Posted on 02/24/2017 8:32:43 PM PST by NYer
Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center
Pope Francis continues to argue for two interrelated points that, while seemingly humane, compromise Western nations and expose their citizens to danger.
He reiterated his first point earlier this month when he said, I appeal not to create walls but to build bridges. Francis has made this appeal frequently, both figuratively (when imploring Western nations not to close their doors against more incoming Muslim migrants), and literallyincluding by characterizing Donald Trumps proposal to build a U.S.-Mexico wall as not Christian.
Francis reiterated his second point a few days ago when he said, Muslim terrorism does not exist. His logic is that, because there are Christians who engage in criminal and violent activitiesand yet no one blames Christianity for their behaviorso too should Islam not be blamed when Muslims engage in criminal and violent activities.
In this, the Catholic pope appears unable or unwilling to make the pivotal distinction between violence committed in accordance with religious teachings (Islam) and violence committed in contradiction of religious teachings (Christianity).
But theres another relevant and often overlooked irony: every morning Francis wakes up in the Vatican and looks out his window, he sees a very large and visible reminder that gives the lie to both his argument against walls and his argument in defense of Islam. I speak of the great walls surrounding Vatican City, more specifically the Leonine Walls.
Context: A couple of years after Islamic prophet Muhammad died in 632, his followers erupted out of Arabia and conquered the surrounding lands of non-Muslims in the name of Islamic jihad. In a few decades, they had conquered two-thirds of what was in the 7th century Christendom. They took all of the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain, until they were finally stopped at Tours in central France (732). By the late 9th century, jihadi incursions had transformed the Mediterranean into a Muslim lake; the major islandsSicily, Crete, Rhodes, Malta, Cypruswere conquered, and the European coast was habitually raided for booty and slaves.
According to the most authoritative and contemporary Muslim chroniclesthose of al-Waqidi, al-Baladhuri, al-Tabari, al-Maqrizi, etc.all this was done because Islam calls on its followers to conquer the lands of infidels.
It was in this context that, in 846, Muslim fleets from North Africa landed near Rome. Unable to breach the walls of the Eternal City, they sacked and despoiled the surrounding countryside, includingto the consternation of Christendomthe venerated and centuries-old basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul. The Muslim invaders intentionally desecrated the tombs of the revered apostles and stripped them of their treasures, including a large golden cross. Pope Leo IV (847-855) responded by building large walls and fortifications along the right bank of the Tiber to protect the sacred sites from further Muslim raids. Completed by 852, the walls were in most places 40 feet high and 12 feet thick.
Further anticipating the crusades against Islam by over two centuriesand thus showing how they were a long time comingPope Leo decreed that any Christian who died fighting Muslim invaders would gain heaven. After him and for the same reasons, Pope John VIII offered remission of sins for those who died fighting Islamic invaders. Such was the existential and ongoing danger Muslims caused for Christian Europemore than two centuries before Pope Urbans call for the First Crusade in 1095.
Today, many Muslims, not just of the ISIS-variety, continue to boast that Islam will conquer Rome, the only of five apostolic seesthe other four being Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Constantinoplenever to have been subjugated by jihad. Similarly, Muslims all throughout Europe continue exhibiting the same hostility and contempt for all things and persons non-Islamic, whether by going on church vandalizing sprees and breaking crosses, or by treating infidel women as theirs by right for sex and rape.
In short, Pope Leos walls prove Pope Francis wrong on both counts: yes, walls are sometimes necessary to preserve civilization; and yes, Islam does promote violence and intolerance for the otherfar more than any other religion. This fact is easily discerned by examining the past and present words and deeds of Muslims, all of which evince a remarkable and unwavering continuity of violence for infidels.
More ironically, had it not been for Pope Leos wallsand so many other Christian walls, such as Constantinoples, which kept Islam out of Europe for centuries, and Viennas, which stopped a full-blown jihad as recent as 1683there might not be a pope today to pontificate about how terrible walls are and how misunderstood Islam is. And when Francis accuses those who want to protect their people by building walls of not being Christian, as he did of Trump, he essentially accuses his bettersmen like Pope Leo IV, who did so much to protect and preserve Christendom at a time when Islam seemed to be swallowing up the worldof being no Christians at all.
God will impeach him.
This Pope is a tremendous disappointment - and extremely dangerous when it comes to importing Islam (it must be firmly rejected and sent home asap !)
Any idea how he came to power,
and kicked Pope Benedict XVI into resignation?
Hmm...
Can Popes be impeached?
The Pope at heart must be a liberation theologist.
Bergoglio was born on Dec. 17, 1936 in Buenos Aires to Italian immigrants. His father was a railroad worker and his mother was a homemaker. He lost a lung to an infection when he was in his early 20s and to this day he speaks in a soft voice. He initially studied chemical engineering but later entered the Society of Jesus and was ordained in 1969. In the seminary he taught literature, psychology and philosophy and soon took over as head of the Jesuit order in Argentina. By the 1980s, many Jesuits were gravitating toward liberation theology, which holds that religious faith is expressed through helping the poor and by working for political and social change. But Bergoglio believed Jesuits should stick to their traditional roles as parish leaders and chaplains and steer clear of community activism.
A Jesuit immersed in liberation theology from Argentina... what could possibly go wrong?
The cardinals must be kicking themselves now realizing what they have done.
Popey Dopey, tear down that wall!
What a hypocrite.
I have not heard of any wall deconstruction projects for the Vatican.
> I have not heard of any wall deconstruction projects for the Vatican. <
To which I’d add: It’s extremely hard to get Vatican City citizenship. Even people who have worked in Vatican City for decades cannot get it.
Pope Peronista speaks.
And as much as I love her. My Polish girl swooned over the new Pope because he carried his own luggage.
Bought and paid for.
The cardinals know exactly what they did....
Is it possible to impeach a Pope?
How about a recall.
Most people assume that Francisco Bernadone (St Francis of Assisi) opposed the Crusades. He did not. St. Francis specifically prayed for the success of the Crusades. He and his friars bore no weapons except the Scriptures and prayer — but they neither opposed nor condemned Christian knights with swords.
And nobody was made of “sterner stuff”.
I’ve had it with this bozo.
A globalist socialist shill.
We had a Muslim President, now the Pope?
Had Frances been pope in 1453, he not only would have still refused to help his Christian kindred in the east, he would have also rallied Catholic Europe to assist the Ottomans in toppling Constantinople that much faster!
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