[Background: Trouw, an important and influential daily newspaper in the Netherlands, published on August 4, an opinion article of the chairmen of the youth organizations of three political parties; the CU (Christian Union), SGP (Reformed Political Party) and CDA (Christian Democratic Party), which was titled “Ga op de bres staan voor vervolgde christenen.” In translation: Step into the breach for persecuted Christians. This is a Dutch expression. The breach is the place that enemies destroyed in the safe walls of the castle or fortress. Stepping into the breach is thus standing in the location where the defense is weakest. In order to help the weakest, one should step into the breach. 

The chairmen were highlighting the disastrous consequences of the ISIS terror against Christians in Iraq. Iraq counted around 1,3 million Christians in 2003. Today, it is at least one million less. Also Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan and Pakistan were mentioned. These examples show, the chairmen wrote, how the position of Christians in the Islamic world is deteriorating. They point to the campaign for former Muslim Meriam Ibrahim of Sudan, who had been sentenced to death for leaving Islam. This campaign had success, and thus more such campaigns are needed they argue. They are pleading for “tough financial measures against countries where the persecution of Christians is happening on a daily basis. We propose to end organizing trade missions to such countries.” They did not mention Egypt but did refer to Open Doors as their source of information. Open Doors has frequently accused Egypt of persecuting Christians as well and this motivated me to write a response in Trouw. The situation in Iraq is terrible and no good words for Isis are deserved, but readers of Trouw ought to know that not all Muslim countries are similar. The problem with opinion pages in all newspapers is, of course, that opinion articles have to be limited to – in this case – 600 words. This forces one to focus on the main line only and not going in details].