Michael Yon, the popular soldier offering independent journalism in Iraq, took this picture of Muslims helping a Catholic place a cross back atop St. James’ John’s church in Baghdad. Some have compared it to the photo of our flag being put up at Iwo Jima. As you can guess by the title, I’m not particularly impressed.
Supposedly this symbolizes a new love between Christians and Muslims. I’ll take the reality. We already have 100,000+ refugees from Iraq. Many of these refugees are Christian. When they start returning to Iraq, I will begin to believe that our troops have accomplished something significant here, returning the Christian community to a stability they enjoyed prior to our invasion.
Finding a few Muslims in a country of millions to appear in a photo shoot restoring a Christian landmark is seen as quite remarkable. This bellies a certain ignorance. It is not difficult to find lukewarm Muslims. If a Muslim had declined to participate in the picture for religious reasons, I would have certainly been understanding. I would have been just as understanding if a Muslim didn’t take up arms to kill Christians. Deadly belligerence was never a majority position among Muslims in Iraq. It’s a nice picture and even a minor accomplishment. Let’s not pretend it is something it is not.
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