Posted on 03/19/2005 4:02:25 AM PST by Pipeline
Muslims demand papal apology for crusades Highest Sunni authority sends official request to Vatican
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: March 19, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
The world's highest Sunni Muslim authority has demanded an official apology from the pope for the medieval Christian crusades.
Sheikh Fawzi Zafzaf, president of the Interfaith Dialogue Committee of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, said his panel sent the request to the Vatican in February, the Morocco Times reported.
The demand arose from Pope John Paul II's apologies to the Jewish people and his visits to Syria and Egypt a few years ago, Zafzaf said.
Al-Azhar is only asking for a similar treatment, he stated.
The Morocco paper said the Vatican's ambassador to Egypt has declined to comment, saying Al-Azhar's request is being considered by the Holy See.
While many Christians have expressed remorse for the crusades, some scholars insist the common characterization of zealous imperialists attacking peaceful Muslims is wrong.
Thomas F. Madden, author of "A Concise History of the Crusades," contends the Crusades "were in every way a defensive war."
"They were the West's belated response to the Muslim conquest of fully two-thirds of the Christian world," he wrote in a National Review column. "While the Arabs were busy in the seventh through the tenth centuries winning an opulent and sophisticated empire, Europe was defending itself against outside invaders and then digging out from the mess they left behind. Only in the eleventh century were Europeans able to take much notice of the East. "
Madden said the event that led to the crusades was the Turkish conquest of most of Christian Asia Minor, modern Turkey.
"The Christian emperor in Constantinople, faced with the loss of half of his empire, appealed for help to the rude but energetic Europeans. He got it. More than he wanted, in fact," wrote Madden, associate professor and chair of the Department of History at Saint Louis University.
Over the past several years, pronouncements from Al-Azhar have sparked controversy.
In 2003, Al-Azhar's grand sheikh, Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, stated suicide bombers are considered "martyrs" under Islamic law.
In December 2002, the Islamic Ruling Committee in Al-Azhar declared the acquisition of nuclear weapons to be a religious obligation for Islamic states.
A member of panel, Sheikh Ala A-Shanawi, said, "The Islamic nation has to recognize the enemy, and to prepare itself accordingly."
Answering a question he received, A-Shanawi wrote, "Allah's messenger [Muhammad] would have prepared himself with all the resources possible in order to deal with the enemy. Therefore, if the Islamic nation is not equipped with the desired weaponry needed, it will be forced to suffer the consequences, and will be blamed for negligence."
The sheikh continued, "All Islamic nations are required to seize nuclear weaponry, giving the nation the utmost respect. We see how far behind our nation is as a result of not being prepared as well as it should be, while the enemy has equipped itself with the best weaponry there is, which it will use to harm and destroy Muslims."
We should apologize right after they give back the lands they took from the Christians.
Muslims shoudl first apologize for the conquest of Arabia, Northern Africa, etc. Most of these lands were Christian and the inhabitants were either killed, enslaved, raped, and or made to pay heavy taxes. Once again Muslims demononstrate that they believe that it is perfectly fine when they use violence.
Sheikh Fawzi Zafzaf needs to study his history more thoroughly.
The Pope should most certainly apologize. The Crusades were bungled. As a result, Islam still exists.
The history of Islamic conquest and domination in the Middle East and the relations between the dominant Muslims and the now minority Christians are defined by the Quran, as amplified in the Hadith, and codified in the Sharia (Muslim law code). Muslims believe that the Quran is the eternal, literal, unalterable and final word of their Allah. It defines Muslims in Surah III, 110 as "the best of nations". Surah VIII, 55 defines "kufr" (infidels including Christians) as "the vilest of animals". Even as "people of the Book" Christians were and are relegated to an inferior and humiliating status as a despised caste in Muslim societies, obligated to assent to the alleged superiority of Muslims, to acknowledge their own inferiority, and to pay the humiliation tax known as the "jisya". See Surah IX, 29 and the page, ISLAM - JIHAD elsewhere in this Web site.
