Ateek in Dublin
As our previous post notes, the Sabeel organisation is very dangerous, but this has not prevented Christian groups being taken in by its claim to be "an ecumenical grass-roots biblically-based theology movement in Jerusalem, which strives to develop a spirituality based on justice, peace, liberation, non-violence, and reconciliation for all the national and faith communities in the land we call Holy". In response to news of a Sabeel meeting with guest speaker Naim Ateek at St Thomas’s Church in Dublin on 14 November, AFI Director Simon McIlwaine wrote this letter to the Archbishop:
My Lord Archbishop,
Anglicans for Israel are deeply concerned to learn that Naim Ateek of SABEEL is to speak at St Thomas’s Church.
This is a matter of grave concern to all Anglicans who support Israel.
I attach an article about the damage Sabeel does and hope that you will be able to use your influence to have the invitation to Rev. Ateek withdrawn.
We at AFI consider Sabeel to be a dangerous and blasphemous organisation, devoted to the end of Israel as a mainly-Jewish democracy.
Sabeel and Mr Ateek seem singularly uninterested in the persecution of Christians by the Palestinian Authority and other Islamicists in the Middle East. They cleave to an anti-Israel narrative and oppose all attempts by Israel to protect her people - of ALL faiths - from terrorism.
With God’s richest blessings.
Yours sincerely
Simon McIlwaine, Anglicans for Israel
