PCG's Demonization of Muslims Part 3: Hatred Blooms (2003)

Happy Easter everyone. I hope everyone is having a happy holiday.

And now onto the main post.

Continuing from Part 1 and Part 2 of this series we now reach an article that seems to symbolize a distinct hardening of hostility towards Muslims as a whole that seemed to not exist among PCG's leaders until 9/11.

February 2003 issue.

As seen in Part 1 PCG's leaders never seemed to demonize Muslims in general but rather tended to vilify individual governments. The Middle East tended to only be discussed once every few issues. They seemed more fixated on Germany and China as threats to America. They seemed to lack an ideology that justified hostility towards Muslims as a whole.

As seen in Part 2 there was a distinct hardening of hostility toward Muslim majority countries after Al Qaeda's atrocities of 9/11. The Middle East was discussed in just about every issue now. PCG's dogma that Iran is the King of the South was rarely mentioned in The Philadelphia Trumpet until 9/11. Afterwards this dogma was mentioned regularly.

This hardening hostility was given concrete expression in Joel Hilliker's February 2003 article "Is Islam a Threat?" As we shall soon see Hilliker's answer is an extremely alarmist yes.

This article represents an important marker of PCG's leaders deciding to harden their view of Muslims and incorrectly present all Muslims as a unitary threat.

Now Muslims tended to be viewed by PCG's leaders in quite a derogatory way already. But it had not yet hardened into viewing all Muslims as guilty and a threat. That idea was rarely mentioned. When Muslim majority countries were mentioned, especially before 9/11, it was usually as distinct national groups. The Palestinians and Iran for the most part.

They did not tend to view Muslims as being a unitary threat until this article which expressed this attitude at length. It is important to emphasize that Muslims do not exist as one united group capable of acting together. As we shall later see Hilliker insinuates that is the case.

However Muslim individuals are divided into many nations, and even within these many individual nations there is great variety among Muslim majority nations in regard to politics and religion. Any cooperation among these nations, political groups and religious groups require much work and labor at maintaining such cooperation. These divisions are vaguely alluded to by Hilliker but he tries to discredit such facts in order to convince tithe paying PCG members to fear all Muslims. 

(Surprisingly Iraq is never mentioned in this article. Once again we see how PCG's leaders fail to predict the future.)

Let us see what Hilliker has to say in this article.

To protect the image of Islam, many people—including George W. Bush, who has no interest in fighting one fifth of the Earth’s inhabitants—are doing their best to keep the distinction clear between Islam and Islamism.

Doesn't that sound like a good idea? Let's not antagonize such a large portion of the world when we can get what we want without doing so. But not for Hilliker.

But these distinctions can seem academic in the face of increasingly vocal, even violent popular Muslim uprisings occurring worldwide. The extremists themselves see no distinction, except insofar as some Muslims are failing in their responsibility to wage war. Bin Laden labels the U.S.-led war on terrorism “a war against Islam,” and has appealed to Muslims worldwide with the battle cry, “Rise in support of your religion. Islam is calling you.” 

"The extremists themselves see no distinction". Maybe they are wrong. Maybe this is part of the reason why they are extremists? Is Hilliker going to agree with these unnamed extremists and say there is "no distinction" between "Islam and Islamism"?

Also Hilliker somehow fails to note that when Osama bin Laden says "Islam is calling you" the murderer was actually calling for people to join Al Qaeda. Osama bin Laden was calling for people to join his band of murderers. He merely claimed to be speaking for Islam when in fact he was speaking for himself.

After this Joel Hilliker says that PCG's God hates America more than Al Qaeda, according to Hilliker.

Significant prophecies show that militant Islam does pose a serious threat—MUCH MORE SERIOUS THAN THE VAST MAJORITY REALIZE—to the United States, Britain and the Jewish nation of Israel. Islamism will also deeply impact the European Union and, indirectly, the whole of the world. You cannot afford to ignore these biblical truths.

In evaluating current events in light of these prophecies, the Trumpet’s purpose is not to condemn any religion. Yes—GOD’S LAW absolutely condemns the seething hatred and violence being cultivated among many Islamist groups. But realize this: YOUR BIBLE shows that God is in fact MORE ANGRY with the nations those groups are TARGETING!

