"When religious history is reshaped to serve contemporary political narratives, something more than dialogue is at stake. What is being erased is not merely nuance, but truth -- truth about Christianity’s origins, about Jewish history, and about the real nature of Christian life under Islamic rule."
"There are few places on earth more symbolically American -- or more globally recognizable -- than New York City’s Times Square. It is a commercial crossroads, a cultural billboard, and increasingly, a battleground for ideological messaging.
"That’s why many New Yorkers and visitors were understandably bewildered -- if not outright angered -- by a massive green digital display dominating Times Square just before Christmas proclaiming: JESUS WAS PALESTINIAN. The color choice was no accident. Green is the traditional color of Islam, and the message itself was plainly political. Online reactions quickly labeled the display “divisive,” “inflammatory,” and “inappropriate.”
"Yet the response was not universally negative. Some commentators praised the message as “thought-provoking,” a “bridge-building effort,” or even the beginning of a “national conversation” meant to emphasize that “Jesus is for everyone.”
"The billboard’s sponsor, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), explained that its intent was to highlight supposed deep historical ties between Christianity and Islam. But intentions do not nullify consequences. Nor do slogans override history.
"In light of the recent National Security Strategy’s warning about “civilizational erasure” in Europe, Americans would be wise to ask whether similar revisionism is now being imported -- quite literally -- into the heart of our most iconic public spaces. Are we witnessing the quiet imposition of a new religious and historical narrative, one that fundamentally alters Christianity’s foundational claims?
"Two assertions embedded in the Times Square message demand direct rebuttal, because both distort history and theology in ways that are anything but benign. No, Jesus was not Palestinian. And no, the Christian-Muslim historical relationship has not been one of mutual partnership, but of subjugation, even conquest.
Jesus Was Not Palestinian
"Using Scripture as our primary guide -- as Christians have done for two millennia -- the claim collapses immediately. Jesus’ birth and death occurred long before the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135 A.D.), after which the Roman Emperor Hadrian renamed Judea Syria Palaestina as an act of punishment against the Jewish population. The term “Palestinian” did not exist in Jesus’ lifetime. It was later resurrected by the British during the Mandate period following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. To retroactively assign a modern political identity to a first-century Jew is not merely anachronistic -- it is historically dishonest." . . .
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