Posted on 11/27/2006 7:22:31 AM PST by Mark Felton
ISTANBULTens of thousands of Turks have protested the Pope's visit to this Muslim country with placards and chants that denounced Benedict XVI as an enemy of Islam.
The protest of more than 25,000 people yesterday was an extraordinary sight in an officially secular country, where the government is counting on a smooth papal visit to boost Turkey's chances of joining the European Union.
"For Western civilization to develop it needs an enemy and the Pope openly says that this enemy is Islam," Recai Kutan, chairman of the Islamist Saadet Party, told the crowd.
The protestors jammed one of Istanbul's major boulevards, waving banners and Turkish flags under the gaze of 4,000 police backed by armoured vehicles and hovering helicopters.
One large English-language poster read, "Go home Pope" and showed the pontiff's face on the head of a pig, blood oozing from his mouth.
Another demanded he apologize for wars from the Christian crusades to Iraq. One accused the Vatican of producing terror while another said, "Jesus is not the son of God, he is a prophet of Islam."
In Rome, the spiritual leader of the world's Roman Catholics asked thousands of followers gathered in St. Peter's Square to pray for the success of his four-day trip to Turkey, which begins tomorrow.
"I want to send a cordial greeting to the dear Turkish people, rich in history and culture," the Pope said yesterday during his weekly noon address. "To these people and their representatives I express feelings of esteem and sincere friendship."
Benedict XVI sparked outrage in much of the Muslim world with a September speech in Germany, where he suggested Islam was rooted in violence. He later expressed regret for the offence his comments may have caused, but stopped short of the apology many in Turkey are demanding.
The Pope first angered many Turks in 2004 when, as the powerful Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he rejected the country's bid to join the 25-nation European Union, describing its Muslim faith as being "in permanent contrast" to Europe's Christian heritage.
His main mission is to support Turkey's dwindling Christian communities and work to heal a 1,000-year-old rift with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, regarded by many as the spiritual leader of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians.
" And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." -- Matthew 10:28
This is the war that has been ravaging American souls since the 1960's led by the socialists.
Now, however, since the socialists have successfully destroyed the soul of America (her strength) it is the Muslims who see opportunity to launch a physical war and finally bring down Christian (Western) civilization which no longer has the will to fight, because they do not know what to fight for.
But Muslims fight for their God and ALL are prepared to die. They do not fight for land and thus will not surrender when they cannot succeed in acquiring control of that land physically.
They do not fight for a political ideology so cannot be convinced that another form of politics will be more successful (as we did in Iraq which is historicall a secular state)
They fight for salvation.
We can only stop the war in 1 of 2 ways; 1) by proving to them salvation comes only through Christ. (which means they must accept Christ as Lord)
or 2) by killing them and denying them salvation in death by burying them with pig parts.
Wars are brutal but burying them with pig parts is not brutal at all, to us. It is not torture or anything else...it has meaning ONLY to the enemy, so MUST be used to convice them to stop.
The British controlled the Mid East for years by using this same technique.
We are too weak now, morally. We desire they have salvation for killing us....we must change or die. Millions of them will die trying to kill us, from within our own nations.
I guess that's why he's the Pope and you're not.
They want to behead us. They want us dead. I would rather get them before they get us. I just can't find it in my heart to forgive them for all the terror they create.
I guess I just don't remember where Jesus (or Peter or James or Paul or John) said, "Do unto your neighbor before he can do unto you." In which version of the Bible do you find that passage?
The Pope is simply doing what he was commanded to do by Christ: "...All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."
Perhaps, but I contend every other civilization defines themselves by their differences with God not their differences with the US government. Our government is not defined by doing something different from somebody else, we define ourselves by the fidelity of maintaining rights given to us by God.
We are built on "rights" already owned by the citizen, pre-existing the government, whilst tyrannies are built from scratch upon man-constructed laws imposed upon their citizen.
God gave us liberty. This is a very large concept upon which our government is not defined as "having" but that we all have and our government is given specific responsibilites to protect the larger concept. Thus we are not a nation that is the opposite of a tyranny, per se. We are a nation that inadequately defends a supreme law, and thus we too are a tyranny to the degree we violate those rights, we cannot fudge with the permanence of those pre-exisitng rights, or laws.
A tyranny protects nothing larger than the power of the ruling elites, no matetr how benevolent it is to the people, becuase it does not recognize the pre-existance of liberty for the individual thus does not measure its success based on maintaining those rights.
A tyranny can grant far more luxuries, "liberties" and greater standard of living than the US but it still cannot compare itself directly to the US because it is entirely different and has different objectives.
The tyranny is the originator of all rights for their citizen. The US is not.
The US is not an originator of any right, but a protector of rights given by a supreme authority, God.
Two very different concepts which are apples and oranges.
