Christian Zionist Messianism: How It Views Islam and Muslims
By Yoginder Sikand (an Indian writer)
Represented by literally hundreds of small denominations and churches today,
particularly in America, evangelical Christian Zionist messianism is today a
formidable force and a major actor in global politics. It exercises an enormous
clout in the current Bush administration in America. George Bush, too, himself
can be characterized as an arch upholder of this ideology, and his policies in
the Middle East and elsewhere clearly reflect or tally with the Christian
Zionist messianic agenda. Firmly supportive of Zionism, Israel and Israeli
expansionism, Christian Zionist messianism is today one of the principal
fountainheads of Islamophobia on the global scene.
This paper provides a general overview of the ideology of Christian Zionist
messianism, focusing, in particular, on the way Islam and Muslims are depicted
as an integral part in the role of the antagonistic Other of this ideology.
It shows how Christian Zionist messianic expectations generate enormously
destructive imperialistic and militaristic tendencies that threaten to drown
the world in an unprecedented global war, with Muslims being projected as the
principal enemy. The implications of this dangerous ideology, a combination
of centuries of white racism and Islamophobia, Zionist claims to supremacy and
aims at global domination and the machinations of the present global
capitalistic order, for Muslims, and for the world at large, are then sought to
be outlined. This it does by looking specifically at the writings and
activities of one of the leading American Christian Zionist ideologues of
today, John Hagee, senior pastor of the
Cornerstone Church in San Antonia in Texas, in Americas notorious
Bible-belt, which is also the bastion of white racism and supremacy in
America.
Introduction
Approximately a tenth of the American population are today devoted members of
the cult of Christian Zionist messianism, writes the noted scholar-activist Dan
Cohn-Sherbook, himself a Jew and Profesor of Judaism at the University of Wales
in a recently published book, The Politics of Apocalypse The History and
Influence of Christian Zionism. 'It is the fastest growing religious movement
in Christianity today', he writes. Many followers of the cult are from the
middle and upper-middle classes, followers of televangelists who wield enormous
political and economic clout.
Christian Zionist messianists are impelled by an imperialistic vision, of
Jesus' impending arrival on earth as the Messiah, when he shall, so they
believe, wipe out all his enemies (all non-Christians, presumably) and
establish his global dominion, with his capital at Jerusalem. Meanwhile,
Christian Zionists believe that they, as allegedly God's chosen people, will be
spared the horrors of the global war that shall precede Jesus' advent, and will
be miraculously wafted up to heaven, where they shall watch the final
destruction of the world.
Christian Zionists believe that Jesus can only return to the world once the
Jews colonise Palestine. This belief is based on the contentious claim that God
had granted this land to the progeny of Abraham, through Isaac, that is the
Jews, for eternity. This land is not restricted to the present borders of the
state of Israel. Instead, Zionists, both Jewish and Christian, believe that a
vast swathe of land, stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates, today inhabited
by millions of Arab Muslims and Christians, belongs rightfully to the Jews, and
so must be ethnically 'cleansed' of non-Jewish presence. Hence the
justification they offer for their genocidal project aimed at the Arabs. Hence,
too, their consistent backing to Israel, their generous funding of Jewish
settlements in Palestine, and their enormous pressure on successive American
governments to adopt rigorously pro-Israel and anti Palestinian policies.
Cohn-Sherbook traces the origins of Christian Zionism to the changing attitude
of Christian groups towards the Jews following the Protestant Revolution. The
early Catholic Church justified the witch-hunt of the Jews, labeling them as
alleged Christ-killers. However, numerous Protestant sects, while equally
vehemently anti-Jewish, believed that the Jews needed to colonise Palestine
before Jesus would re-appear in the world to save it. This was, and still is,
by no means a generous acceptance of the Jews. Rather, they believed, as
Christian Zionists today do, that only those Jews who accepted Jesus as the
Messiah would be saved. The rest would ally themselves with the Anti-Christ and
would be defeated by Jesus and his forces and, consequently, would be sent off
to eternal damnation in the fires of hell.
