Correspondent questions Obama’s silence on outrages against Christians

A group of Muslims recently threw a dozen Christians overboard a migrant ship traveling from Libya to Italy for praying to Jesus. When Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi dismissed it as a one-off event, President Obama was standing next to him but chose to remain silent.

President Barack Obama looks on as visiting Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi speaks at a White House news conference on April 17. / Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
President Barack Obama looks on as visiting Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi speaks at a White House news conference on April 17. / Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

He would have spoken out if the victims were Muslims, writes Fox News’ Kirsten Powers in a column. … “If a Christian mob on a ship bound for Italy threw 12 Muslims to their death for praying to Allah, does anyone think the president would have been so disinterested?” …

According to Italian police, the migrants boarded a rubber boat on the Libyan coast with 105 passengers aboard last Tuesday. As they were crossing, about 15 Muslims from Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali and Guinea-Bissau allegedly threatened the Christians from Nigeria and Ghana with being abandoned at sea. This resulted in a fight, and 12 Christians were allegedly thrown overboard to their deaths. …

“Western leaders — including Obama — will be remembered for their near silence as this human rights tragedy unfolded,” she writes. “The president’s mumblings about the atrocities visited upon Christians (usually extracted after public outcry over his silence) are few and far between. And it will be hard to forget his lecturing of Christians at the National Prayer Breakfast about the centuries-old Crusades while Middle Eastern Christians were at that moment being harassed, driven from their homes, tortured and murdered for their faith.” …

However, the Rev. Franklin Graham told Fox News it is not enough for the White House to acknowledge ISIS’ killings as Christian persecution, and that the government needs to take action as well. Graham went on to say that Obama is responsible for ISIS, saying he pulled troops from Iraq and thereby created a “power vaccum.”

“… Let’s talk more about the Crusades,” Powers concludes, sarcastically.

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