There are still some, including sadly many within the Church such as Bishop Robert McManus, who believe that the Church and the West can "dialogue" with Islam, which is a manifestation of Antichrist.
Apparently the message of 9/11 was lost on such people. The date of this heinous and cowardly act of terrorism was not an accident of history. It was chosen to send a message to the [largely] Christian West: "We are coming for you."
September 11th is the date on which the Battle of Vienna took place in 1683.
You're probably thinking: What does that have to do with a rising Islam and the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon?
Much. You see, this battle between the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in league with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth versus the Muslim Ottoman Empire was decisive and really marked the turning-point in the Ottoman–Habsburg wars, the 300-year struggle between the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire.
In other words, September 11, 2001 was considered [by the sick minds who orchestrated the terrorist attacks] to be both "payback" and a way of announcing that militant Islam was back.
In his book entitled Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions, Pope Benedict XVI makes a few observations which some Catholics would apparently find problematic. The Holy Father writes, "To what extent the new surge forward of the Islamic world is fuelled by truly religious forces is..open to question. In many places, as we can see, there is the danger of a pathological development of the autonomy of feeling.." (p. 104).
On page 204 of the same book, Pope Benedict XVI writes, "...even with Islam, with all the greatness it represents, is always in danger of losing balance, letting violence have a place and letting religion slide away into mere outward observance and ritualism."
A rising and militant Islam intends to conquer the entire world and to destroy the Church. And we're supposed to dialogue with that?
Insanity!
I must disagree with Pope Benedict here. He was much closer to the the mark when quoting the Byzantine emperor who said Islam brought only violence by its command to spread the faith by the sword. There is no authentic Islam without the violence and domination.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more. But at least Benedict acknowledged Islam's propensity toward violence.
ReplyDeleteOf interest:
http://shoebat.com/2015/01/15/islam-will-defeated-victory-will-not-come-secular-values-small-body-strong-heroic-zealous-christian-warriors/