– The fear of accepting migrants is partly based on a fear of Islam. In your view, is the fear that this religion sparks in Europe justified?Saddam's was "a strong government"? I suppose, if the mark of a strong government is widespread torture, murder, ethnic cleansing, and the terror of the mukhabarat. East Germany was a strong government by these standards.
Pope Francis: Today, I don’t think that there is a fear of Islam as such but of ISIS and its war of conquest, which is partly drawn from Islam. It is true that the idea of conquest is inherent in the soul of Islam. However, it is also possible to interpret the objective in Matthew’s Gospel, where Jesus sends his disciples to all nations, in terms of the same idea of conquest.
In the face of Islamic terrorism, it would therefore be better to question ourselves about the way in an overly Western model of democracy has been exported to countries such as Iraq, where a strong government previously existed. Or in Libya, where a tribal structure exists. We cannot advance without taking these cultures into account. As a Libyan said recently, “We used to have one Gaddafi, now we have fifty.”
Perhaps we should be grateful to hear a Western leader say "It is true that conquest is inherent in the soul of Islam." Also, I understand that the Pope is making nice with Islam because he's trying to forestall the murder of Christians in the Middle East. Still, if it's strange to be unable to distinguish between "a strong government" and a murderous tyranny, it's far stranger to hear the leader of the Catholic Church elide jihad and Jesus. This is "the same idea of conquest"? The very same idea? Are we sure it's even a very similar idea?
Christianity and Islam both have a universal mission. That seems to me to be the end of the similarity of their ideas about conquest.
William F. Buckley once pointed out
ReplyDelete"To say that the CIA and the KGB engage in similar practices is the equivalent of saying that the man who pushes an old lady into the path of a hurtling bus is not to be distinguished from the man who pushes an old lady out of the path of a hurtling bus: on the grounds that, after all, in both cases someone is pushing old ladies around."
Some similar false equivalencies seem in play here.
The next thing people will see is the Roman Catholic church declaring a crusade against non Catholic Christians.
ReplyDeleteThat would seal the deal.
Also, I understand that the Pope is making nice with Islam because he's trying to forestall the murder of Christians in the Middle East.
ReplyDeleteThere's no connection. The Catholic Church may protect Vatican diplomats and cardinals. They do not protect Coptic and Miaphysite missionaries in the ME. Just out of their jurisdiction.
In fact, the Catholic Church has done little over the centuries to reverse Islam's cleansing of the ME Christendom.