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."
OH MY GOD I don't believe the absolute GALL!
Please, I hope there is no Dell like cave in!!!
TOO (bad word here) MUCH!!
I think that's a fine idea...
after the Muslim hoardes apologize for, pay reparations for and return all of the lands that they stole from Christians and Jews. That means everything outside of the Arab Peninsula. They must vacate all of the so called "Uma," or conquered lands, with the exception of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman and the minor "sin-city" states.
Since they've been lying for centuries about how many Muslims there are they won't have any problem housing them all. And once the fanatic Jihadis have left town you'll be surprised how many "secret Jews" and "secret Christians" there are left behind in so called Muslim countries.
When I see the last of their sorry asses dwindling in the distance then I'll endorse an apology
Oh, and about those atomic weapons. We can deliver them to them any time they'd like.
This is from the JWR? When I first saw the headline I figured it was from The Onion or Scrappleface. The fact that their serious makes it even funnier.
Perhaps payment can be made in lead.
LOL! (((Sorry)))
Allahu fubar!
They don't apologize for anything. They just kill and kill and kill and demand more and more and more.
That's how I remember it, too.
Maybe the apology should be in air expressed Plutonium. "The gift that keeps on giving!"
I too feel remorse, that vile islam was not then wiped off the face of the earth!
I think they should appologize...I'll be glad to write it for them. Something like this ought to do:
"We are very, very sorry that we didn't wipe you out of existance 1,000 years ago. It was a terrible and grave mistake. Our forefathers should have been much more persistent. We sincerely regret you were not razed from the face of the earth. We promise not to make the same mistake twice."
I hope some of the Vatican's liberal 'advisors' aren't actually considering it... (eyeroll)
I suggest it is not an apology they are seeking. Considering the war is no longer a clash of arms but a clash of civilizations, looks like they are testing and probing the Catholic defenses as represented by the Vatican.
I am sorry that civilization has had to defend itself since the seventh century from a homicidal terrorist cult that commits mass murder, conversion under threat of death, utterly brutalizes women and children, and is the sworn enemy of art, culture, science, democracy, and basic human rights.
Because the Muzzie religion makes them so hyper macho. Which turns into gay when the pendulum swings that far. Muhammadanism is based on the hallucinations of Muhammad. The only good that comes from it, comes as individual Muslims ignore it's commandments.
Yeah, they have to be kidding, I hope they aren't holding their breath waiting for the apology.
The Anti-Christ must ask Jesus Christ to be thier Lord and Savior, convert to his ways, and then they will be forgiven, by God for all of the attrocities of Islam.
Then we can all get along.
No apology will be given by this Christian, who had nothing to do with the Crusades.
Ops4 God Bless America!
You should read Victor Davis Hanson's description of Lepanto in Carnage and Culture.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.