I wonder how those who survived the horrors of 9/11 and mourn those who were murdered will react to words such as these?

Even a dispassionate evaluation of the major conflicts in the world today suggests a measure of culpability on the part of the Islamic community as a whole.

In other words, All Muslims are guilty according to Joel Hilliker. This is simply crude guilt by association fear mongering being used against all Muslims. It is wrong to blame the innocent for what was done by the guilty.

Joel Hilliker then promotes the idea that there is a "clash of civilizations". Hilliker then uses this idea to say Muslims everywhere are prone to extremism and lashing out with violence against non-Muslims.

The facts support the thesis of Harvard’s Samuel Huntington, that most conflicts are occurring along the civilizational divide of Eurasia and Africa that separates Muslims from the rest of the world. Islam is butting heads with the Orthodox world not only in the northern Caucasus region (Russians vs. Chechens), but in the rest of the Caucasus (Turks vs. Greeks and Azeris vs. Armenians), as well as Bosnia, Kosovo, Cyprus and even Ethiopia. Muslims are fighting the Chinese in Malaysia and in China’s Xinjiang province. They are battling with Hindus in India, and with Buddhists in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand. Of course, the most renowned Middle East conflict is between Muslims and Jews, but Muslims are also facing down Maronite Christians in Lebanon. Christian/Muslim warfare is also rife throughout Africa, being waged in Sudan, Nigeria, Chad, Kenya and Tanzania, and is also at the root of problems within Indonesia and the Philippines.

This is madness. The division of Cyprus has nothing to do with ethnic tensions in Xinjiang. What's happening in Ethiopia has nothing to do with Kosovo. Here Hilliker insinuates that all these conflicts are somehow connected just because some of the participants just happen to be Muslims. 

So some Chechens were fighting to gain independence from Russia. What does that have to do with Bangladesh? Nothing.

There is a lot to be said about this paragraph so let's break it down into its individual parts.

Islam is butting heads with the Orthodox world not only in the northern Caucasus region (Russians vs. Chechens),

That is a war of secession. Some Chechens decided to fight for independence from Russia back in the early 1990s and, alas, this armed struggle has caused a lot of death and pain within Chechnya. But it is not part of some grand struggle between Muslims and the rest of the world. 

but in the rest of the Caucasus (Turks vs. Greeks 

Hilliker did not even bother to note the Turks and the Greeks are not in the Caucasus at all. Hilliker throws in so much information he somehow missed this fact. How is it that no one in PCG noticed this plain error?  

Alas, Turkey and Greece have a long history of hostility. Thankfully this has receded to a great degree since Greece had to gave up hopes of expanding their territory to Constantinople back in the early 1920s.

and Azeris vs. Armenians),

That is a border dispute partly caused because of the way the borders between what is now Armenia and Azerbaijan were drawn up during the Stalinist era. How can "Islam" be blamed for this border dispute? 

as well as Bosnia, 

The worse atrocities were committed by the genocidal forces of Karadžić and Mladić who led the ethnic Serbs within Bosnia. Here it is insinuated that "Islam" caused this war. That is not true. If anything the leaders of Serbia and Croatia bear far more responsibility for the collapse and violent destruction of Yugoslavia then the Bosnian Muslims. The Bosnian Muslims were tragically caught in the middle and suffered the most. 83% of civilian fatalities in Bosnia were Bosnian Muslims.

Kosovo,

The war in Kosovo was part of the disintegration of Yugoslavia which saw Belgrade fighting Slovenians, Croatians fighting Serbs, some Serbs choosing to fight with the Bosnian Muslims against the genocidal forces of Karadžić and Mladić, etc. The Kosovo War is not evidence of some war between all "Islam" and all non-Muslims.

Cyprus

Which is a conflict between Cypriot Greeks and Cypriot Turks. How can "Islam" be blamed for the tragic division of Cyprus? This idea from Hilliker is just madness.

and even Ethiopia.

Whatever tensions may have existed between Muslims and Christians within Ethiopia no doubt got alleviated to some extent once predominantly Muslim Eritrea gained independence in 1993.

