Cyprian Quotes
It is a persistent evil to persecute a man who belongs to the grace of God. It is a calamity without remedy to hate the happy.
Cyprian of Carthage. "Treatise 10: On Jealousy and Envy." The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325, Volume 5, edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, Christian Literature Company, 1886, p. 494.
For a similar sentiment, see Thurgood Marshall.
A Capuchin monk and his Muslim servant had disappeared from the streets of Damascus just before the Jewish Passover. A rumor got started that Jews had kidnapped and murdered them so that they could use their blood in making the traditional Passover matzoh. This was an old disproven canard from the Middle Ages. This absurd lie, which persists in some Islamic nations, was referred to as the “Blood Libel”. However many Jews were rounded up and jailed with calls for their execution. Protests were made by countries the world over. Van Buren mobilized the American diplomatic machinery in one of America’s first coordinated diplomatic campaigns in defense of human rights. Instructions were sent to American diplomats in Turkey and Egypt to strongly send the American message and position. It was successful. See {613362}.
Sirhindi is a very important Muslim Imam and is credited with breathing new life and energy into the 2nd millennium of Islam. An irony of this quotation is that Sufi’s are often characterized as “moderate” Muslims. The quotation is extremely important in that there are some who attribute the anti-Semitism of the Muslims to the dispute over the State of Israel. However, it was the anti-Semitism that caused the problems with Israel. This quotation is from the 17th century—more than 300 years before Israel was established and over 200 years before the Zionist movement even thought about recovering Palestine for the Jews. Islamic anti-Semitism and anti-Christianity began in the Prophet’s lifetime and continued thereafter. It is as vicious today as it was 500 years ago, except for the fact that there is now an Islamic Reformation that despite the Koran’s statements regarding non-believers, they have a more modern view of the world and the people within it. Islamic cultures like Indonesia and Turkey do not have the same degree of anti-Semitism as Pakistan and the Arab Countries.
Most people are familiar with the people are familiar with the terrible persecution of the Jews in Spain by the Christians. Although there were a few examples of tolerance to Jews by Muslims when they controlled Spain and instances like modern Turkey. Generally however there is and has been Islamic persecution of Jews, Christians, and other non Muslims in almost all nations where Muslims have been in control. Until the Enlightenment, Christian persecution of other religions was just as bad if not worse.
Odo of Chatillon-Sur-Marne. This is an amazingly distressing quotation for most moderns. Here we have the Pope preaching genocide and ethnic cleansing. This was one of the main triggers of the bloody Crusades and is not forgotten by Muslims in the Middle East Today. As Islam has not changed a great deal in 1000 years, most Muslims assume that the same is true of Christianity and especially the popes and the Roman Catholic Church. This is one of the reasons that the Islamic world reacts so strongly when a pope makes any statement negatve about Muslims and Islam.
Cyprian (Latin: Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus; ca. 210 to 14 September 258 AD) was a bishop of Carthage and an early Christian writer of Berber descent, many of whose Latin works are extant. He is recognized as a saint in the Western and Eastern churches.