>From the seventeenth century onwards, Cohn-Sherbook shows, numerous European,
>and, later American, Protestant churches began evolving schemes to settle the
>Jews in Palestine. This was also seen as a convenient way of getting rid of
>the Jewish presence in Europe. They petitioned various European powers to back
>this scheme. By the early nineteenth century, numerous British administrators
>had been won round to this idea, impelled, no doubt, also by a motive to
>undermine the Ottoman Empire, which at that time controlled Palestine, and by
>a deep-rooted aversion to Islam.
Increasingly, Christian Zionists began to join hands with secular Jewish
Zionists, whose plans to settling Jews in Israel had nothing to do with any
messianic hopes, but, rather, arose as a response to the centuries-old
persecution of Jews by European Christians. (In contrast, Cohn-Sherbook rightly
notes, In Arab lands, Jews had flourished for centuries [while] in European
countries Jewry had been subject to oppression and persecution.
Ties between secular Jewish Zionists and Christian Zionists to pursue the
common project of Jewish colonization of Palestine were strengthened by the
support given to Theodore Herzl (b.1860), the Hungarian Jew who is regarded as
the father of modern-day Zionism. Cohn-Sherbook traces in considerable detail
the course of this close collaboration down to the present-day, describing the
strong political and financial links between Christian and Israeli/Jewish
Zionists and also the enormous clout of the Zionist lobby in American political
circles.
Christian Zionism, based on a virulently anti-Islamic agenda, is a major hurdle
to peace not just in West Asia but globally, too. Indeed, some Christian
Zionists even ardently wish (and work for) a final global war or Armageddon, in
the belief that this would accelerate their hoped-for wafting up to heaven and
the subsequent arrival of Jesus. Christian Zionist messianism is a call for
global war. The belief that Christianity is the sole truth, that all other
faiths are Satanic or false, that the Jews must all gather in Palestine to
fulfill so-called Biblical prophecies, and that a grand global war will soon
erupt leading to the massacre of hundreds of millions and heralding the second
coming of Jesus, who will establish his Christian kingdom extending till the
four corners of the world, clearly indicate the hate-driven, global
expansionist project of Christian Zionism.
In his remarkable book, The Cross and the Crescent: The Rise of American
Evangelism and the Future of Muslims, Muhammad Arif Zakaullah brings out in
considerable detail how Christian Zionist messianists have specifically framed
and targeted Muslims as allegedly being in league with the Anti-Christ and
against whom Jesus and the Christians must fight in a bloody war of
unprecedented dimensions in the last days. This explains, Zakaullah writes,
their unstinting support to Israel and its brutal suppression of the
Palestinians, and their fervent backing of Americas invasion of Iraq and
Afghanistan and its so-called war on terror. Zakaullah quotes several leading
American Christian messianic evangelists as describing Islam and Muslims in
lurid colours and branding it as irredeemably anti-Christian. Not
surprisingly, he writes, they have been among the most fierce backers of
Americas imperialist misadventures that many Muslims see as directed
against them. American imperialism is thus sought to be given a suitable
Christian sanction, and is presented as working to usher in Jesus triumphant
return to the world. War and bloodshed on an unimaginable scale, mainly against
Muslims, and not peace and reconciliation, American Christian fundamentalists
seem to believe, will herald the eventual establishment of the Kingdom of God,
the rule of supposedly pious Christians all over the globe.
John Hagee: Ideologue of Christian Zionist Messianic Imperialism and Advocate
Of Cosmic War Against Islam and Muslims John Hagee is today recognized the
world over as one of the leading ideologues of contemporary Christian Zionist
messianism. He is the founder and pastor of the Cornerstone Church, in Texas,
USA, which claims some 18,000 active members.
As with numerous other similar American Christian fundamentalist preachers, his
church is richly endowed and media savvy. Hagee is the president of the Global
Evangelism media company that broadcasts his daily programmes on television
and radio throughout the USA and around the world. He is the author of numerous
books on Christian Zionism, some of which have been reprinted by Christian
fundamentalist publishers abroad as well.
