Day: July 10, 2017

 

 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

In reality, Islam is unique among world religions in having a developed doctrine, theology and legal system mandating warfare against unbelievers.
 Unless and until that is confronted, Muslims will continue to commit
acts of violence against non-Muslims, including Christians. The Pope is
betraying the Christians of the Middle East and the world, and all the
victims of jihad violence, by repeating palpable falsehoods about the
motivating ideology of attacks upon them, instead of confronting that
ideology and calling upon Muslims to renounce and reform Islam’s
doctrines of violence. Pope Francis is not only disastrously wrongheaded
about an obvious fact that is reinforced by every day’s headlines, but
he is also deceiving and misleading his people about a matter of utmost
importance, and keeping them ignorant and complacent about a growing and
advancing threat.

Has anyone thanked Pope Francis for his defense of Christianity? Has
he offered any? Is Ahmed al-Tayeb really the kind of person from whom
Pope Francis wants to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant”?

“Leave them; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14)

“Vatican, al-Azhar focus on papal trip speeches in latest meeting,” by Elise Harris, Catholic News Agency, July 7, 2017 (thanks to Peter):

ROME – In the wake of Pope Francis’s whirlwind visit to
Egypt, the Vatican and the prestigious Muslim al-Azhar University have
held another meeting, focusing on the landmark speeches given during the
pope’s visit.
The meeting, which took place July 3 at the apostolic nunciature in
Egypt, was arranged by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious
Dialogue and the al-Azhar Center for Dialogue (CAD).
It fell two months after Pope Francis’s April 28-29 visit to Cairo,
the result of a recent thawing in relations between the Vatican and the
university, which had been strained since 2011.
According to a July 4 Vatican communique, the meeting focused
primarily on the speeches of both Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of
al-Azhar, Ahmed Muhammad al-Tayyib, during the pope’s visit.
Specifically, “the joint commitment to continue shared reflections,
aimed at promoting a fruitful and effective interreligious dialogue was
expressed, focusing in particular on the promotion of peace and the
building of a more just world.”
Hailed as one of the most important speeches he’s given so far in his
time as Bishop of Rome, the pope’s opening address to the International
Conference on Peace, his first speech of the trip, issued harsh
condemnation of religiously-motivated violence and a strong call for its
rejection in the global sphere.
In the April 28 address, Francis said that “peace alone is holy and
no act of violence can be perpetrated in the name of God, for it would
profane his Name.
“Together, in the land where heaven and earth meet, this land of
covenants between peoples and believers, let us say once more a firm and
clear ‘No!’ to every form of violence, vengeance and hatred carried out
in the name of religion or in the name of God,” he said.
Going on, the pope said we have “an obligation to denounce violations
of human dignity and human rights, to expose attempts to justify every
form of hatred in the name of religion, and to condemn these attempts as
idolatrous caricatures of God.”
Violence and faith, belief and hatred, are incompatible, he said, and
asked participants to join him in this affirmation: “together let us
declare the sacredness of every human life against every form of
violence, whether physical, social, educational or psychological,” he
said, as the auditorium erupted in thunderous applause.
Likewise, al-Tayyib, who in his role as Grand Imam of al-Azhar is
widely considered to be the highest authority in the 1.5-billion strong
Sunni Muslim world, said in his speech that humanity ought to “stress
the value of peace, justice, equality and human rights regardless of
religion, color, race, or language.
“We need to liberate the image of religions from false concepts,
misunderstandings, malpractices, and false religiosity attached to them.
These evils bestir conflicts, spread hate, and instigate violence,” he
said, adding that “we should not hold religion accountable for the
crimes of any small group of followers.”
He thanked the pope for his “defense of Islam against the accusation
of violence and terrorism,” and voiced his commitment to working
together to establish peaceful coexistence and strengthen dialogue….

______________________________________________________

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

Pope Francis received a noteworthy honor last week when Ahmed al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Cairo’s al-Azhar, thanked him for his “defense of Islam against the accusation of violence and terrorism.”

Has any other Pope of Rome in the history of Christianity ever been heralded as a “defender of Islam”?

Of course not. But the Catholic Church has come a long way since the
days of Pope Callixtus III, who vowed in 1455 to “exalt the true Faith,
and to extirpate the diabolical sect of the reprobate and faithless
Mahomet in the East.”

If time travel could be arranged and Pope Francis could run into
Callixtus III, Callixtus could “expect a punch,” for Francis is not just
a defender of Islam, but a defender of the Sharia death penalty for
blasphemy: after Islamic jihadists murdered the Charlie Hebdo
cartoonists who had drawn Muhammad, Francis obliquely justified the murders
by saying that “it is true that you must not react violently, but
although we are good friends if [an aide] says a curse word against my
mother, he can expect a punch, it’s normal. You can’t make a toy out of
the religions of others. These people provoke and then (something can
happen). In freedom of expression there are limits.”

So for the Pope, murdering people for violating Sharia blasphemy laws
is “normal,” and it isn’t terrorism for “Christian terrorism does not
exist, Jewish terrorism does not exist, and Muslim terrorism does not
exist. They do not exist,” he said in a speech
last February. “There are fundamentalist and violent individuals in all
peoples and religions—and with intolerant generalizations they become
stronger because they feed on hate and xenophobia.”

So there is no Islamic terrorism, but if you engage in “intolerant
generalizations,” you can “expect a punch.” The Pope, like the
Organization of Islamic Cooperation, apparently thinks that the problem
is not jihad terror, but non-Muslims talking about jihad terror; Muslims
would be peaceful if non-Muslims would simply censor themselves and
self-impose Sharia blasphemy restrictions regarding criticism of Islam.

For Pope Francis has no patience
with those who discuss such matters: “I don’t like to talk about
Islamic violence, because every day, when I read the newspaper, I see
violence.” He said, according to Crux,
that “when he reads the newspaper, he reads about an Italian who kills
his fiancé or his mother in law.” The pontiff added: “They are baptized
Catholics. They are violent Catholics.” He said that if he spoke about
“Islamic violence,” then he would have to speak about “Catholic
violence” as well.

That comparison made no sense, for Italian Catholics who killed their
fiancés or mothers in law were not acting in accord with the teachings
of their religion, while the Qur’an and Islamic teaching contain
numerous exhortations to violence.

But Pope Francis, defender of Islam, cannot concern himself with such
minutiae. Nor does he appear to be particularly concerned about the
fact that all his false statements about the motivating ideology behind
the massive Muslim persecution of Christians over the last few years
only enables and abets that persecution, for if that ideology is not
identified and confronted, it will continue to flourish.

The Pope of Rome, whom Catholics consider to be the earthly head of
the Church, should be a defender of Christianity, not a defender of
Islam, the religion that has been at war with Christianity and
Judeo-Christian civilization since its earliest days. That any Christian
leader would be called a “defender of Islam” by anyone only casts into
vivid relief the absurdity of our age and the weakness of the free
world. Can you imagine any Muslim leader ever being called a “defender
of Christianity”? Of course not: Muslim leaders are more aware than
their fond defender in the Vatican that Islam mandates warfare against
unbelievers, not defense of their theological views.

Pope Francis is not only disastrously wrongheaded about an obvious
fact that is reinforced by every day’s headlines; he is also deceiving
and misleading his people about a matter of utmost importance, and
keeping them ignorant and complacent about a growing and advancing
threat.

“Leave them; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14)