Haters Won’t Stop With the Jews

Ilhan Omar’s outrageous lies about the Covington Catholic boys, since deleted, illustrate an important lesson. Omar is a notorious anti-Semite; she goes so far as to advocate for the BDS movement. So, is it surprising that her venom has now been directed against Catholics?

Not at all. The people who hate Jews are, for the most part, the same people who hate Christians. In the last few months, we have seen the Left ramp up its attacks on Catholics: Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee assaulted Amy Barrett’s religious faith; some of those same senators demanded, incredibly, that Brian Buescher resign from the Knights of Columbus; and now, the Left has, in unison, baselessly slandered the Covington Catholic boys who attended the March for Life in Washington.

Some have theorized that the Democrats’ escalating attacks on Catholicism are preparing the ground against the day when Ruth Ginsburg dies or is unable to continue on the Supreme Court. President Trump is almost certain to nominate Amy Barrett to replace her, and Democrats will make Barrett’s religious faith the basis for their inevitable smears. Their theme will be, explicitly or implicitly, that no practicing Catholic should be allowed to serve on the Court.

I don’t disagree that the Democrats have Barrett in mind when they attack Catholics, but the phenomenon goes much deeper. The modern Left is a secular movement that is deeply hostile to religion. Many Leftists hate Judaism, but they hate Christianity even more. (Go into the bakery business if you have any doubt about that!) There is good reason why we refer to the Judeo-Christian tradition. Christianity comes from Judaism; three-quarters of the Christian Bible is Jewish scripture. The twin pillars of Western civilization, it has long been said, are Athens and Jerusalem. Christianity is a principal feature of Western civilization, which Leftists detest and want to destroy. So, if they are hostile to Judaism, they are even more bitterly hostile to Christianity.

So far, the Left’s animus has been directed mostly against Catholics. That may be because the leaders of some Protestant denominations have taken a favorable view of abortion. But don’t be fooled: there is no distinction between Catholic and Protestant that Leftists care about. They may be coming for Catholics today, but they will come for Protestants next.

Which brings us back to Ilhan Omar. Wittingly or not, she opens a window onto the real feelings of American Leftists. Which may seem paradoxical, since she herself is a Muslim. Do Leftists have a higher opinion of Islam than of Christianity or Judaism? Of course not. But for now, Muslims like Omar are useful idiots of the Left. There aren’t enough of them to be a threat, and they can be used as shock troops, attacking Jews and Christians. And, in any event, politicians like Omar are Leftists first and Muslims a distant second. They ignore Islamic teaching whenever it conflicts with Leftist dogma.

Stereotypically, Leftist Muslims are anti-Semitic. No surprise there. But for a few hours, Ilhan Omar let the mask slip. She is a Muslim second and a Leftist first–which means that her defamation of Catholics should surprise no one. The Left is out to destroy Christianity, every bit as much as Judaism. More, actually.