Final Dawn over Jerusalem is one of Hagees major writings on Christian Zionism
that well exemplifies the imperialist agenda that lies at its very core. The
aim of the book is to defend the Israeli occupation of Palestine, to denounce
those who seek to protest Israeli atrocities, and to advocate the cause of
Greater Israel, all this in the name of Christianity and premised on the
notion of the Jews as being allegedly Gods Chosen People.
Racism is integral to the Christian Zionist message, as Hagee makes amply
clear. The Bible, Hagee, says, describes the Jews as the apple of Gods eye
[Zech 2:8]. He quotes the Bible as addressing the Jews and declaring, For you
are a holy people to the LORD your God and the LORD has chosen you to be a
people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the
face of the earth. [Deut.14:2]. This means, so Hagee argues, that those who
harm the Jews or the state of Israel or stand in the way of the design of
Greater Israel will experience the instant wrath of God. To those who dare
to challenge the oppressive Zionist state, Hagee announces, The man or nation
that lifts a voice or hand against Israel invites the wrath of God. Such
people will, Hagee insists, be cursed by God.
Hagees notion of God thus appears to be that of a tribal Jewish deity, who
functions as a willing tool in the pursuit of Jewish expansionism. The Bible
was written by Jewish hands, and given that, as many liberal Christians would
themselves concede, much of it is a human product, numerous Biblical verses
were written in order to legitimize the interests of the community from which
its writers were drawn. This would seem obvious to any discerning layman, but
Biblical literalists like Hagee vehemently disagree. For them every word of the
Bible is sacrosanct and divine. Biblical literalism is pressed into the service
of the Christian Zionist messianic imperialist and racist agenda. Drawing upon
numerous verses of the Bible, Hagee argues, God watches over Israel as a
protective parent hovers over an only child. The nation of Israel, he makes
so bold as to declare, was created by a sovereign act of God. All other
nations were created by an
act of war or a declaration of men, but Israel was intentionally created by
God so that He would have a physical place of inheritance on the earth.
Accordingly, Hagee would have us believe that for this god, who is seen as in
need of a physical place for himself, non-Jews or Gentiles, are second-rate
human beings or less, and so can easily be dispensed with if they are seen as
coming in the way of Jewish imperialism.
The tribal Jewish version of God that Hagee presents appears entirely unjust
and arbitrary, far from being impartial in the way he deals with His creation.
Given the fact that the God of the Biblical literalist imagination is a Jewish
deity, and not the universal God who looks upon His entire creation
impartially, he is seen as blessing Jewish conquests of territories of their
enemies. Thus, quoting the Bible, Hagee writes that God gave the land of
Greater Israel, a vast swathe of land stretching from Egypt all the way till
Iraq, to the Jews, descendants of Isaac, forever. That being the case, Hagee
suggests that people living in those territories, millions of Arabs, both
Muslims and Christians, have no right to live there or else must accept to live
under Jewish rule. Although Hagee does not say this explicitly, what this means
is that those who refuse to accept Jewish rule must, therefore, be either
killed or expelled.
The god of Hagees imagination appears as an entirely whimsical real estate
agent. God established Israels national geographic boundaries, Hagee writes.
The exact borders of Israel are detailed in Scripture just as our heavenly
Father dictated them, he goes on, adding, The divine Surveyor drove the
original stakes into Judean soil and decreed that no one should ever change
these property lines. The real estate contract and lands covenants were signed
in blood and stand to this very hour. Hence, he argues, Jews have the
absolute right as mandated by God to the land of Israel and, more specifically,
to the city of Jerusalem. Hence, he suggests, Palestinians have no claim to
their own historical land, and must make way for Jewish occupiers.
Hagees defence of Zionist imperialism goes to ridiculous lengths. Laughable as
this may sound, he argues, Israel has a Spy in the sky God Himself. God, he
claims, provides Israel, the Jewish people and the state of Israel, with
special protection. No nation in the world can match the defensive force
guarding the State of Israel. The archangel Michael has a special assignment to
guard Israel. And those who, for any reason oppose Israel, and this includes
Palestinians fighting Israeli occupation and oppression, are said to incur
Gods wrath. The Lord stands watch in the darkest night with an eye trained on
the nation of Israel and, more specifically, Jerusalem. Those who fight with
Israel fight with Him, Hagee asserts.
