Germany against Radical Christians

"They talk about holy war.

They see themselves as martyrs.

According to them, other religions are deviance.

You will think that they are probably radical Islamists.

No,

This time we are talking about radical Christians.

There are millions of these fanatic fundamentalists in the US.

Thanks to them, George Bush was elected President."

These are the opening sentences of a documentary once broadcast on Das Erste, the number one state television of Germany, which is on the agenda these days with the racism debates that have emerged with the Mesut Özil case, about American Evangelist radical Christians. Of course, this text is read accompanied by footage related to these Christians. In the rest of the documentary, the roles that the Radical Christians in question played in the Iraq occupation are shown in an extremely striking and, of course, quite critical manner.

The discourse of Germany, which is the subject of criticism for its racist attitude toward Muslims, exposing the religious bigotry of American radical Christians against Muslims, honestly strikes one as very striking at first glance. Of course, one should not rush to draw inferences. This discourse has very different implications and entailments. For now, let us keep listening. It continues as follows:

"But the activities of these Christian fanatics are not limited to the US. They want to Christianize the entire world. With the start of the war in Iraq, they were given a chance. Right after the occupation, missionaries came to Iraq. While people were being killed every day, they were also trying to Christianize Muslims. They were doing this mostly secretly but in any case with the permission of the US government.

Let us listen to the rest about the Christian holy war from John Goetz and Volker Steinhoff:

-It is not very noticeable from outside, but this is actually a newly built church. Iraqi Christians are at worship. Among them are American missionaries. The church is their headquarters. Here they make plans for Christianizing Iraq. Tom White has dyed his hair.

-'We disguise ourselves as tourists. I wear these glasses, I dyed my hair black, I use a fake beard, etc.'

-'In the next room there are tons of books belonging to the Christian corpus. We distributed thousands of these color-printed Gospels in Iraq.'

-'Gospels for children, the life of Jesus, etc.'

-'We Christians are always in a war.'

The person who takes care of the printing of Gospels for children heads a million-dollar organization called Voice of the Martyrs (Şehitlerin Sesi).

Martyrs are Christians who sacrificed their lives for their religion. Those who died for 'God's aggressive love.'

This war is an important and necessary war. Iraqis will be converted to Christianity through means such as propaganda and humanitarian aid.

-'Some Muslims react with extreme anger. In Islamic society, when a Muslim converts to Christianity, the punishment is death. Doesn't this mean that your activities cause people's deaths?'

-'Our activities may cause the deaths of some people. We are aware of this. But spending eternal life in heaven rather than in hell is probably a better, more correct decision. Even if it results in physical punishment in this world.'

'Martyrs' (Şehitler) is not the only missionary group in Iraq. The internet is full of propaganda videos. Christian fundamentalists are coming to these lands with the support of the American army.

Things that are forbidden in other Arab countries are allowed here by American generals. Missionary activities.

Radical Christians who conceal their identity as humanitarian aid workers want to Christianize Iraq. But their efforts to conceal themselves do not always work. We often receive news that missionaries have been killed. These Baptists are one example. 'The Southern Babtist Convention' is the organization that has sent the most missionaries to Iraq.

-'The imams are afraid. If Christianity takes root here, the same thing will happen in the whole Middle East in the future. The most important place right now is Iraq.'

US President G. Bush himself spoke of a holy war. Right-wing fundamentalists, who see all of this as a holy war against Islam, are being appointed in ever greater numbers to the state's most powerful positions and decision-making bodies.

When he is not busy hunting down Islamists, General William Boyken spends his time attending Baptist ceremonies.

-'The issue is not Osama Bin Laden. The enemy continues to exist in the spiritual realm.'

At one point the General said something that was captured only on audio recordings. What he said was a great provocation for Muslims.

-'My God is greater than theirs,'

-'Their God is a false God, an idol.'

This great war waged against Islamists has increasingly spread the General's beliefs in this Baptist church.

-'This congregation has practically fallen in love with General William Boyken. He is someone who has risked his whole life in that army. We love our army very much.'

The members of this church share the same views on the war as the general.

-'This is a religious war. They do not hate us, they hate our God. They believe in a huge lie.'

-'Throughout history many false gods like their Allah have appeared. These false beliefs have always existed. This is a truth that the prophets have always pointed out.'

A crowd in the city of Midwest Broken Arrow. Hundreds of people who are members of this Baptist church. There are more than 40 thousand churches like this in America. All of these churches belong to the organization called 'The Southern Babtist Convention.'

-'Our President needs you. Our army needs you.'

These people will be sent on a journey. More than 5000 have been assigned to various parts of the world. This group is going to Mexico. But they would have liked to go to Iraq too.

-'I long for death. Even if it meant I would die, I would go to Iraq.'

-'We have to defeat them. They want to kill us. They killed 3000 of us. All Iraqis must join our religion. The same goes for the whole Middle East. This is a sacred war. We are fighting the forces of darkness.'

Winning new volunteers does not seem at all difficult. More than 16 million Americans are members of 'The Southern Babtist Convention.' One of them is the former US president (Bush).

Good days are near in the holy war. There are some difficulties awaiting them next week. The Iraqi Government. In this case missionary activity will be harder. But for these American holy warriors this is, on the contrary, motivating.

Conflict is a natural feature of Christianity."

The documentary, as will be understood, is not from today. It takes a picture of the days when US soldiers were still in Iraq through German eyes. We wanted to present an excerpt of what that eye saw.

Yesterday we spoke of Israel's being a DEAŞ. Today, through German media, we are laying out the DAEŞ characteristics of the US's Christians.

So this eye does not always take wrong pictures, and so curtains can in time descend over eyes that can see these truths. Because for quite a while there has been no broadcast in this direction in the German media.

Why? Isn't that the whole point anyway?