After murder of British Christian woman in Kabul, are Christians covering up the anti-Christian nature of Islam?

A 34-year-old British woman, Gayle Williams, who worked for a Christian charity in Afghanistan that helps rehabilitate people with disabilities, was assassinated by two men who drove up to her on a motorbike as she walked to work in Kabul, reports the Daily Mail.

Eyewitness Daolad Khan, who was working on a building site directly opposite the murder scene, said: “They raced up the street and stopped in front of the lady. They took out a gun and shot her on the spot. Then they rode off.”

A Taliban spokesman said that Taliban had ordered the murder of Williams because she was spreading the message of Christianity:

But the British-registered charity she worked for, SERVE Afghanistan, said this was a “convenient excuse” for the grim killing, which it believes was “completely opportunistic.”

Does this mean that SERVE Afghanistan does not preach Christianity? Or does it mean that the organization, in a manner we would expect of modern, liberal Christians, is trying to cover up the fact that Islam requires death for those who preach or convert to Christianity?

According to the organization’s website:

Our Purpose
SERVE Afghanistan’s purpose is to express God’s love and bring hope by serving the people of Afghanistan, especially the needy, as we seek to address personal, social and environmental needs.

SERVE Afghanistan’s projects emphasise community development, education and vocational training for Afghans with disabilities, and public health/nutrition education. SERVE is committed to helping Afghan people become active and interdependent members of their society, and aims to empower local communities for their long-term sustainability.

Thus the organization has a Christian basis, and is a registered Christian charity, but does not preach Christianity. But would anyone expect the Taliban to notice or care about such distinctions? Calling the murder “opportunistic” rather than religiously commanded by Islam helps maintain the illusion that Western-Christian internal involvement in Afghanistan and other Muslims countries is a viable enterprise.

Here are further comments. The chairman of SERVE Afghanistan, Mike Lyth, said: “She gave herself for those who were disadvantaged—that was her passion. It was people who were marginalised and helping them to get on track which drove her on.”

And the story continues:

A close friend of Miss Williams who did not wish to be named, told the Daily Mail: “Although she will be sorely missed I will see her again. She will be wearing the martyr’s crown.

“Knowing Gayle she would not have wanted anything more for her life than to die in His service.”

If people want, or feel called, to sacrifice their lives helping Muslims, that’s their choice, or their calling. Personally, ,I wouldn’t advise it. I think as a general matter that Westerners should have nothing to do with Muslim societies. Why would a Christian or Jew want to help people whose god tells them, “You shall not be friends with the Christian and Jews,” who tells them to execute anyone who converts to Christianity or Judaism, and who commands them to make war on all non-Muslims until they are subdued under the power of Islam? My own rule is, I don’t go where I’m not wanted. And, by the same token, we should not permit into our society followers of a religion that commands them to view us as their enemy.

To me, what I just said seems commonsensical and indeed moral, since the opposite—permitting people to come here whose god commands them to dislike us and subjugate us—is plainly immoral.

But you see, unlike almost all contemporary Westerners, I define morality by non-liberal criteria.

As Julien B. said the other day:

The VFR view of politics has been a massive influence on my understanding of the world, and not just politically. It was one the biggest factors in getting me to realize that I could abandon every liberal assumption without giving up anything important, and without being an immoral person.

There may be unusual people who have a special religious calling to sacrifice themselves for their enemies. But that is not the ordinary morality of individuals and of society on which individuals and society survive.

—end of initial entry—

Alan Roebuck writes:

Judging by its website, SERVE Afghanistan is not Christian in any meaningful sense of the word. Stating that their goal is to “express God’s love” is, so far as I can ascertain, the only remotely Christian content on their site. Real Christian organizations will have a website containing a statement of faith along with a statement that their purpose is to tell people the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or to instruct them in biblical doctrine, or to provide them with Christian literature, or some such. Therefore, according to their website, SERVE Afghanistan does purely secular work. Maybe they have a covert agenda to teach Christianity, but that only makes them a secular organization whose members occasionally tell people about Christ rather than a Christian evangelistic organization that also does charity.

Besides, many openly Christian missionary organizations explicitly state that their mission is secular do-gooderism rather than imperialistically telling foreigners that their religion is wrong. Liberalism (albeit in a form different from classical theological liberalism) has indeed taken over most of even the evangelical churches.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 24, 2008 10:22 AM | Send