So central is Israel to Hagees tribalistic version of God that he goes to the
extent of arguing that the fate of each and every person on the face of the
planet depends essentially on his or her attitude to the Jews. Prosperity or
punishment depends on how we treat Israel, he alleges, because, he claims, the
Jews, as descendants of Abraham enjoy heavenly favour. To back his claim he
quotes the Bible as saying that when God entered into a covenant with Abraham,
He gave him an awesome promise, saying, I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you. And in you all the families of the earth
shall be blessed. [Gen. 12:3]. Hence, Hagee insists, the United States, and,
indeed, anyone else who wishes to please God, must consistently engage in
compassionate support of the State of Israel, adding that, The quickest and
most effective way to be on God's side is to stand with the State of Israel and
the
Jewish people in their hour of need. By doing this, he claims, one can win
Gods favour, because, God blesses the man or nation that blesses Israel or
the Jewish people.
At no time before, Hagee firmly believes, has support for Israel and Zionist
imperialism, been more crucial than today. This is because, he claims, Jesus is
returning to the world soon, and Israel must be protected in order to welcome
the Messiah. Hagees image of Jesus in his second coming bears no resemblance
to the familiar notion of the suffering, loving Christ. Rather, in his
description Jesus appears as a fierce warrior, rallying Christians to arms and
heralding the final, global war, ironically in the name of the Prince of
Peace. In the doomsday scenario that Hagee outlines, what he calls fanatical
attacks by Arabs on Israel, particularly Jerusalem, would mount. In response,
Christians the world over, he says, must rally behind Israel. At this hour, he
insists, we must let the world know that if a line has to be drawn, it will be
drawn around Christians as well as Jews. We are united and indivisible.
The city of Jerusalem, Hagee believes, is the crux of the final battle before
Jesus second coming. This city, considered sacred by Jews, Muslims and
Christians alike, has been ordained, so Hagee argues, by God to be under the
exclusive control of the Jewish people until Jesus arrives again. The final
battle of Armageddon will, he writes, be centred on this city, with Arabs or
Muslims seeking to wrest control of it from the Jews. In this regard, Hagee
says, Christians, for their part, must staunchly defend Israel and must refuse
any peace offers, such as allowing for a shared Jerusalem or joint control of
the town by Jews and Arabs. In particular, he appeals to the United States to
do everything in its power to back Israel and to crush its opponents, claiming
this is the only way to win Gods favour. If America fails to do this, so he
warns, it would be crushed by God Himself!
Quoting various verses of the Bible, Hagee describes what he sees as the
unfolding of events of cosmic proportions, ushering in a global war the like of
which has never been witnessed hitherto and heralding the second coming of
Jesus. In this global war, he says, Muslims, whom he regards as followers of a
false religion, would ally with the Russians to fight against Israel. This
would lead to a global nuclear war, with hundreds of millions being killed. At
this point, the Anti-Christ will appear, attack Jerusalem and will take over
the reigns of the world, falsely claiming to usher in peace. But, this grand
deception will not last long, and, instead, will only lead to even more
devastating wars. At this time, Hagee says, Christians must defend, by every
means possible, the Jews and Israel, and wage war against the armies of those
opposed to Gods Chosen Race, the Jews. Only then can they be saved, he
insists.
After years of global war and terrible destruction, Hagee writes, Jesus will be
sent by God to deliver the world. Mounted on a white horse, he will arrive at
the battlefield at Armageddon. Defeating the Anti-Christ and his army, he
will establish his global kingdom with his capital in Jerusalem, there to rule
and reign forever. Hagees description of Jesus future global kingdom offers
little cause to cheer for non-Christians, including, ironically, even the Jews
whom he so ardently defends. It would, as he himself makes clear, be nothing
short of a global Christian empire, and an antiquated one at that, with kings
and queens and presidents still in place! How they would continue to be around
when Jesus rules the whole world is a mystery that Hagee leaves unsolved.
