| Too many Islamic countries treat their Christian minorities as second-class citizens
It's 2004. Do you know where your Ten Commandments are? |
Posted on 12/31/2003 11:46:46 AM PST by polemikos
PARIS (Reuters) - Too many Islamic countries treat their Christian minorities as second-class citizens and bar them from building churches while Western states let their Muslims build mosques freely, according to a senior Vatican official.
Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who recently retired as the Vatican's foreign minister, told the French Catholic daily La Croix Wednesday that Christianity and Islam faced "an enormous task" of learning to live together in mutual tolerance.
Tauran was the latest and highest-ranking Catholic official to voice concern about Vatican relations with Muslims, an issue seen as central for whoever succeeds the ailing Pope John Paul.
"There are too many majority Muslim countries where non-Muslims are second-class citizens," said Tauran, the church's top diplomat for 13 years before he had to step aside on being made a cardinal by Pope John Paul in October.
Stressing the need for respect for minorities, he singled out "the extreme case of Saudi Arabia, where freedom of religion is violated absolutely -- no Christian churches and a ban on celebrating Mass, even in a private home."
"Just like Muslims can build their houses of prayer anywhere in the world, the faithful of other religions should be able to do so as well," the French-born cardinal said.
GROWING CONCERN
Leading church figures have increasingly expressed concern about Islam in view of friction between Muslims and Christians in Africa and the Middle East and the difficult integration of Muslim minorities in traditionally Christian Europe.
La Civilta Cattolica, a Jesuit journal published with Vatican approval, said last October Islam had a "warlike face" throughout history and charged Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Pakistan discriminated against Christians.
This was seen as a departure from the more balanced approach the Vatican has taken toward the Muslim world, where it usually stressed both positive and negative aspects of its relations.
In Rome that same month to celebrate Pope John Paul's 25th anniversary as pontiff, several cardinals cited relations with Islam as a key issue for the next papacy, akin to the Communist challenge at the beginning of the Polish pope's reign.
The head of the United States bishops' conference, Bishop Wilton Gregory, spoke of potential religious violence.
Referring to Islam in the West and in Africa, he said: "It's growing in places it didn't exist before and it is growing in places where Christianity is growing. The world cannot afford a violence that is born of religious intolerance."
Saudi Arabia has rejected criticism of its ban on churches, arguing the Vatican would not let mosques be built on its land.
Abid Ullah Jan, a Pakistani writer based in Canada, wrote that the Civilta Cattolica article signaled the Vatican had "joined the ranks of intellectual warriors who are battling Islam with renewed zeal since the fall of the Soviet Union."
Since becoming cardinal, Tauran has taken a lower-profile post as Vatican librarian but has also been appointed to several important Church commissions for foreign affairs, Catholic doctrine, Eastern churches and bishops' appointments.
Not to mention the countries where non-muslims are routinely murdered or driven out of the country...Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan and Malaysia come to mind.
The Church had better open it's eyes regarding Islam...they don't care about fairplay. They don't care that we allow mosques to be built here and guarantee religios freedoms to their fanatical adherents. All they care about is creating an Islamist world...period. They treat Christians and other non-Muslims as second class citizens because they don't see us a permanent part of the landscape, and that will never change.
Not to mention forcibly enslaved and of course 'converted'. Let's not forget East Timor, the Philipines and the Balkans. Coming soon to a country or neighborhood near you.
It's encouraging to see that some of the French see the dangers that threaten to envelop them. But they're a socialist country now, so all opposition or disagreement will be squelched as hate speech. Sound familiar??
Cant we all just get along? Can't some of us just be tolerant and others who hate our guts not be tolerant?
| Too many Islamic countries treat their Christian minorities as second-class citizens
It's 2004. Do you know where your Ten Commandments are? |
and Ideologies like living together with mutual tolerance are just that, ideologies. Like saying, I hope oil and water will mix one day.
Jesus said your either with me or against me. He never mentioned tolerance of other beliefs, in fact quite the opposite. He would have said, join me and be forgiven and have eternal life or be prepared to go to Hell.
I would have thought a Catholic cardinal would have known this, me being a regular Joe from the sticks in Oz but obviously that aint so.
God bless
Only a news organization like Reuters could editorialize in this way.
It way past time for the Vatican to come out strongly for Christians in dar es salaam, the land of Islam.
Time to make it difficult for Muslims in the West and other places.
What ? Did pigs fly ? Is this a Vatican spokesman criticizing the religion of peace ?
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Maybe we should worry about that happening right here before we get too upset about what's going on halfway around the world.