in Mali, Yemen and Syria.

There is more than silence from Western leaders — there is support.

Why does this continue? Why do the liberals such as Barack Obama, who promote same-sex marriage in the United States, say nothing about the hanging of homosexuals in Saudi Arabia? Why do American feminists say nothing about the stoning to death of women accused of adultery in Saudi Arabia? Why do congressmen who demand people in America be allowed to vote without showing any ID, say nothing about there being no vote at all in Saudi Arabia?

Congressman Wolfe summed up the problem during a meeting I attended with him last year. He said that the reason congressmen say nothing about the persecution of Christians in Saudi Arabia and other Islamic nations is the failure of pastors to speak out. Congressman Wolfe said, “Congress takes no action because they don’t hear from pastors.”

In the last few weeks I have learned that not only don’t congressmen hear from pastors, they hardly hear from anyone about the persecution of Christians.

Was my work for no purpose? – Shortly after I wrote in the Chairman’s Report about the latest arrests of Ethiopian Christians in Saudi Arabia I also wrote a column for WND.COM. That column about the arrests and the failure of congressmen, Senators and the President to speak out about the abuses in Saudi Arabia was read by tens of thousands of people. I then appeared on Mike Huckabee’s national radio show and other radio shows to expose the persecution of African Christians who are guest workers in Saudi Arabia.

I didn’t stop there.  I produced a three minute video that was posted on Youtube and embedded not only at the Religious Freedom Coalition Internet site but at many others as well. On Facebook, the Youtube video had thousands of views. I posted and promoted stories on Facebook that had thousands of visits. All of these stories, radio shows and Youtube promotions pointed people to a free fax service. At FaxCongress.com a free fax could be delivered to the sender’s congressman asking him to speak out against Saudi persecution of Christians.

Sadly, over a period of ten days, my work resulted in just 14 people sending the fax to their congressman. (Note: After appearing on more radio shows the count was over 100 faxes sent to congressman as of march 22,2013.) I was flat out ashamed at the response and embarrassed to actually show up at any congressman’s office claiming I have support from the American Christian community to stop the persecution and torture of Christians in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else. No wonder Barack Obama is so confident of his support for the Muslim Brotherhood and Saudi Arabia. Christians in America apparently are so lethargic that they are going to let him get away with helping radical Islam destroy the churches founded by Peter, Paul and the other saints.

For years I have blamed the Congress and the arrogance of the White House for the continued failure to say a single word against the continuing destruction of the church in the Middle East and the persecution of Christians. Suddenly I realized in my heart that the problem was not with political leaders but with the church in America. Pastors don’t know about or don’t understand the problem of persecution of Christians. If pastors don’t know or understand that Christians are being persecuted, they don’t talk about the issue in the pulpit. If the pastors don’t speak out, then those in the pews are not going to be politically active about it.

Without pastors and individual Christians making congressmen and Senators socially aware of the persecution, it cannot be stopped.

Just this week I met briefly with a Senator and talked to him about the arrests of the Ethiopian Christians and their torture. Bottom line: The Senator had never heard about the arrests. He had no knowledge of the Mutaween (religious police) in Saudi Arabia. He did not know that 20% of the population of Saudi Arabia are Christian guest workers. He did not even know that there was not a single church allowed in Saudi Arabia or that it was against the law for those Christians workers to even own a Bible. He didn’t know because there had been no pressure on his office and no information had been sent to him. Few, if any, people had contacted his office about persecuted Christians and he simply did not know they existed anywhere in the world much less Saudi Arabia.

If we cannot stop the persecution of the church outside the United States, I can promise you that the church inside the United States will feel the whip of persecution.

This is a social issue. It is politically incorrect for politicians, newspapers, pastors or even individual Christians to talk about the persecution of Christians. This is why there is virtually no mention in newspapers of the hundreds of Nigerian Christians killed each week or the Pakistani Christians jailed for “blasphemy” and often executed.

How we sold out to the Saudis

For decades I have been trying to make people aware of the persecution of Christians particularly in the Middle East. Before the 9-11 jihad attacks I stepped forward on behalf of the Christians in Bethlehem when the United States forced Israel to hand the Christian city over to the Islamist run Palestinian Authority. I warned there was more to come after bombings of jetliners in the 1980’s and after the first attack on the World Trade Center. Have my efforts failed? Should I just give up?

Unless we want to see the church in America suffer in the same way as the Coptic Church in Egypt is suffering today, I cannot give up and neither can you.

More must be done. Many of those fighting this battle, including myself, have been trying to reach political leaders — and that is the effort that has failed. The political leaders will not stand fast against Islamic advances, including the introduction of blasphemy laws in the United States as has been done in Europe, unless there is real resistance from the people. That resistance can come only from social change. The society has to care, Christians have to care.

