Reading today about the behavior of the fanatical Christian missionary zealots who showed up to provoke crowds for the fourth year in a row at an Arab Internationl Festival in Dearborn, Michigan got me thinking. What was their purpose? Why did they take such an uber-aggressive and hostile stance against festival-goers whom they perceive to be all Muslims, even though there are PLENTY of Arab Christians?

Perhaps they think they are taking up the tactic of the group of Medieval Christians who lived near Andalusia, and were so offended by the blasphemous way of life and faith of “infidel Saracens” that they would march into the city square of a Muslim governed town and loudly, for all to see: degrade Islam, Allah and the Prophet Muhammad. These medieval Christians sought to become martyrs, but more often than not were arrested and deported back to where they came from.

This explanation of the motivation of the fanatical missionaries who descended upon the Arab Festival in Michigan is too charitable. These aren’t “martyr-seekers,” they don’t even much care for converts I suspect; instead I believe they are motivated by a deep seated xenophobia and racism, just like their forebears used to angrily attack Blacks in the South, now they have set their sights on Muslims.