This is vomit-bucket-filling stuff. And yes, I was brought up catholic and still call myself a catholic agnostic, but this makes me sick, literally. This usurper on the chair of St. Peter, selling out, holding hands, playing footsies with the most deadly persecutors of Christians worldwide today. Pfui Teufel ! (something we say in Bavaria when we are totally disgusted)
Remember Christian mother of five, Asia Bibi, for nearly a decade on death row for having dared drinking out of a cup reserved for muslims only and for having "insulted" their "prophet", while the supposed Fรผhrer of her church is schmoozing those who tortured her and still want to kill her ?
So:
About those crusades:
Question: When did the first crusade begin?
Answer: 1095
Question: When did the last (Crusade) end?
Answer: 1272
Question:
When did the jihad against Christian Europe begin?
Answer: Around 630
Question: When did the Jihad end?
Answer: ???
The above facts come from the delightful book, "Bunt wie ein Niquab" (Colourful as a niquab) by the brilliant author, Michael Klonosvsky. If you read German, DO buy it.
In an article published in the Gatestone Institute, on February 3, 2019, Giulio Meotti, an Italian journalist, author and Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, writes:
"Unfortunately, Pope Francis's stance on Islam seems to be coming from a fantasy world."
Here is a slightly shortened form of Meotti's article which you can read in its totality here.
"Authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence", the Pope claimed, not quite accurately. It is as if all of the Pope's efforts have been directed to exonerating Islam from any of its responsibilities. He seems to have been doing this even more than observant Muslims...
..."Pope Francis could in no way be ignorant of the heavy problems caused by the expansion... at the very heart of the Christian domain... Let us note this again... the last religion that arrived in Europe has an intrinsic impediment to integrating into the European framework that is fundamentally Judeo-Christian..." – Boualem Sansal, Algerian author, in his best-selling book "2084."
Pope Francis now faces the potential risk of a Christian world physically swallowed by the Muslim crescent -- as on the Vatican logo chosen for the Pope's upcoming trip to Morocco (*). It is time the appeasement is replaced:
4,305 Christians were killed simply because their Christian faith in 2018. This is the dramatic number contained in the new "World Watch List 2019" just compiled by the non-governmental organization Open Doors. It reveals that in 2018, there were 1,000 more Christian victims -- 25% more -- than the year before, when there were 3,066.
These days, 245 million Christians in the world are apparently persecuted simply for their faith. Last November, The organization Aid to the Church in Need released its "Religious Freedom Report" for 2018 and reached the a similar conclusion: 300 million Christians were subjected to violence. Christianity, despite stiff competition, has been called "the most persecuted religion in the world".
In March 2019, Pope Francis will travel to Morocco, a country also listed in the Open Doors' watch list. Unfortunately, Pope Francis's stance on Islam seems to be coming from a fantasy world. The persecution of Christians is now an international crisis. Consider what happened to Christians in the Muslim world during just the last couple of months:
A policeman was killed trying to defuse a bomb outside a Coptic church in Egypt. Before that, seven Christians were murdered by religious extremists during a pilgrimage. Then a mass grave was discovered in Libya containing the remains of 34 Ethiopian Christians killed by jihadists affiliated with the Islamic State. The Iranian regime, in severe new crackdowns, arrested more than 109 Christians. The Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi, three months after being exonerated for "blasphemy"and released from death row, still lives as a "prisoner": her former neighbors still want to put her to death. In Mosul, which was Iraq's center for Christians, there was a "Christmas without Christians", and in Iraq in general, 80% of the Christians have disappeared.
"The stubborn silence of European leaders on the question of religions, Islam in particular, astonishes and disappoints", wrote the Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal recently.
"Their attitude is simply irresponsible, suicidal, and even criminal...in the current context marked by [a] dizzying expansion... It's like living at the foot of an angry volcano and not understanding that it is preparing to erupt".
Sansal, who has been threatened with death by Islamists in France, as in Algeria, wrote "2084", a best-seller. In it, he writes that Pope Francis's stance on the Muslim world is similar to that of the Western leaders:
"Pope Francis could in no way be ignorant of the heavy problems caused by the expansion of radical Islam in the world and at the very heart of the Christian domain... Let us note this again... the last religion that arrived in Europe, has an intrinsic impediment to integrating into the European fundamentally Judeo-Christian framework, even if this referent, over the past centuries, has eroded."
...Pope Francis did manage to explain that the "idea of conquest" is integral to Islam as a religion, but quickly added that one might interpret Christianity the same way. "Authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence", the Pope claimed, not quite accurately. He also not quite accurately remarked that "Islam is a religion of peace, one which is compatible with respect for human rights and peaceful coexistence." It is as if all of the Pope's efforts have been directed to exonerating Islam from any of its responsibilities...