Ruled by Jesus, Hagee writes, Jerusalem, the apple of Gods eye, will become
the joy of the world. The city will become the international worship center,
and people from all over the world will make pilgrimages to worship in the holy
temple. Kings, queens, princes and presidents shall come to the Holy City to
adore Jesus. Presumably, these all will be Christians themselves, for Hagee
quotes the Bible as predicting that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of
God the Father.
In a more recent book on the same subject, titled Jerusalem Countdown: A
Prelude to War, Hagee further elaborates on the theme of a global war against
Islam and Muslims that he appeals to Christians and Jews to jointly launch,
arguing that this is precisely what Jesus wants to happen before his Second
Coming. Not surprisingly, and like other Christian Zionist messianic
evangelists, Hagee is convinced that there can be absolutely no room for
dialogue with Muslims, principally because, so he argues, Christians and Jews,
on the one hand, and Muslims, on the other, do not worship the same God. In
fact, he goes so far as to claim that the God of the Jews and the Christians is
the diametrical opposite of the Muslim God. Accordingly, he presents Islam in
the most lurid colours. He claims that Islam aims at nothing short of
exterminating all non-Muslims and establishing a one-world Islamic government.
Islam, he argues, is a doctrine of death which promotes
terrorism. He approvingly quotes George Bush as having declared that America
is at war with Islamic fascists and insists that This is a religious war
and that there is no room for compromise.
Hagee writes that America, and Christendom more generally, along with the
Jews, are now deeply involved in the final war that will supposedly herald the
return of Jesus as messiah, a war in which Christians and Jews are pitted
against Muslims. All Christians (and Jews), he asserts, must participate
whole-heartedly in this cosmic war because, he says, if America loses the war,
[T]he Law of Shariah, the Islamic law, will rule America and the Western
world. Christian churches and synagogues will be burned to the ground. Every
Christian who refuses to denounce Jesus to accept Allah will be decapitated.
Radical Islam does not want us to be quiet, they want us to be dead.
Hagee, like many of his fellow Christian fundamentalists, fervently exhorts
America to take the lead in bloody attacks against Muslim states that are
opposed to Israeli brutalities, because he sees these as fundamentally
anti-Christian. In this regard, he singles out Iran, one of the most
militarily powerful Muslim countries in the world and certainly the most
vocally opposed to American imperialism, for particular attack. He claims that
Iran is rapidly building up a nuclear stockpile, which it intends, so he says,
to use to bomb and destroy Israel and perhaps America. Before that can happen,
he insists, America must take the initiative and invade and destroy Iran,
particularly targeting its nuclear facilities. This step, he argues, would
actually be part of Gods plan for the future of Israel and the entire world,
in that it would drive the world to the global disaster of Armageddon, the
countdown that will usher in the end of the
world. This will be, so he claims, followed by the rise of the Anti-Christ,
and then, finally, the Second Coming of Jesus, when all non-Christians,
including Muslims, will be slain. In short, a global war against Islam and
Muslims is precisely what Hagee, like many others of his ilk, want to see
unleashed in the hope that their wild messianic expectations will thereby be
fulfilled.
Conclusion
Based on a fundamental hatred for Islam and Muslims, a legacy of many
centuries, Christian Zionist messianism has emerged as one of the most pressing
and disastrous threats and challenges of our times. With the massive financial
and political clout that it wields, particularly in America, it is the new face
of Western imperialism, one that is inherently and fiercely opposed to people
of other faiths and even to Christians who do not subscribe to its bloody
doctrines.
Islam and Muslims have a special place in the ideology of Christian Zionist
messianic fascism: as alleged enemies of God. Based on this bizarre belief,
theological sanction is sought for bloody wars against Muslims the world over.
This ideology has instigated and is being used to justify American (and
Israeli) imperialist aggression in many Muslim countries today, and possibly
against Iran in the near future. Clearly, Muslims need to be aware of this
dangerous project and take appropriate measures. So, also, do other
non-Christians, who, like Muslims, are seen as doomed to hell by Christian
fundamentalists. And so, too, do other Christians, who relate to their
religious traditions in different ways and who firmly believe that the
Christian Zionist messianic project represents a fundamental betrayal of the
message of Jesus Christ, ironically a betrayal being so aggressively
perpetrated in his name.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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