Posted on 03/06/2021 4:33:48 PM PST by ebb tide
NASSIRIYA, Iraq (ChurchMilitant.com) - Jesus and the Jews were both conspicuously missing from Pope Francis' Saturday interfaith service at the Plain of Ur — publicized by the Vatican event as the birthplace of Abraham.
Pope Francis met with Shia Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani
In his lengthy address, Francis did not mention "Jesus" even once, and the prayer concluding the event did not use the standard trinitarian formula or end in "the name of Jesus."
The pope avoided naming the Hebrew prophet "Isaiah" in his speech while citing the prophecy of nations beating "their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks."
Francis' address and the concluding "Prayer of the Children of Abraham" also intentionally stopped short of calling "Isaac" the "son of Abraham."
The Yezedis, denounced by Muslims as "devil worshippers," were not given a role in the papal interreligious event — even though the Vatican had previously announced their participation.
Renowned Islamic historian Robert Spencer told Church Militant that "Jesus was not mentioned, for as always, interreligious dialogue involving Muslims and Christians requires Christians move closer to the Islamic position, not any genuine give-and-take or mutuality."
Spencer, a scholar of Middle Eastern origin, noted the marked absence of the Jews: "A genuine interreligious meeting at the 'Birthplace of Abraham' would have included representatives of all three 'Abrahamic' religions. But the Jewish representatives who were invited reportedly refused to attend."
The author of 21 books on Islam and the Middle East explained:
As the Qur'an is deeply anti-Semitic and calls Jews the worst enemies of Muslims (5:82), under the curse of Allah (9:30), and calls on Muslims to make war against and subjugate them (9:29), it is likely that the Jewish leaders did not believe they would be safe or respected there, which is a more realistic view of Islam than the one Francis has.
A local Church official told Reuters that Jews were invited but their situation was "complicated," particularly as they have no structured community. However, a senior foreign Jewish figure has been present in similar past events in Muslim countries.
Standing by the birthplace of Abraham, surely Pope Francis' time would have been better spent asking: 'Iraq, where are your Jews?'Tweet
In comments to Church Militant, Jewish anthropologist Karen Harradine said she found it "insulting to us Jews that we were not included by those who used the birthplace of our first patriarch, Abraham, to virtue signal and mumble meaningless platitudes about healing."
By 2009, there were only eight Jews left in Baghdad, according to diplomatic cables published by Wikileaks. A 2015 law in the zone recognized Judaism as a protected religion and created an official representative. Even in the more tolerant Kurdish zone, of the estimated 400 families of Jewish descent remaining, some have converted to Islam in recent years. Most practice in secret, because identifying as Jewish is still dangerous.
"How odd that Pope Francis neglected to mention this when he spoke at the birthplace of our father, Abraham," Harradine lamented. "I suggest he brushes up on his history next time he plans to pontificate from there and learns about Iraq's ethnic cleansing of Jews."
Harradine narrated how Iraq's Jews were persecuted to the point of extinction: "The Jewish community lived in Iraq for over 2,700 years. In 1941, thousands of Jews were murdered in Baghdad in what became known as the Farhud Massacre. From then on, Jews were regularly subject to pogroms."
It is likely that the Jewish leaders did not believe they would be safe or respected there, which is a more realistic view of Islam than the one Francis has.Tweet
Harradine added:
After Israel was created in 1948, over 120,000 Jews were forced to flee, and their property confiscated. By the time of the Six Day War, Jews were barred from leaving Iraq, forced to carry yellow identity cards, publicly hanged and put under house arrest. By the early 1970s the remaining Jews were allowed to leave but many couldn't, being too old. Their property was confiscated. The tiny remaining community now lives in poverty and fear.
"Standing by the birthplace of Abraham, surely Pope Francis' time would have been better spent asking: 'Iraq, where are your Jews?'" Harradine said.
Jewish remnant in Erbil break bread during a Shabbat meal
The pope's interreligious service began with a biblical reading from Genesis 12 narrating God's call to Abraham to leave Ur and follow him. This was followed by a Qur'anic reading from Surah 14 — also known as Surah Ibrahim.
"Praise be to Allah, who hath granted unto me in old age Isma'il and Isaac," a Muslim cleric chanted. "In Islam, Ishmael supplants Isaac as the intended sacrificial lamb. Islam has a perspective on the role of Abraham's son Ishmael diametrically opposed to that elaborated in Genesis," writes Islamic scholar S.G. deClaissé-Walford.
"It would have been more illuminating and instructive if Qur'an 60:4 had been read," Spencer noted. "At that point, Abraham tells his unbelieving family that there will be enmity and hatred between him and them forever unless they worship Allah, and he is presented as a model for imitation in doing this."