...Christianity is at the risk of "extinction" in the Middle East, noted the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby:
"Hundreds of thousands have been forced from their homes. Many have been killed, enslaved and persecuted or forcibly converted. Even those who remain ask the question, 'Why stay?' The Christian population of Iraq, for instance, is less than half what it was in 2003 and their churches, houses and businesses have been damaged or destroyed. The Syrian Christian population has halved since 2010. As a result, across the region Christian communities that were the foundation of the universal Church now face the threat of imminent extinction."
The West has betrayed its Christians friends in the East (such as here and here). The West might well ask: What are the Vatican and the Pope doing to fight this new religious persecution?
Criticism has already come from the Catholic world. "Just as he has little anxiety about the wave of church closings, Francis seems to have little anxiety about the Islamization of Europe", wrote the US Catholic columnist William Kilpatrick.
"Indeed, as evidenced by his encouragement of mass migration, he seems to have no objection to Islamization. Either because he truly believes the false narrative that Islam is a religion of peace, or because he believes that the self-fulfilling prophecy strategy will create a more moderate Islam, Francis seems to be at peace with the fact that Islam is spreading rapidly. Whether Francis has been misinformed about Islam or whether he has adopted a strategy of misinformation, he is taking a huge gamble—not only with his own life, but with the lives of millions".
...Pope Benedict XVI, in his address at Regensburg, said what no Pope had ever dared to say before -- that there is a specific link between violence and Islam. To illustrate his case, Benedict cited a 14th-century dialogue between a Byzantine Christian emperor, Manuel II Paleologus, and a Persian scholar, about the concept of violence in Islam: "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things.. .such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached", Benedict quoted the emperor as saying to his Muslim interlocutor.
Another Pope, John Paul II, also expressed concerns. During a meeting in 1992, Mgr Mauro Longhi, who, while still a student, often accompanied the late Pope on hiking trips says, John Paul II told of an "Islamist invasion" of Europe.
"The Pope told me: 'Tell this to those whom you will meet in the Church of the third millennium. I see the Church afflicted by a mortal wound. More profound, more painful than those of this millennium,' referring to Communism and Nazi totalitarianism. 'It is called Islamism. They will invade Europe. I have seen the hordes come from the West to the East,' and then told to me each country one by one: from Morocco to Libya to Egypt, and so on till the East.
"The Holy Father added: 'They will invade Europe, Europe will be like a basement, old relics, shadows, cobwebs. Family heirlooms. You, the Church of the third millennium, must contain the invasion. Not with armies, armies will not be enough, but with your faith, lived with integrity."
John Paul II's vision resembles a continuation of Islam's historic campaign in the Christian lands:
"In 637, the Islamic army seized Jerusalem, twice holy, then the heart of the entire Middle East, the historic center of Christianity", wrote the Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal. He went on to describe "the irresistible progression of Islam to the West: the Judeo-Christian North Africa, which immediately converted; Catholic Spain, which was annexed at the beginning of the VIII century; Byzantium, which they took in 1453; [then] to Vienna, which they besieged in 1529...".
Pope Francis now faces the potential risk of a Christian world physically swallowed by the Muslim crescent -- as on the Vatican logo chosen for the Pope's upcoming trip to Morocco. It is time the appeasement is replaced.
(*) THAT Vatican logo for the forthcoming Pope's visit to Morocco
The official logo of the Pope’s visit to Morocco in March was chosen from about 50 entries in a competition. An explanatory note accompanying the logo's release says that a cross and a crescent in the logo are symbols of Christianity and Islam which highlight the inter religious relations between Christians and Muslims.
Apart from anything else that disturbs me in this is the absence of Judaism...but, personally, if I was Jewish, I would not accept the invitation by those two, if such would have been offered, not for the time being at least.
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| Captions read: And that's a Boss? How embarrassing! The more I humiliate myself, the more they will love me.... |
When Bavaria came to Rome to pay homage to Pope Benedict XVI, who was born in Bavaria, and who, for me, remains the Pope until he dies. Does he look to you like a Pope who would break a century-old tradition and "resign" voluntarily? He never wanted the job, but once he accepted it, to fulfil the expressed wishes of his friend and predecessor, Pope Paul II, he would drink this chalice to the very end. Pope Benedict XVI is not a quitter. I will always keep wondering: who pushed him out, and why and how...
This was the devotional Bavarian yodel, followed by the Pope's Blessing and the Bavarian Anthem. The Bavarians had travelled to Rome to celebrate the birthday of Pope Benedict XVI .