(we can describe the differences between an apple and an orange but we cannot compare the "goodness" of one versus the other unless we have a larger, independent standard, that straddles both. IE one may taste bad, and the other taste good but only to the "supreme" being, who can taste both of them and apply his judgment to them, but still cannot rank one as a better apple than the other...etc)).
A tyrannical government therefore must compare itself to God, not the US. (the tyrannical government believes it has power akin to God so must compare itself to God. It believes God is an "orange" and thus seeks to become as orange-like as possible. That is its standard of measure. The liberty of the people is not a standard of performance, but a hindrance)
The US government might thusly compare itself to the police force of the tyrannical government, each of which enforces the rights from the "supreme" power. (ours is God, theirs is the elitists du jour)
We are the only nation, other than the Vatican, which accepts the supreme authority of God.
Thus we define ourselves against the standards set by God (how well we maintain the fidelity of God given rights), and not as a differential comparison to another government.
Thus the conflict between tyrannies and the US arises not because the tyrannies disagree with the US but because they are in conflict with God, and thus we, as an agent of God on earth become the recipient of their hostility (they can't fly planes into God's twin towers. they would if they could)
However, as soon as we lose our basis in God's authority then we are morally no better than any other nation. (which is precisely the argument and promotion of the leftists, global progressives, multi-culturists...anti-Christian...anti-Americans). Thus Why should we have individual liberty if it harms the good of the whole, and the newer man-made goal of the government is to promote the welfare of the whole, not protecting the rights of the individual??
This is exactly where we are at today. We have just about completely lost acceptance that our liberties are from God, thus there is no limit to the amount of tyranny to be imposed on the individual if it is simply argued that somehow one persons liberty may be injurious to the whole, thus it is incumbent upon the supreme authorities (man-made government) to remove those liberties and protect the larger man-made objectives of the government.
This is why all nations have been eventually destroyed in the past, their lack of permanent goals that protect the individual member. the goals being defined subject to the particular men in power at the time. Eventually it must produce conflict between diverging strata of thought within that society.
Men are weak. God is permanent. Any nation defined by men will collapse. Any nation defined by God must remain permanent.
The loss of God means the loss of the nation, eventually, inexorably, inarguably.
QED.
(I didn't mean to argue I was just looking for a diversion to justify procrastination from my physics research ;^))
Jesus does recognize and support our right to defend ourselves and kill other men if required.
That is for personal physical defense. Jesus never, ever prescribes a resort to physical violence upon rejection of the Word. Nor in defense, or offense, against a ruling government.
see post #67
I knew he was old, but not that old. LOL!
What does the government have to do with it? These differences would assert themselves even in a situation "A, B, X, Y and Z walk into a bar..." - and the only government presence in a bar is the excise tax on the bottles inside and the police cruiser outside. Indeed, they would assert themselves even if these same A, B, X, Y, and Z ended on an uninhabited island, where there is no government - and no bar. They are centered on the tribe, language, race, culture, weltanschauung, predominant socio-psychological type and the sociology built around it. Huntington brings in religion as a convenient marker, but his use of it is imprecise at best: Western civ is not split into the catholic civ and several protestant civs, and Israel belongs to the Western civ as well, despite religion difference.
Jesus is NOT a prophet of Islam. Stop stealing everyone's prophets and practises. Can't you get your own? Oh, yeah...that's what the "rape" thing is about.
We are in a religious war with Islam. It's them or us.
I choose us.
Exactly.
I'm trying to convince my family and friends of this.
They're coming around.
Thank you for the information.
In this argument only w.r.t. conflict between nations. (I consider islamic radicals to be members of a nation, in exile. Their government is defined by shariiah law and it is that which conflicts with God and is hostile to non-islamic nations)
The clash of civilizations is a conflict between the civilizations, not between the governments [Would that GWB learn it, regarding WOT!]. Governments come and go - civilizations persist. The only civilization identical with the nation state is Japan. All the others do not have single civilizational governments [albeit China comes close]. Islamic radicals are full-fledged and authentic representatives of islamic civilization.
The question is where is the outrage at the non-satiracal nature of this outrage...
It was not satire, nor funny, nor humor, nor not in good taste...
It was a direct threat to the Pope.
And all I hear are the 'crickets,'
One day all people of the true faith will be called to stand as soldiers in God's army. That time is not yet come.
Hagia Sophia (Saint Sophia) was built as a Constantinian Church by the emperor Justinian I, between A.D. 532 and 537. Four minarets were added to St.Sophia (Hagia Sophia), after Ottomans captured Constantinople at 1453. Today Saint Sophia is neither a Church nor a Mosque but it is a museum. Maybe it should be returned to the Christians.
The Ottoman Empire - the greatest empire in the world in the 1500s - was ruled by sultans, and a sultan was commander-in-chief of the military and a member of the Janissaries. The sultans looked upon their male subjects as soldiers of Islam. The Ottoman Empire was a theocracy, with the sultans dedicated to the advance of Islam - the Sunni branch of Islam - through military means.
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