Islam does not recognize human or civil rights, only religious rights as set forth in its foundation documents which place Muslims in a dominant position in society and all others below that. All others enjoy whatever may be accorded them by way of privilege and at the sufferance of the Muslims and their leaders. This arrangement is sanctioned by religion, law and custom. The Christian populations of the Middle East, once dominant, have either vanished altogether or have been reduced to small minorities by forced conversions, persecutions and emigration. In recent decades the Christian communities in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East have been eroding at an accelerating rate through emigration due to increased pressure from militant Islam. Europe, North America and Australia have all experienced increased immigration by Middle Eastern Christians seeking to escape discrimination and persecution at the hands of their Muslim neighbors. In the United States about 74% of the Arabs are Christians and the remainder Muslims. If current trends continue, the remnants of the ancient Christian Churches in Iraq and the Middle East will vanish. No longer will the chants of the ancient liturgies be heard. Then the wail of the muezzin will sound from the towers of the desecrated churches. Thus the final solution to the Christian presence in the Middle East will be achieved. (3) & (4) See CHRISTIAN FLIGHT FROM THE MIDDLE EAST at: http://www.byzantines.net/byzcathculture/christflight.html
FULL TEXT
Catholic Ping - Come home for Easter and experience God’s merciful love. Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
The history of Islamic conquest and domination in the Middle East and the relations between the dominant Muslims and the now minority Christians are defined by the Quran, as amplified in the Hadith, and codified in the Sharia (Muslim law code). Muslims believe that the Quran is the eternal, literal, unalterable and final word of their Allah. It defines Muslims in Surah III, 110 as "the best of nations". Surah VIII, 55 defines "kufr" (infidels including Christians) as "the vilest of animals". Even as "people of the Book" Christians were and are relegated to an inferior and humiliating status as a despised caste in Muslim societies, obligated to assent to the alleged superiority of Muslims, to acknowledge their own inferiority, and to pay the humiliation tax known as the "jisya". See Surah IX, 29 and the page, ISLAM - JIHAD elsewhere in this Web site.
Islam does not recognize human or civil rights, only religious rights as set forth in its foundation documents which place Muslims in a dominant position in society and all others below that. All others enjoy whatever may be accorded them by way of privilege and at the sufferance of the Muslims and their leaders. This arrangement is sanctioned by religion, law and custom. The Christian populations of the Middle East, once dominant, have either vanished altogether or have been reduced to small minorities by forced conversions, persecutions and emigration. In recent decades the Christian communities in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East have been eroding at an accelerating rate through emigration due to increased pressure from militant Islam. Europe, North America and Australia have all experienced increased immigration by Middle Eastern Christians seeking to escape discrimination and persecution at the hands of their Muslim neighbors. In the United States about 74% of the Arabs are Christians and the remainder Muslims. If current trends continue, the remnants of the ancient Christian Churches in Iraq and the Middle East will vanish. No longer will the chants of the ancient liturgies be heard. Then the wail of the muezzin will sound from the towers of the desecrated churches. Thus the final solution to the Christian presence in the Middle East will be achieved. (3) & (4) See CHRISTIAN FLIGHT FROM THE MIDDLE EAST at: http://www.byzantines.net/byzcathculture/christflight.html
FULL TEXT
Catholic Ping - Come home for Easter and experience God’s merciful love. Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
" We see how far behind our nation is as a result of not being prepared as well as it should be, while the enemy has equipped itself with the best weaponry there is, which it will use to harm and destroy Muslims."
Well, we best be getting to it then.
...and the way I remember it, THEY closed down Jerusalem to Christian pilgrims and THAT started the fireworks.
"We botched the job. We should have slaughtered every last maniacal Muzzle-em monster on the face of this earth. Hopefully we will do a better job in the future" !!!
this is going to get good! (/s)
the aclu will be very busy.
Ping!
Sooner, rather than later.
Ah, yes, but I think it was Andrew ("Ole' Hickory") Jackson who said, "Never apologize. Good men don't need it and bad men will just take advantage of it."
O.K.....lets hold a grudge for all time and expect the world to pay off.......
Nonsense. The only remorse most Christians I know who express an opinion is their spiritual forefathers weren't ultimately successful in freeing the Holy Land from Muslim slavery and oppression. Now we have to fight these same fanatics again.
Scr*w these people. There can be no coexistence with them. They live in a Seventh Century time warp. They need Jesus, not Jihad!
That'll do too! *LOL*
I was thinking about dropping my gift, the (reputed) 1000 lb. "Hogzilla" http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1366031/posts , on his head, as a mate to take with him into the grave...
But, dressing him out like a slaughtered pig for burial would be fine too ;)
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