{"id":77064,"date":"2019-08-14T10:59:41","date_gmt":"2019-08-14T16:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=77064"},"modified":"2019-08-14T10:59:41","modified_gmt":"2019-08-14T16:59:41","slug":"muslims-being-erased-from-central-african-republic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/08\/muslims-being-erased-from-central-african-republic.html","title":{"rendered":"“Muslims being ‘erased’ from Central African Republic”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Africa<\/a>
A more or less current public domain political map of the continent of Africa from Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Few Americans pay any attention to what\u2019s going on in Africa, and especially in what we might call interior<\/em> Africa. \u00a0Of course, we\u2019re not overly good at noticing what goes on beyond our borders in general. \u00a0\u201cWar,\u201d Ambrose Bierce once commented, \u201cis God\u2019s way of teaching Americans geography.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, with regard to Africa I don\u2019t do any better myself, most of the time. \u00a0I\u2019m not sure what the reasons for that neglect are. \u00a0It\u2019s a depressing area, of course. \u00a0Impoverished, unstable, often oppressed. \u00a0That\u2019s probably one reason. \u00a0We don\u2019t often travel there. \u00a0Europe? \u00a0Yes, of course. \u00a0Asia? \u00a0Very possibly. \u00a0(Thailand\u2019s beaches summon us, as does the Great Wall of China.) \u00a0Latin America? \u00a0Sure. \u00a0Rio. \u00a0Machu Picchu. \u00a0Tikal. \u00a0Palenque. \u00a0Cancun. \u00a0The great pyramids at Teotihuac\u00e1n. \u00a0But Africa? \u00a0Especially central Africa?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And few of us have any real ties to Africa. \u00a0Even American Blacks with ancestral links there had those links abruptly broken by the obscenity of violent enslavement. \u00a0You don\u2019t see many proud immigrant communities based on slave ancestry. \u00a0There\u2019s little equivalent to a nostalgia for, say, County Clare and Gaelic music. \u00a0Few traditional recipes proudly passed down from African ancestors. \u00a0Relatively few American Blacks (I\u2019m guessing) have any very firm idea about exactly whence their forebears were unwillingly torn.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In any case, though, I\u2019m grateful to have had this piece called to my attention the other day (by Matthew Wheeler, perhaps). \u00a0It\u2019s several years old, though, and now I need to find out what is going on currently:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMuslims being \u2018erased\u2019 from Central African Republic:\u00a0Amnesty International says Muslims living in rural areas especially targeted as militias undertake \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many of us will at least have heard of the crimes of the Muslim terrorist group Boko Haram against Christians in Nigeria (e.g., its abduction of young girls, and so forth), but it\u2019s important (and discouraging) to know that the offenses go both ways.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another area of which we in the West tend to hear little or nothing:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTroops let Muslims go to mosques in locked-down Kashmir\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cKashmiri Americans organize to put a human face to the crisis in their homeland\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This article \u2014 a little bit more upbeat, certainly, than the foregoing \u2014 will perhaps interest anybody who cares about the history and prospects of Christians in the Middle East, as well as anybody who wants to know what\u2019s going on in Syria today:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Syriac Christian Renaissance:\u00a0A civil war, a revival of language and culture, an uncertain future\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from St. George, Utah<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Few Americans pay any attention to what\u2019s going on in Africa, and especially in what we might call interior Africa. \u00a0Of course, we\u2019re not overly good at noticing what goes on beyond our borders in general. \u00a0\u201cWar,\u201d Ambrose Bierce once commented, \u201cis God\u2019s way of teaching Americans geography.\u201d \u00a0 Unfortunately, with regard to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"Muslims being 'erased' from Central African Republic"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Few Americans pay any attention to what's going on in Africa, and especially in what we might call interior Africa. \u00a0Of course, we're not\" \/>\n<meta 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