The shocking hypocrisy of left-wing posturing over the supposed evils of Israel in their dealings with Palestinians has been brilliantly exposed in a major Daily Mail article.
In a feature titled ‘Shameful Silence of the Left’, David Patrikarakos highlighted the terrible atrocities carried out by Islamic groups in Sudan and Nigeria involving the brutal massacre of numbers far in excess of those reputed to have died in the recent Gaza conflict.
And yet the progressive left is strangely silent over the plight of the victims who are – in the main – Christian.
Tragedies calling for outrage among the left, he writes, “must provide a villain who flatters Western fantasies of resistance – ideally a white, Western or Jewish oppressor – and a victim that appeals to our sense of colonial guilt.”
He continues: “Trendy urban baristas don’t get to feel like freedom fighters by bellowing about African killers or Arab militias. There is no moral glamour in calling out crimes that cannot be laid at the feet of the West.”
Their outrage is not universal, he adds. “It is selective – and therefore hollow.”
He points to the case of a Sudanese rebel fighter who confronted an unarmed restaurant owner. When asked what tribe he belonged to, the man replied that he was from the non-Arab Berti tribe.
At this, ignoring his desperate pleas for mercy, he was shot dead. The same man also ordered the shooting in cold blood of 460 hospital workers, including patients, their companions and anyone else present.
Meanwhile Nigeria is being torn apart by overlapping conflicts that together have produced a body count that amounts to a multiple of Gaza’s death toll over the past decade.
In 2023, he writes, over 5,000 Nigerian Christians were murdered for their faith. And yet, in the West, it still barely registers. It is in fact a blind-spot of the Western conscience.
“Until Sudan and Nigeria fill our streets with the same fury the activists reserve for Gaza, their outrage will remain a performance – and the bodies of black Africans will continue to be buried in silence.”
But thankfully the unfolding genocide in Nigeria has been thrown into the spotlight by none other than US President Donald Trump, threatening possible action against Islamic militant groups.
“At least it shows he cares, which is more than can be said for most of those whose lives seem devoted to relentless displays of public sanctimony.”
We do not need a Great Awokening, as a new book by Martin Charlesworth has been aptly titled. We need another Great Awakening to the reality of God in our midst, of his judgment and mercy, and of his beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Charles Gardner is author of Israel the Chosen, available from Amazon; Peace in Jerusalem, available from olivepresspublisher.com; To the Jew First, A Nation Reborn, and King of the Jews, all available from Christian Publications International.
