NEWS RELEASE

Zionist Organization of America

Jacob & Libby Goodman ZOA House, 4 East 34th Street, New York, N.Y. 10016

(212) 481-1500 Fax: (212) 481-1515 email@zoa.org www.zoa.org

January 6, 2011

Contact Morton A. Klein at: 212-481-1500

Attn: NEWS EDITOR

ZOA Calls on Obama to Condemn Islamist Terror Attacks on Christians in
Middle East & Africa

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has called upon President Barack
Obama to condemn by name the Islamist terrorists who carried out attacks in
Egypt, Iraq, Palestinian-controlled areas and Nigeria that have occurred in
recent weeks and months. The ZOA has argued that it is inadequate that
President Obama merely expresses condolences for the victims while failing
to condemn the perpetrators by name or to put public pressure on the
relevant governments to ensure the protection of Christians and other
minorities.

A bomb blast in Alexandria, Egypt, killed 21 Christians at prayer during a
New Year’s Day service at a Coptic church. The same day, a Nigerian Islamist
group, Boko Haram (‘forbidden Western knowledge’) bombed a military barracks
in Abuja, Nigeria. Following these attacks, President Obama condemned the
attacks but did not identify the attackers, saying, “The perpetrators of
this attack [in Alexandria] were clearly targeting Christian worshipers, and
have no respect for human life and dignity. They must be brought to justice
for this barbaric and heinous act … The attack near an army barracks in
Abuja also reportedly killed more than 20 people and wounded many more.
Killing innocent civilians who were simply gathering – like so many people
around the world – to celebrate the beginning of a New Year further
demonstrates the bankrupt vision of those who carry out these attacks… The
United States extends its deepest condolences to the families of those
killed and to the wounded in both of these attacks…” (Statement by the
President on the terrorist attacks in Egypt and Nigeria, January 1, 2011).

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “The ZOA shares the anguish and
concern expressed by many, including President Obama, for the victims of
these attacks, which deliberately targeted Christians. However, we believe
it is simply inadequate for President Obama to condemn the attacks without
identifying and condemning their perpetrators and their ideology. This is as
delinquent as trying to combat the Soviet Union without mentioning
communism.

“We should be offering more than our condolences to the victims of Islamist
terrorism – we should be condemning the perpetrators by name and the
jihadist cause they espouse. Unfortunately, the Obama administration refuses
to do this most of the time.

President Obama generally refuses to speak about the Islamist enemy.
Instead, he has spoken (in Ankara, Turkey, April 6, 2009) of “rolling back
the violent ideologies that people of all faiths reject,” falsely suggesting
that the terrorism is entirely unrelated to Islam, a suggestion he also
repeated in his June 2009 Cairo speech.

“In his 2009 presidential statements on the anniversaries of the 1983
killing of 242 U.S. servicemen in Lebanon by Hizballah or the 1979 seizure
of the U.S. embassy in Tehran by the Iranian regime, to name two examples,
President Obama failed to even mention the perpetrators of these acts.
Terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, like that of Fort Hood sniper Nidal Hassan,
are described as the acts of isolated extremists. Terms like Islamists and
jihad are not even used.

“The U.S. should also be pressuring the governments concerned to afford
better protection to Christians and other minorities. This we have not been
doing.

“In Egypt, for example, a country in which we have leverage as a result of
the high levels of aid that we give the Egyptian government ($2.1 billion
annually), the 11-million strong Coptic Christian community has endured more
than 40 organized attacks during the presidency of Hosni Mubarak (1981-
present), including large scale attacks in Alexandria in 2005 and now again
in the past week. Attacks on Coptic Christians in Zeitoun also occurred in
2008. In all these cases, the Egyptian authorities failed to provide
Christians with real protection.

“In Egypt, restrictive laws apply to Christians in the areas of housing,
external appearance, performance of their religious rituals, and upkeep of
their houses of churches, leaving most of them to have lapsed into
disrepair. Typically, local Egyptian officials prevent Copts from rebuilding
their churches.

“This is not the same as terrorism and murder, but these discriminatory
Egyptian policies and practices underscore the second-class status of
Egyptian Christians, one which aids a culture of terrorism and violence
against no-Muslims.

“The U.S. must condemn these policies and pressure the Mubarak government to
do more to protect Christians and other minorities.”