Yeah, but they have to be careful how they say it (or heads will quite literally roll).
So such kind comments towards Islamic people themselves as have been highlighted should be seen in wider context...
I don't know that the way several successive popes in a row have spoken towards Muslims is altogether wrong. There is much to be consider.
One thing I do know...that even as there are a great many Muslims who can be easily agitated & stirred up, those fields are also ripe to the harvest. 'Trouble is...one has to be very careful how they go about scything, for there are some hard stony places that can set off sparks when hit, starting fires that burn in bad ways...
“Yeah, but they have to be careful how they say it (or heads will quite literally roll).
So such kind comments towards Islamic people themselves as have been highlighted should be seen in wider context...” - BD
I totally agree.
The Church has to use diplomacy regarding Islam.
However, after scraping away all the varnish, there is no denying that there is no St. Muhammad. (and there are only a few reasons that would be the case.)
islam believes in triumphalism -- and you can't blame them for thinking that as Islam until the 19th century was one of continuous triumphs
Mohammed got lucky in the 7th century and burst on the scene just when the Romans and the Persians had bled each other nearly to death. The Roman army in Egypt and Syria hadn't been paid for a century and the united Arabs could walk in and take over
They then swept in a massive blitzkrieg into north AFrica, Hispania, Sicily, even southern Italy
The Arabs then consolidated and by the 10th century they were losing out with the Romans winning back lands, but then they started converting Turks and the turkic bloodthirstiness combined with Islamic fervor was able to push into the Balkans
Their losses to the Slavs from 1683 through to the Russians crushing the Turks and Iranis in the 1700s and 1800s was shocking, but not shocking enough
The Moslems burned Edessa, the holiest center of the Assyrian Church of the East. They conquered Alexandria, once THE central point of Christendom, then the spiritual center of Oriental Orthodoxy. They conquered Constantinople, the center of Eastern Orthodoxy
Now they hit Western Christendom
We need to hit back and straight at the heart of the beast -- Mecca and Medina.