Selective boldness, selective conscience at Jihad Watch

-- Melkite Catholic Patriarch, Gregory III, vile antisemite and craven dhimmi

The new Jihad Watch contributor, "Roland Shirk", has penned a few essays there smacking of a traditionalist Christianity that tries to balance traditionalism with secularism -- essays which strike a note of decidedly partisan sectarianism in favor of, apparently, his own personal faith, Catholicism.

This is not the objectionable part.

What galls the reader is not so much what is present, but what is missing.

In his most recent sectarian essay on Jihad Watch, for example, "Roland Shirk" can preen himself on being so bold as to castigate modern liberal Christians in vividly trenchant prose:

Modern liberal Christians have made themselves the prison-bitches of Islamic thugs, and now they congratulate themselves for turning the other butt-cheek. Perhaps, through the Stockholm Syndrome, they've come to enjoy it.

But where is "Roland Shirk" -- and where, indeed, is his boss Robert Spencer -- when a major Christian figure -- yea, a major Catholic (albeit "Melkite") figure -- the patriarch of the Melkite Catholic church, has made statements recently reeking of the worst form of dhimmitude, coupled with the vilest form of antisemitism?

Let us recall once again the recent statements of patriarch Gregory III Lahham:

“... violence and disturbances against Christians here and there and on an increasing level... has nothing to do with Islam. But it is actually a conspiracy planned by Zionism and some Christians with Zionist orientations and it aims at undermining and giving a bad image of Islam.”

What does the bold daily chronicle of the problem of Islam, of dhimmitude and of antisemitism, Jihad Watch, have to say about this?

Nada. Nil. Zilch. Nary a peep. Not even crickets chirping on Jihad Watch. Oh, but plenty of crowing about that easier and vaguer target, "modern liberal Christians". Mustn't strike too close to home, now, "Roland Shirk": stay away from the leader of Robert Spencer's personal church.

This patriarch of the Melkite Catholic church, by the way, cannot be accused of being a "modern liberal" nor of failing to pass any of the tests which "Roland Shirk" boldly declares in an official essay on Jhad Watch will discriminate the true (Catholic) Christian from the "dissenters" and "eccentrics". What distinguishes the patriarch, and protects him from Spencer's selective "watch", apparently, is his role as Spencer's spiritual leader. Of course, spiritually and religiously speaking, according to orthodox Christianity eschewing Donatism, even vile antisemitism and craven dhimmitude do not invalidate the sacerdotal function of a priest. However, Jihad Watch is not (yet) a sectarian Catholic site, and Spencer has an obligation to his readers, and to the cause he otherwise boldly champions, to give no special favors to his patriarch in this most important regard.