Explaining the exclusion of "Isaac," Spencer added: "In Islamic tradition, Ishmael is the sacrificial son, and so the pope was apparently willing to go along with the devaluation of the tradition shared by Jews and Christians in favor of the Islamic understanding."
"Today we, Jews, Christians and Muslims, together with our brothers and sisters of other religions, honor our father Abraham by doing as he did: We look up to Heaven and we journey on earth," Francis preached.
Mostly ignoring COVID-19 protocols of masks and social distancing, Francis insisted that "the greatest blasphemy is to profane his name by hating our brothers and sisters."
Calling for "freedom of conscience and freedom of religion" to be respected "because they make us free to contemplate the Heaven for which we were created," the pope labeled extremism and violence as "betrayals of religion."
We believers cannot be silent when terrorism abuses religion; indeed, we are called unambiguously to dispel all misunderstandings.Tweet
Pope Francis' interfaith tent on the Plain of Ur
"We believers cannot be silent when terrorism abuses religion; indeed, we are called unambiguously to dispel all misunderstandings," Francis pleaded.
Spencer told Church Militant that the pope was continuing to "cling to the popular fiction that Islamic jihad terrorism arises from a misunderstanding of Islam."
"Indeed, he can't even go that far; instead, he says that terrorism 'abuses religion,' as if there were Christian terrorists in numbers comparable to Islamic terrorists worldwide," Spencer remarked, noting that Francis' "ignoring of the Qur'an's exhortations to violence against unbelievers doesn't have the remotest chance of compelling jihadis to give up their violence."
Despite the absence of Jews, Vatican News tweeted two news stories announcing in both tweets that Pope Francis had met with "representatives of the three Abrahamic religions" and was "joined by Muslims, Jews and Christians in the Iraqi city of Ur."
In his lengthy address, Francis did not mention "Jesus" even once, and the prayer concluding the event did not use the standard trinitarian formula or end in "the name of Jesus."
The pope avoided naming the Hebrew prophet "Isaiah" in his speech while citing the prophecy of nations beating "their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks."
Francis' address and the concluding "Prayer of the Children of Abraham" also intentionally stopped short of calling "Isaac" the "son of Abraham."
PIng
Must not offend the followers of a false prophet who was of the spirit of Antichrist!
Today, we are 1260 days after the Revelation 12:1-2 Great Sign in the Heavens. All the characters are moving into position. Hold fast to what you were taught when you first believed!
Because he is a heretic
I believe that by Muslim reckoning, Islam is the only Abrahamic faith because they claim that Adam and Noah and all the OT prophets, as well as John the Baptist and Jesus, were Muslims. With that kind of attitude, it seems that meeting with Jews and Christians is rather pointless, unless Muslims expect Jews and Christians to recognize Muslim superiority and to submit.
He doesn’t even like to speak of Jesus on Christmas so this is not a big surprise while the fake pope is on his One World Religion tour.
The Vatican under the command of Pope Francis is busy rebuking ownership of firearms to the cheers of Islamic followers for personal protection as well as decrying evangelical conversion plus suppressing followers of the pre Vatican 2 liturgy form including the latin mass But when it comes to other forms of mono theistic beliefs such as the One World Abu Dhabi Movement. Francis refuses to say one word disclaiming and decrying what practice adherents of the Islam code Sharia not only claim, but truly believe that God has authorized them to any evil means using force or decption used to convert is justified as well as kill those who refuse to submit to their version of Gods will .
e very least Francis could be doing is raising theological questions on the assertions made in the Islamic codex (which is their code of observance and behavior) known as Sharia, Beginning with this question
http://www.theusmat.com/islamandfreewill.htm
Plays with suppressors of the faith
Francis continuing destructive confusing pontificating on temporal worldly social behavior,which has nothing to do with and avoids articles of faith and morals rebukes or restrains contemplative religious orders to favor such behavior .
By refusing to question and expound on the profound differences with the claims made by Islam and its followers Reaching out to and defend what Judeo/Christian beliefs are.Or challenge claims that Islamist make they are following God’s command using deceit and deception when ruthlessly murdering and torturing non believers and destroy their edifice .Smply because of its assertion of being monotheistic. Then winds up making a point of honoring it and placing it on an equal level because of that claim. Is leading to misguided conversions which is the result of my so called Pope playing games with this so called mono theistic cult and is creating a serious fracture within Christianity and The Roman Rite .
One day Jesus will say to him, “I never knew you”.
As any Muslim can tell you, Abraham was a Muslim prophet. Like Jesus. Though not of Mohammed's stature.
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