Muslims are fighting the Chinese in Malaysia

And what does ethnic tensions in Malaysia have to do with Cyprus or Bosnia? Nothing.

and in China’s Xinjiang province.

And what do problems in Xinjiang have to do with Ethiopia or Cyprus? Nothing.

They are battling with Hindus in India,

"They" are Indian Muslims. They are not working with people in Xinjiang, Ethiopia or Bosnia.

and with Buddhists in Bangladesh,

"They" are Bangladeshi Muslims. They are not working with people in Xinjiang, Ethiopia or Bosnia.

Myanmar

In some parts of Myanmar the local Muslims (Rohingya) are viewed as a hated minority. From what I have heard elsewhere they are forbidden to take up citizenship. The Rohingya are forbidden to own property or even own a house. The authorities view them as alien foreigners even though they have lived in Myanmar for centuries. In recent years, after Hilliker's article was written, some extremist Buddhist monks has stirred up the majority Burmese population to launch vicious and deadly attacks against Rohingya communities that have killed many people and forced many Rohingya to flee for their lives.

and Thailand.

There has been a secessionist insurgency among Muslim populations in the south of Thailand for years now, but what does that has to do with Chechnya? Nothing. What does it have to do with Bosnia and the collapse of Yugoslavia along ethnic lines? Nothing.

Of course, the most renowned Middle East conflict is between Muslims and Jews,

A portion of the those "Muslims" fighting Jews that Hilliker talks about here are actually Christians. Many Palestinians are actually Christians. How does Hilliker's ridiculous assertion that is a "clash of civilizations" account for the many Christian Palestinians? This is never addressed in Hilliker's article.

but Muslims are also facing down Maronite Christians in Lebanon. 

Every group fought every other group during the horrible Lebanese Civil War that raged from 1975 till 1992. Shiite Hezbollah at times fought against another Shiite party, Amal. There were numerous factions that fought in that most degraded and cynical war. The way it is presented here by Hilliker is extremely misleading.

Christian/Muslim warfare is also rife throughout Africa, 

But those are separate wars that, for the most part, occur within individual nation states. They are not part of some grand conspiracy by all Muslims to take over Africa. It is just nonsensical to insinuate it might be like that. It is simply not so.

being waged in Sudan, 

From the 1950s onwards, on and off, there was indeed a catastrophic and monstrous civil war in southern Sudan as the Khartoum regime murderously tried to impose their rule upon the predominantly Christian and animist south. In 2005 Khartoum was compelled to give up waging war against the south and started the process that saw South Sudan gain independence. But even so Khartoum continues to wage war against ethnic minorities in Darfur and the south of current Sudan to this day What does that have to do with Lebanon or Bosnia? Nothing.

Nigeria, 

And what does the conflict in Nigeria have to do with Chechnya and Thailand? Nothing.

Chad, 

What does conflict in Chad have to do with Lebanon or Myanmar? Nothing.

Kenya 

What does conflict in Kenya have to with Armenia, Bangladesh and Cyprus? Nothing.

and Tanzania,

What does conflict in Tanzania have to do with Kosovo and Malaysia? Nothing.

and is also at the root of problems within Indonesia 

Also the Asian financial crisis of 1997-8 is widely cited as contributing to the armed violence that occurred in some parts of Indonesia at that time. Hilliker does not discuss this aspect of that issue.

and the Philippines. 

What does conflict in the Philippines have to do with Chad? Nothing.

(Hey, Hilliker forgot Somalia!)

The point is these are all separate wars created in response to local and national issues within those nations. They are not a part of some grand unifying conflict of Muslims against the entire non-Muslim world as Hilliker here insinuates. That is just narrow minded and ignorant nonsense. 

One thing that is quite important about this article is that it appears to be the first time PCG quoted Daniel Pipes. Daniel Pipes is infamous for vilifying Muslims. PCG has very often quoted Daniel Pipes ever since. Here is the first quote.

Commentator Daniel Pipes asserts that the current period of “backwardness, resentment, extremism and violence” within much of the Muslim world is actually atypical of Islam’s long history. “[I]ndeed,” he concludes, “it may be the worst era in that entire history” (National Post, Aug. 2, 2002).

