Link from LGF
First, notice that the article is badly titled: âLa Civiltà Cattolicaâ is not breaking a cease-fire, but merely beginning to fight back.
Long article, just posting the introduction here:
ROMA â There is a conspicuous absence among the new cardinals created on October 21 by John Paul II: Archbishop Michael Louis Fitzgerald, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. The current explanation is that Fitzgerald was not made cardinal because of his excessively placid approach to Islam. And it is true that, together with this exclusion, an article was printed in âLa Civiltà Cattolicaâ that contrasts markedly with the matter of Fitzgeraldâs rebuke. âLa Civiltà Cattolica,â edited by a group of Jesuits in Rome, is a very special magazine. Every one of its articles is reviewed by the Vatican secretary of state before publication. So the magazine reflects his thought faithfully.
Itâs official Vatican policy, in other words.
In its October 18 edition, âLa Civiltà Cattolicaâ published a strikingly severe article on the condition of Christians in Muslim countries. The central thesis of the article is that âin all of its history, Islam has shown a warlike and conquering faceâ; that âfor almost a thousand years, Europe lived under its constant threatâ; and that what remains of the Christian population in Islamic countries is still subjected to âperpetual discrimination,â with episodes of bloody persecution. What follows is an ample extract from the article printed in âLa Civiltà Cattolicaâ no. 3680, October 18, 2003, and used here with the kind permission of the magazine:
Follow the link to read the whole thing. This is the Vaticanâs equivalent of a warning shot, just short of declaring Holy War. Better get those Swiss guards ready.
How do Christians in Muslim-majority countries live? [...] We must first highlight a seemingly rather curious fact: in all the countries of North Africa (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco), before the Muslim invasion and despite incursions by vandals, there were blossoming Christian communities that contributed to the universal Church great personalities, such as Tertullian; Saint Ciprian, bishop of Carthage, martyred in 258; Saint Augustine, bishop of Hippo; and Saint Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspe. But after the Arab conquest, Christianity was absorbed by Islam to such an extent that today it has a significant presence only in Egypt, with the Coptic Orthodox and other tiny Christian minorities, which make up 7-10 percent of the Egyptian population.
Nice to know somebody at the Vatican notices the obvious. From Pope John Paulâs statements, one might believe Islam is the best of all religions (John Paul might criticize Christianity sometimes, but never Islam.)
In conclusion, we may state in historical terms that in all the places where Islam imposed itself by military force, which has few historical parallels for its rapidity and breadth, Christianity, which had been extraordinarily vigorous and rooted for centuries, practically disappeared or was reduced to tiny islands in an endless Islamic sea. It is not easy to explain how that could have happened. [...]
Oh, yes it is. Through coercion, through discriminatory laws, through sporadic violence.
Thus, in all of its history, Islam has shown a warlike face and a conquering spirit for the glory of Allah. [...] against the âidolatersâ who must be given a choice: convert to Islam, or be killed. [...] As for the âpeople of the Bookâ (Christians, Jews, and âSabeansâ), Muslims must âfight them until their members pay tribute, one by one, humiliatedâ (Koran, Sura 9:29). [...]
Right on.
It is evident that the condition of the dhimmi, prolonged through centuries, has led slowly but inexorably to the near extinction of Christianity in Muslim lands: the condition of civil inferiority, which prevented Christians from attaining public offices, and the condition of religious inferiority, which closed them in an asphyxiated religious life and practice with no possibility of development, put the Christians to the necessity of emigrating, or, more frequently, to the temptation of converting to Islam. There was also the fact that a Christian could not marry a Muslim woman without converting to Islam, in part because her children had to be educated in that faith.
When Muslim apologists tell you of the âwonderful freedom of religionâ in Islamic countries, remember the paragraph above. And also remember religions other than Judaism and Christianity are even worse off.
We must, finally, recall a fact that is often forgotten because Saudi Arabia is the largest provider of oil to the Western world, and the latter therefore has an interest in not disturbing relations with that country. In reality, in Saudi Arabia, where wahhabism is in force, not only is it impossible to build a church or even a tiny place of worship, but any act of Christian worship or any sign of Christian faith is severely prohibited with the harshest penalties. Thus about a million Christians working in Saudi Arabia are deprived by violence of any Christian practice or sign. They may participate in mass or in other Christian practices â and even then with the serious danger of losing their jobs â only on the property of the foreign oil companies. And yet, Saudi Arabia spends billions of petrodollars, not for the benefit of its poor citizens or of poor Muslims in other Muslim countries, but to construct mosques and madrasas in Europe and to finance the imams of the mosques in all the Western countries. We recall that the Roman mosque of Monte Antenne, constructed on land donated by the Italian government, was principally financed by Saudi Arabia and was built to be the largest mosque in Europe, in the very heart of Christianity.
Thatâs the master plan of Islamists: ask for freedom of religion in non-Muslim countries, so Islam can spread, repress competing religions in Islam-dominated countries, so Islam becomes absolute. |