Check out this passage from a Christian missionary expressing a few of his frustrations:
In Egypt and Sudan, in the Somalilands and in Eritrea, we have been denied our basic liberties [of religious freedom]. In all these years, whenever we have had opportunities, we have preached in Moslem areas without provoking a single riot. We are out to win Moslems, not to stir up their hatred.
What has Britain gained by this policy? Why is Egypt sitting back in this struggle and avowing her neutrality? Has Britain won any love by her pro-Moslem attitude there? She made her first step backward there, when Government stepped in and banned the Christian Scriptures in Gordon College and then made the Moslem Friday the official Rest Day in a Christian College, given by Christian subscriptions, in memory of the great Christian leaders, General Gordon. Why does officialdom still demand from Britishers a special passport and permit of entry? Why have they, in the last five years banned us from entering pagan tribes on the pretext that these people are in “the Moslem area”?
[Earlier], we fought this thing through at the Foreign Office. We are not going to give us our liberties gained then. When Britain has actually proposed to make a grant of land in old London for the erection of a great Moslem center, it is time for Britishers to awake to the pro-Moslem bias of their Government.
Sound familiar? Egypt trying to look neutral to the international community while oppressing Christians on the ground. Christian prayers being banned in universities while Muslim holy days are officially observed. Substantial chunks of public land given build Mosques in large western cities. Is the passage above from an op ed piece in the Wall Street Journal last week? Could be. But no, it was actually written in 1942, over 60 years ago, from Rowland Bingham’s memoir about the Sudan Interior Mission (p.90).
Some things have been going on for a lot longer than we may realize. Most of the things we complain about today we do so as if they just started up a few years ago when in reality they happened in our grandparents’ age, and perhaps, under their watch.