Islamists Project Islam's worst traits onto Christians

In recent weeks, we saw how the Muslim world's obsession with gaining converts evinces, in the words of one Muslim intellectual, an "inferiority complex"--a deadly one at that.

As it happens, inferiority complex is not the only psychological ailment besetting the Muslim world: some Muslims are also projecting the worst traits of Islam onto the beleaguered Christian communities living among them.

Take Egypt's Christian Copts, for example. Much of the recent violence inflicted upon them is based on the constant--but baseless--accusation that the Coptic Church is abducting and tormenting Coptic women who convert to Islam. Amazingly, it is precisely the opposite scenario--Muslims kidnapping Christian women and forcing them to convert to Islam--that is a notorious phenomenon in Egypt.

Indeed, a bipartisan group of eighteen members of the U.S. Congress wrote last year to Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, director of the State Department's Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Office, documenting how Coptic females are increasingly subject to "fraud, physical and sexual violence, captivity, forced marriage, and exploitation in forced domestic servitude or commercial sexual exploitation, and financial benefit to the individuals who secure the forced conversion" (see Christian Solidarity International's full report on the abuse of Christian women in Muslim Egypt for complete details).

A well-known psychological phenomenon, "projection" is defined as "the attribution of one's own ideas, feelings, or attitudes to other people." An academic article dealing with violence and projection states, "Projection allows the killer to project his (unacceptable) desire to kill (torture, rape, steal, dominate, etc.) onto some target group or person. This demonizes his target, making it even more acceptable to kill."

Of course, projection has long been a means to demonize Israel. Islamists accuse Israel and the Jews of living for "perpetual war," "legitimizing land theft in the name of God," and "plundering their opponent's property."

In fact, nothing less than Islam's holy law, Sharia law, mandates perpetual war, land grab, and the plundering of non-believers. Muslim scriptures, history, and current events are rife with examples; the overwhelming majority of what constitutes the Muslim world was taken by force. Only recently, popular Muslim preacher Abu Ishaq al-Huweini boasted about how jihad is one of the highlights of Islam, specifically because it allows the plundering of infidels and enslavement of their women and children.

Yet, because Muslims are currently in a weakened position, they see themselves as victims--not just vis-à-vis a stronger Israel, but even small and vulnerable communities like the Copts.

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