Resorting to jihadist rhetoric, Esra, the daughter of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan—who just gained another five years as president—recently attacked the West and Christianity.
In a tweet written, not in her native Turkish, but in Islam’s tongue, Arabic, the “first daughter” declared that “There is little left for the Islamic crescent to break the Western cross.”
This phrase is as universally understood by Muslims, as it is universally misunderstood by Westerners, and is, therefore, emblematic of Muslim continuity and Western confusion.
It has both a literal and figurative meaning.
Concerning the former, Muslims have been, quite literally, “breaking the cross” in keeping with their prophet’s commandment. Past and present, Muslims have destroyed and continue to destroy the crucifix—in cemeteries, on churches, on Christians—as a reflection of their animosity to the Gospel, specifically, that Christ was crucified, killed, and resurrected, three doctrines central to Christianity that Islam rejects.
Indeed, the June, 2015 cover of the Islamic State’s magazine, Dabiq, featured a Muslim breaking a cross off a church steeple, with the words “Break the Cross” underneath.
More figuratively, “break the cross” has always meant “defeat Christianity”—another thing that Muslims, past and present, have been fervently striving for—including, apparently, the ostensibly “secularized” daughter of Turkey’s president, a “sociologist” by profession.
In a tweet written, not in her native Turkish, but in Islam’s tongue, Arabic, the “first daughter” declared that “There is little left for the Islamic crescent to break the Western cross.”
This phrase is as universally understood by Muslims, as it is universally misunderstood by Westerners, and is, therefore, emblematic of Muslim continuity and Western confusion.
It has both a literal and figurative meaning.
Concerning the former, Muslims have been, quite literally, “breaking the cross” in keeping with their prophet’s commandment. Past and present, Muslims have destroyed and continue to destroy the crucifix—in cemeteries, on churches, on Christians—as a reflection of their animosity to the Gospel, specifically, that Christ was crucified, killed, and resurrected, three doctrines central to Christianity that Islam rejects.
Indeed, the June, 2015 cover of the Islamic State’s magazine, Dabiq, featured a Muslim breaking a cross off a church steeple, with the words “Break the Cross” underneath.
More figuratively, “break the cross” has always meant “defeat Christianity”—another thing that Muslims, past and present, have been fervently striving for—including, apparently, the ostensibly “secularized” daughter of Turkey’s president, a “sociologist” by profession.
