People are wetting themselves over on Twitter right now after Muslims formed a human chain around a synagogue in Oslo, Norway, yesterday following the terror attack this week at a synagogue in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Here’s some of the reaction, beginning with GOP pollster Frank Luntz:
Norwegian Muslims form human shield around Oslo synagogue.http://t.co/YW1D4v64vh
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) February 22, 2015
In Norway, Muslims formed a human chain around a synagogue today chanting "no to anti-Semitism, no to Islamaphobia." pic.twitter.com/8j7pTR1VnU
— Tim Shorrock (@TimothyS) February 21, 2015
https://twitter.com/terrorism_info/status/569311628895883265
Now I’m not going to get into the motives of those involved today, but color me skeptical of these types of events for several reasons.
First, if you contact the international media to cover your event, forgive me if I question your sincerity. Your staged “Ring of Peace” photo op is really a “Ring of Propaganda.” Matthew 6:1-4 and all that.
Secondly, when you use actual victims (Jews) to try to make yourselves (Muslims) the victims by leading your chants with “No to anti-Semitism,” and then smuggling in your “Islamophobia” narrative, I’m calling BS.
As Reuters reported, this is what happened:
More than 1000 Muslims formed a human shield around Oslo’s synagogue on Saturday, offering symbolic protection for the city’s Jewish community and condemning an attack on a synagogue in neighboring Denmark last weekend.
Chanting “No to anti-Semitism, no to Islamophobia,” Norway’s Muslims formed what they called a ring of peace a week after Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein, a Danish-born son of Palestinian immigrants, killed two people at a synagogue and an event promoting free speech in Copenhagen last weekend.
When you fail to leave your own agenda at home, this isn’t about protecting victims, it’s about you grinding your “Islamophobia” narrative.
Thirdly, these Muslim “human chain” photo ops are never around when you actually need them.
To emphasize that last point, let me tell you two stories.
The first begins in July 2013 in Sohag, Egypt. After Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was deposed following the largest protests in recorded human history, the Muslim Brotherhood staged a “human chain” photo op in Sohag saying they were going to protect the St. George Church as a show of interfaith solidarity, notwithstanding those filthy infidel Coptic Christians backing General (now President) Sisi for removing Morsi.
The MB’s “human chain” event in front of St. George Church also made international news, with this picture being widely circulated as evidence of interfaith cooperation:
It should be noted that the picture itself is watermarked by the pro-Brotherhood Rassd.com online news portal.
Alas, that’s not where the story ends. Several weeks after their “human chain” photo op, the Muslim Brotherhood torched the very same St. George Church in Sohag following the dispersal of the Muslim Brotherhood protests in Rabaa Square in Cairo.
Here’s a picture of the attack on the Mar Girgis church tweeted out by ABC News foreign editor Jon Williams:
Main Coptic church in Sohag in Upper #Egypt, Church of St George, destroyed. pic.twitter.com/uCHPoTlWRI
— Jon Williams (@WilliamsJon) August 14, 2013
And even AlJazeera reported on the looting and torching of St. George’s:
#Egypt: Photos from Sohag where a church has been attacked and burned http://t.co/886mpfqf0A via @SheryRemon pic.twitter.com/mkzwHaR16T
— Al Jazeera News (@AJENews) August 14, 2013
The second story takes place just weeks after the sacking of the church in Sohag.
On September 22, 2013, two suicide bombers killed 127 worshipers at the All Saints Church in Peshawar, Pakistan. Nearly a month after the attack, Muslims staged yet another “human chain” to protest the Peshawar church bombing. Just as today in Oslo, the international media was there pushing all of the predictable progressive “interfaith” tropes:
Beautiful display of interfaith cooperation in #Peshawar http://t.co/8svbVdXTQH pic.twitter.com/rnPQ16Mu7Z
— Interfaith Council (@IFCMW) October 21, 2013
Just one problem. Ignore the fact that this is nearly a month after the bombings. The Muslim “human chain” protest occurred in Lahore — 250 miles away from the church that was bombed in Peshawar — a fact that didn’t go unnoticed:
Why not at Ground 0 at Peshawar RT @JinnahInstitute: Sowing tolerance: Activists make human chain at Islamabad church http://t.co/VZKFHQHct6
— Rakesh Lakhani (@rakesh_lakhani) October 14, 2013
So before we start declaring ISIS defeated after the staged event this weekend in Oslo, let me suggest that, as was the case in Sohag, when you burn the church down a couple of weeks after you stage your “Muslim human chain” you somewhat negate your message. Just saying.
And until we see these “Muslim human chains” form somewhere and at a time when it actually makes a difference (e.g. in Copenhagen where the synagogue was attacked, not in Oslo 300 miles away), please spare me your interfaith back-patting narratives. I’ll be more impressed if your human chain shows up when it matters.
UPDATE: So apparently Frank Luntz took umbrage at my calling him out on Twitter.
@FrankLuntz @instapundit Yeah, about those "Muslim Human Chains" around synagogues and other staged photo ops http://t.co/OKrf5IXSVz
— Patrick Poole (@pspoole) February 22, 2015
@pspoole @instapundit Where is your evidence that participants of the human chain in Sohag, Egypt later burned that church down?
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) February 22, 2015
@FrankLuntz @instapundit That's what the chief priest from St George's in Sohag told me first-hand when I interviewed him in Minya.
— Patrick Poole (@pspoole) February 22, 2015
@pspoole @instapundit Is he on-record saying that in a published story of yours somewhere?
I would love to see a link.
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) February 22, 2015
@FrankLuntz @instapundit I have a 3-part series on my trip through Upper Egypt coming out at @PJMedia_com shortly.
— Patrick Poole (@pspoole) February 22, 2015
It’s not clear to me what Luntz is questioning. Both the human chain event and the sacking of the church in Sohag were both widely publicized. Here’s video of the torching of Mar Girgis in Sohag (the same site as the human chain):
And here’s video from the Sohag church’s Youtube channel showing the destruction and directly placing blame on the Muslim Brotherhood:
As I told Luntz, my 3-part series on my trip to Egypt, including touring the burned-out churches, monasteries and Coptic orphanages in Upper Egypt, will be published here at PJ Media shortly.
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