Northern Illinois Patriots

Just as Jews were once expelled from Arab lands, Christians are now being forced from countries they have long inhabited. A church in Bethlehem that survived more than 1,000 years was in jeopardy as it passed from Israeli to Palestinian control in 1994. Attacks on Christians are now commonplace in the Middle East. Their population has plunged from 20% over a century ago to less than 5% and still dropping.

 More than 200,000 Coptic Christians fled Egypt after beatings and killing by Muslim extremists last year. More than 70 Iraqi churches were burned and nearly one thousand Christians were killed in Baghdad alone. Conversion to Christianity is punishable by death in Iran while Saudi Arabia forbids private Christian prayer.

 Ironically the only place Christians flourish is in Israel where their communities have expanded by more than 1000% since 1948. They serve in the Knesset, the Foreign Ministry, the Supreme Court, and the military.

 Our own President proclaimed we are not a Christian nation using the derogatory term of Bible thumpers. He has openly embraced Muslim nations and proclaimed Islam as the religion of peace. It is not Christians that have slaughter thousands of innocent men, women, and children in the name of their religion or declared that all non-believers must be put to death. It is not Christians that have called for the destruction on an entire nation, the nation of Israel. We must ask ourselves is Islam really the Religion of Tolerance?