We have to change the society, and we have to make it politically incorrect to ignore the persecution of Christians. We have to move people to action and we can do that through the media. The best way to get media attention is through advertising. Just reaching the minority of people who are aware and who care, is not enough. We have to cause people who don’t understand what is happening and who don’t care what is happening, to become concerned and to speak out against the persecution of Christians and the loss of religious freedom in America.

Advertising sells everything from cars to politicians. We need to use advertising to change perspective and activate Christians, particularly pastors. New programs need to begin, that will change attitudes on the street and in Washington, DC. Instead of sending small amounts of aid to destroyed churches in Iraq and Syria, we need to change the society in such a way as to be of real help to the persecuted church.

Over the next three or four weeks I am going to develop a program of both newspaper ads and church information packages. The newspaper ads will dramatically tell the public of the problem of the persecution of the church in the Middle East. At the same time I will develop a package to send to pastors of every denomination showing them how the churches founded by Peter, Paul and the other early saints of the church are being destroyed. I want to continue to use the free service to send congressmen a fax, but I want to grow it to the point that a thousand faxes a day are going to Congress about the persecution of Christians. For that to happen, we have to change the culture.

Homosexuals have changed the culture for the worse using the media. The homosexual groups used advertising and media insiders to cause a sea change in America, leading the majority of young people to support sodomy as “love.” If the media can be used to sell sin, it can be used to sell righteousness. The success of the brand new mini-series “The Bible” shows that we can move the media and as a result move society, but we have to start somewhere.

Last year our newspaper advertising campaign to tell Americans about the social agenda of President Barack Obama was a huge success. Our hard hitting ads in newspapers caused many newspaper stories to be written for and against us. There were many radio talk shows about the ads and even TV news referred to them. We need to repeat this success – not in a political vain – but in an effort to change the thinking of the society and the media about the persecuted church.

Yes … We must keep our ministry commitments to the persecuted church. This month the Religious Freedom Coalition paid $3,800 for a security system at the building in Amman, Jordan used by our sister ministry to distribute aid to Christian refugees. This was above and beyond our normal commitments to supply aid. During 2012 the Religious Freedom Coalition paid to transport containers of donated supplies to Jordan for distribution to Christian refugees. We will meet our commitment to assist the Christian youth camp we support in Jordan, with such things as replacing worn out mattresses. We will continue to support our outreach church in the “West Bank” city of Ariel. Many Arabs have come to Christ in this ministry.

URGENT NOTE: Our funds for Syrian Christian refugees have been frozen in our transfer bank in Cyprus as the EU demands that nation steal the funds of depositors it win more loans. Help is urgently needed –  donate today! (March, 2013)

However, in the United States we must change direction. We can’t continue to simply place stories of Christian persecution on Facebook and Internet sites as do so many other organizations. There are dozens of Internet sites warning of the dangers facing the church from Islamic oppression. But the stories of persecution on these Internet sites do not reach the general public, nor do they reach pastors who can make a difference.

Over the next month it is my intention to develop, with the help of an advertising agency, newspaper ads that will make people want to learn and care about the persecuted church. These will not be full page ads and they will not run in the Washington, DC newspapers to be seen only by congressmen and Senators. The ads will run in newspaper markets such as Orlando, Buffalo, San Antonio, Tucson, Fargo and many more, and they will run not just for a few months because of an election, but until there is social change.

Ad run by the Religious Freedom Coalition in the Washington Times and other newspapers less than 30 days after 9-11

We can’t make our society care about persecuted Christians in Egypt, Nigeria or Pakistan overnight, but with time we can make them understand that not caring will bring about the persecution of the church right here in the United States. That will cause societal change.

This will be a slow process. We may have to start out targeting one or two congressional districts at a time. If we can cause people to care in just one or two congressional districts, the pastors in those districts will address the issue. This year if we can get pastors in just one or two congressional districts to speak out, we will get congressmen on our side. To change the way America deals with worldwide Christian persecution … To change the way America deals with the despotic source of Islamic evil – Saudi Arabia – we must win congressmen to our side. For that to happen we must win the hearts of the pastors of American churches.

Just after the jihad attack on 9-11, I was shocked to see the Saudi kingdom get “off the hook” so easily. Although 15 of the 19 attackers were Saudi citizens, the Kingdom’s role was passed over and explained away. This so shocked me that within 30 days I actually ran an ad in the Washington Times pointing to the fact that the Saudi Kingdom was no different from the Taliban who ruled Afghanistan. Looking back, I wish I would have continued to run that ad in newspapers across the nation. I deeply regret not doing that, as I see the damage Saudi money is doing and how it is used to persecute the church and advance Islamic supremacism and spread anti-Semitism. I pray that you will join me in a project – a mission – that could change the way America thinks and reacts to the persecution of Christians worldwide.

William J. Murray, Chairman

Religious Freedom Coalition, 601 Pennsylvania Ave, NW  #900 , Washington, DC 20004 * (202) 742-8990