Daniel Pipes is notorious for vilifying Muslims. In 2011 the Center for American Progress identified him as being part of what is called the Islamophobia Network. Do not be fooled by this quote: Daniel Pipes is quite notorious for tending to present Muslims in a bad light. Since this article Daniel Pipes has often been quoted by PCG's leaders as an expert, many times by Joel Hilliker himself. Daniel Pipes (most often via Joel Hilliker) is PCG's link to the Islamophobia Network.

This trend explains why—despite the familiar assertion that 9/11 was the work of a tiny group claiming to be Muslim but totally at odds with the majority Muslim view—there has not been more vocal opposition to such terrorism among Muslim countries and cultures. It explains why Palestinians danced in the streets when the Twin Towers collapsed. ... The reality is, Islamist thinking is much more pervasive than most would want to believe.

This is nonsense. Most Muslims hate Al Qaeda. Hilliker tries to insinuate that Al Qaeda is just like many other Muslims. This is confusing nonsense.

It is important to remember that Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda in Iraq and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula operating in Yemen have never fought for the Palestinians, whether for Fatah, Hamas, or any other Palestinian faction, against the State of Israel. Although the turbulent situation regarding the Palestinians was sometimes exploited in Al Qaeda's self serving propaganda Al Qaeda have done nothing to fight on behalf of the Palestinians against the State of Israel. This is because they are murderous usurpers trying to overthrow the Arab governments in order to gain power for themselves. This fact shows once again why Hilliker's paranoid assertion that there is a "clash of civilizations" between "Islam" and the rest of the world is nonsense.

Now why would some Palestinians be shamefully dancing in the streets after 9/11? Why Palestinians and no one else? Was there something going on among the Palestinians alone at the time that could account for why some of them reacted in this shameful and degraded way?

Indeed there is, namely the second intifada. Between September 2000 and January 2005 over 3000 Palestinians were killed in that severe and harrowing conflict.

Before 9/11 Richard Ames, who is from another COG group, namely LCG, wrote the following:

In September 2000, when he was still opposition leader, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount, inciting Palestinian protesters to begin a new intifada of escalating violence against Israeli targets. Since Sharon's visit, more than 500 have been killed-at least 481 Palestinians, 88 Israeli Jews and 13 Israeli Arabs as of late May-in Israeli-Palestinian clashes. (Richard Ames, The Middle East in Prophecy, Tomorrow's World, July-August 2001.)

That conflict, the severe trauma of witnessing violence, the fear of being killed or losing loved ones to the severe violence of the time is what made this morally repugnant response seem rational to those individuals. This perverted reaction was a symptom of the situation of mass violence the Palestinians were enduring at the time. Amazingly Hilliker acts as though there is no connection between the violence endured by Palestinians during the second intifada and the shameful reaction after 9/11.

This does not justify what those individuals did. It was wrong, shameful and disgusting. But Hilliker fails to understand the context of what happened and exploits the shameful incident in an irresponsible way to inaccurately allege that there is a grand "clash of civilizations" between Muslims as a whole and non-Muslims when this is simply not the case.

The terrorist attacks that occurred on 9/11 was a conspiracy conducted by a clandestine network of murderers, namely Al Qaeda. Hilliker seems to think focusing only on the guilty is undesirable. This goes against fundamental ideals of justice.

A common mistake Westerners make in evaluating the cause of Islamism is to focus purely on economic and material issues—to interpret Muslim anger as merely stemming from a lack of Western freedoms and privileges. The thinking is, Just give the Islamist a job and a car, and he’ll calm down.

As bin Laden himself put it, “Because America worships money, it believes that [other] people think that way too.”

And Hilliker thinks Osama bin Laden was right saying this? How does Hilliker know? What if he's lying? That thought never seems to occur to Hilliker. He just trusts that Osama bin Laden should just be taken at his word. There is no attempt to see if there is something else going on.

Hilliker then fearfully proclaims that terrorist attacks far worse than 9/11 are about to occur at any moment.

