Posted on 03/09/2021 4:59:00 PM PST by ebb tide
ERBIL, Iraq (ChurchMilitant.com) - Pope Francis' Iraq trip has triggered a tidal wave of mockery on social media, with Muslims gleefully announcing that the pontiff has surrendered to Islamic supremacy, an Iraqi Muslim convert has told Church Militant.
Billboard welcoming Pope Francis in Mosul
The Kurdish response to Francis on the final day of his visit has been largely negative, as "many Kurds see the pope as a person who flatters wicked people like President Erdoğan," observed Nasser Aza, an academic from Erbil.
While the pope's visit has certainly created a feel-good atmosphere among Catholics, Aza is predicting that "the collateral damage for evangelism among Muslims" will be monumental.
Aza, who came to faith in Christ in 2014, told Church Militant that approximately 7,000 to 10,000 Muslims had converted to Christianity from Islam in the last decade, and, as in Iran among Shia Muslims, many more souls are ripe for conversion.
Speaking through an Arabic translator, Aza lamented the fact that only "small pockets of Catholics who are influenced by evangelicals are engaged in evangelization, while the Orthodox churches in Iraq have no interest whatsoever in evangelism."
Aza, an amateur Arabist who had been brought up to believe that the Koran was linguistically inerrant, said that he began to have doubts about Islam after detecting a number of linguistic errors in the Koran.
When a Christian gave him a copy of the New Testament in Kurdish, Aza, who is of part-Kurdish heritage, broke down emotionally after reading it. "God speaks my language!" he exclaimed, overwhelmed by the fact that the Word had not only become flesh in Jesus but also was written in his own mother tongue.
Keen to reach out to Muslims with the gospel, Aza said he was "grieved that Francis' interfaith engagement was counterproductive for Christians like him seeking to carry out Jesus' Great Commission to proclaim the good news and declare Jesus as the only savior."
"Muslims on social media are triumphantly declaring that the pope has surrendered to Islam," Aza said. "The mockery is incredible as the Muslims say Francis is bowing to Muhammad as his prophet as he goes on Hajj [Muslim pilgrimage] to the birthplace of the Muslim Ibrahim."
"Of course, the majority of the converts don't care and have no interest in the papal visit to Iraq because they strongly feel the pope does not represent them or their passion for the gospel," he added.
"And while Catholics are rejoicing thinking that the pope will bring about betterment in their situation and pull them out of persecution, the situation for all Christians will worsen because the pope is seen as giving in to Islam and abdicating his role as ... head of the Church," Aza predicted.
"Muslims don't distinguish between Catholics, Orthodox, Pentecostals and evangelicals," he explained. "Anyone who is not a Muslim is fair game for hostility and persecution."
Dr. Martin Parsons, independent consultant on freedom of religion and global persecution of Christians and radical Islam, told Church Militant he agreed with Aza's assessment of the situation.
Francis arrives to celebrate Mass at Franso Hariri stadium
"Christians in Iraq have suffered terribly over the last two decades with the specific targeting of Christians and churches. This has included the kidnapping and murder of bishops and archbishops and the bombing of over 100 churches," Parsons said.
Parsons, an academic who wrote his doctorate on Christian-Muslim relations in the border region of Afghanistan-Pakistan, said he had questions about the papal visit:
Over the last 20 years, at least three-quarters of the country's historic Christian population have fled the country, and five years ago, even the U.S. State Department said that Christians in Iraq were facing genocide. So, if this is a pastoral visit, one wonders why the Vatican is only now organizing it, nearly four years after the liberation of Mosul?
On the evening of Francis' visit to the Kurdistan region and to the Kurdish capital of Erbil, Aza updated Church Militant with responses from local people.
"In general, simple people expect the pope to support peace in the Kurdish regions and to pray for security and civil peace. There are religious extremist circles that do not welcome him. The Catholic community is very happy to have a man of peace and love," Aza said.
At the same time, many Kurds view the pope with suspicion for his diplomacy with President Erdoğan, "who contributed to the occupation of Kurdish areas in northern Syria [like Rojava] and supported Islamic-extremist armed groups and did not contribute to spreading peace," he added.
"Many of the Kurds referred to the pope making a mistake in welcoming Erdoğan in 2018 and giving him a necklace with a picture of the King of Peace, Jesus Christ. Therefore, they said they wouldn't be going to see him, and they blame the pope in their hearts," he noted.
Francis warmly welcomed in Erbil
Aza also revealed that a Kurdish convert had appeared on television asking Pope Francis to represent the Kurds in their political struggle but that the convert was met with a severe backlash.
"Under the circumstances and given the way which the pope has conducted himself in diplomatic relations, there has been a strong reaction of anger against the pastor who asked for the pontiff's help," Aza pointed out.