Though this prophecy will not be fulfilled until after some earth-shaking geopolitical events, it describes the cruel attitude behind this alliance—an attitude we see in embryo today: “They [the nations of this alliance] have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut THEM OFF FROM BEING A NATION; THAT THE NAME OF ISRAEL MAY BE NO MORE IN REMEMBRANCE. For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee” (vv. 3-5). At that time, these nations will have one goal on their minds: to COMPLETELY ANNIHILATE ISRAEL—which includes America and Britain.
 
Realize: THE ANTI-AMERICAN, ANTI-ISRAEL PASSIONS WE SEE TODAY ARE BUILDING TOWARD THE UNPARALLELED HATRED DESCRIBED IN THIS PROPHECY!

Hatred on that scale could only be motivated by Satan the devil! God’s adversary would love nothing more than to obliterate the name of Israel—which means “GOD PREVAILS—GOD WILL RULE”!

Hilliker then claims in an alarmist way that 9/11 "was only a mild prelude."

In other words, the terror of September 11 was only a mild prelude. Failure to turn to God will mean a SEVENFOLD INCREASE in terror!

It is one of the most powerful and condemning ironies of our time: Many of the things about the West that rankle the Muslim world and anger Islamist extremists are the very things for which GOD condemns Israel!

God does not support terrorists. He condemns their anger, their violence, their self-righteousness. He will bring their every act into judgment (Eccl. 12:14).

But at the same time, IT IS STRONGLY CONDEMNING WHEN GENTILE PEOPLES HAVE A CLEARER-EYED VIEW OF THE EVILS AND SINS WITHIN ISRAEL THAN THE ISRAELITISH PEOPLE HAVE THEMSELVES!

And God is allowing the terrorism, allowing the violence—allowing the devil to sway these people into acting upon their brutal, satanic hatreds against America and Britain.

Fourteen years since 9/11, twelve years since this article was published, we are still waiting for a more severe terrorist attack. This is yet another false prophecy.

Just how many are going to be killed in these later terrorist attacks?

Gerald Flurry shows in his book Ezekiel—The End-Time Prophet that this refers to violence in the cities that includes terrorist violence. Ezekiel’s prophecy indicates that future attacks will wreak death on a sickening scale!

September 11 killed thousands.

THE DEATH TOLL OF THIS FUTURE VIOLENCE WILL MOUNT INTO THE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS.

We are still waiting for "future violence" to kill "hundreds of millions" twelve years after this article was made.

What utter nonsense. It is bizarre to claim that all those conflicts are somehow the same. They are not.

It is terrible that PCG members and co-workers are being told such nonsense and getting badly misinformed about such important events.

It is despicable, not to mention wrong, for Joel Hilliker to say there is "a measure of culpability on the part of the Islamic community as a whole" for the various conflicts that are going on. They are separate conflicts, for the most part occurring in separate nation states, not part of some grand "clash of civilizations" as is portrayed here. It also carelessly blames the innocent for what was done by the guilty.

Joel Hilliker hysterically says "that militant Islam does pose a serious threat—MUCH MORE SERIOUS THAN THE VAST MAJORITY REALIZE" and yet twelve years later such terrorist violence has simply failed to occur.

What a sick and disgusting, hate filled screed Joel Hilliker's article is. It deserves to treated as irresponsible scare mongering of the worst kind. It is designed to scare people into thinking the only way to save oneself is to join PCG and pay PCG three tithes and extra offerings. That is why Joel Hilliker can live in a house like this.

Hilliker's home at PCG's headquarters. (PCG Information.)

 

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Here are some other articles related to PCG's demonization of Muslims: 

PCG's Demonization of Iran

PCG and Bigotry Against Muslims (Islamophobia)

PCG's Ron Fraser Mistakes Wahhabism's Age by 1100 Years

PCG's Ron Fraser's Demonization of Muslims After 9/11 (2001) 

PCG's Stephen Flurry Obliquely Quoted in Book About Islamophobia: PCG's Small Impact Upon Society Exposed

PCG and the Islamophobia Network

PCG Continuing to Vilify Muslims

PCG's Demonization of Muslims Part 1: Before 9/11
 
PCG's Demonization of Muslims Part 2: Conceiving Hate (2001-3)