The young convert sent Church Militant links on Facebook and Twitter to locals commenting on the pope's visit, explaining that, while the establishment media was fully supporting the papal visit, the true pulse of responses on the ground could be found on social media.
On a single Sky News Arabia post, which, compared to other social media had some of the most positive responses to the papal trip, over 5,000 commenters expressed their views in Arabic on Pope Francis.
However, the majority of comments were negative, leading one Arab Christian to write: "When I read the comments, I am sure that the Arab region will remain in the dark for the next 100 years."
(Nasser Aza's original name has been changed to protect his identity. As an "apostate" from Islam, he faces the death penalty as prescribed by all four schools of Islamic jurisprudence.)
Ping
Francis is like most liberals. What he “knows” to be true in fact isn’t.
There is video of the aftermath as he was making his way to his transportation, with bullets whizzing above his head, and burning buildings billlowing smoke into the stratosphere with constant explosions like the 4th of July. There was bad audio with a lot of background noise, but if you listen closely, You can faintly hear the pope urging his entourage forward with cries of “Get to the choppah! Get to the choppah!” It was quite the scene
Mystery Babylon.. check it out... Babylon means ‘confusion’..
Including.Biden but railed against trump border security immigration law and unfriendly to the pro life Trump administration.
He's a snake disguised as a weasel with a robe on. Truly pathetic beyond belief and pushing for One World Religion. Has been sucking up to blood thirsty Muslims for years now.
It seems clear you despise him, which is your right.
But is there nothing good that you can see in traveling to Iraq to support the vanishing Christians who had been there since Christ, and trying (and achieving) the support of a hugely influential Muslim that might, just maybe, possibly, result in better things for Christians in Iraq?
Don’t answer, won’t be looking, he could cure cancer, change Mass to Latin only across the world, and you would bitch about the tire pressure in the Pope mobile,..
No Jews, No Jesus at Pope’s ‘Abrahamic’ Event
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."
Dude - you make it hard to hit and run with your blind rage...
You quoted a source that “Francis did not mention Jesus...
MEETING WITH THE AUTHORITIES, CIVIL SOCIETY AND THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS - “I come as a pilgrim of peace in the name of Christ, the Prince of Peace.“
MEETING WITH BISHOPS, PRIESTS, RELIGIOUS, CONSECRATED PERSONS, SEMINARIANS, CATECHISTS - “ The love of Christ summons us to set aside every kind of self-centredness or competition; it impels us to universal communion and challenges us to form a community of brothers and sisters who accept and care for one another ”
And
“ And by serving Jesus in others, we discover true joy. Never step back from the holy people of God into which you were born. Remember your mothers and grandmothers, who, as Saint Paul says, raised you in the faith”
To say he didn’t mention Christ infers he’s was hiding him under a bushel basket which is untrue. Maybe you don’t like aspects of diplomacy trying to help Christians in a land that have and are being persecuted. That’s your call - enjoy the cheap seats where your faith doesn’t get your head cut off just like the rest of us luck American Catholics who might have some issues but aren’t so full of hate...
Did he skip Jesus during the Mass he celebrated? Just curious.
I know, I know, if he did it with a funny accent, or accidentally hiccuped it doesn’t count as a real celebration of the Sacrifice of the Mass and he’s the anti-christ, and the Pope mobiles tires are inflated wrong, blah, blah, blah.
You have got to get tired of throwing the baby out with the bath water eventually...
Don't even try to extrapolate that to a Mass he celebrated.
Bergoglio is a two-faced lying Peronist, he'll tell different audiences what they want to hear. He'll preach Pachamama to Amazonian pagans, he'll tell Jews they don't need Christ for salvation, he'll tell agnostics they can go to Heaven and he'll tell people is a state of mortal sin they are free to sacrilegiously receive Holy Communion.
The Vatican under the command of Pope Francis is busy rebuking ownership of firearms for personal protection to the cheers of Islamic followers as well as decrying attempting any evangelical conversion of islamists 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 .
Hmmm... 1776thefounders a/k/a !1776!...
Sept 9, 2001... the day Shah Ahmed Masood was assassinated.
Interesting past, railing against “zionists” and defending the communist Pope.
Thanks for your input.
Not a fan of this Pope but he did good here.
...Then signing in under an altered name just one day after the 9/11 attacks [because on 9/11 under the old screen name you actually rejoiced in the US getting attacked] ...you cried against US retaliation for being attacked.
Members of the 9/11 Commission staff testified that Iran aided the hijackers by concealing their travel through Iran to access al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. Iranian border inspectors refrained from stamping the passports of 8 to 10 of the 9/11 hijackers because evidence of travel through Iran would have prevented the hijackers from obtaining visas at U.S. embassies abroad or gaining entry into the United States. The 9/11 Commission Report addressed these facts and called for further investigation. 9/11 COMMISSION REPORT at pp. 240-41.
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