Millions of Muslims Devoted to Our Lady and Eager for Exorcism

AsiaNews ^ | 7/26/13 | Samir Khalil Samir

[marshmallow]

Fatima, Harissa, Damascus, Samalut, Assiut, Zeitun and many other places where the Virgin appeared are the destination of incessant pilgrimages from Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iran. Pilgrims in search of physical but also spiritual healing; spontaneous and mystical prayer and not the schematic and formal verses of official Islam. The iconoclast Salafists destroy places of pilgrimage every year. But the devotion to Mary is growing, also fueled by the stories of the Koran. The spiritual dialogue between Christians and Muslims is much more promising than cultural, theological or political dialogue.

Beirut (AsiaNews) - Each year millions of Muslims come on pilgrimage to the Catholic Marian shrines. Not only to the major shrines such as Fatima in Portugal or Harissa in Lebanon, but also to Egypt, Syria, Iran. Muslims - especially Muslim women - go to give thanks to the Madonna or great Christian saints, like St. Charbel or St. George.

In the eyes of many Westerners these gestures seem ridiculous or false: they speak of apparitions, of prayers, but then there are massacres, killings, violence in the name of religion!

Like it or not, the religious phenomenon is alive in Latin America, in Africa, in Asia. When you see millions of Hindus go to bathe in the dirty water of the sacred river it may seem like a ridiculous thing. Yet for those who do it is an act of purification, of prayer. The West is tolerant and benevolent towards other religions, but its attitude towards Christians is increasingly hypercritical. The West is not post-Hindu, post-Islam. It is only post-Christian!

The point is that in the West, the supernatural is considered outdated, it is branded as mythology, illusion, instead the West is forever denouncing the difficulties that neither miracles nor pilgrimages can erase.

But in the rest of the world the spiritual.....

[narses]

[boatbums]

Stand now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of your sorceries, wherein you have labored from your youth; if so be you shall be able to profit, if so be you may prevail. You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save you from these things that shall come on you. Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it. (Isaiah 47:12-14)

[boatbums]

Congratulations! You have had the Catholic warrior posse sicced on you. I consider it a badge of honor. ;o)

[A Formerly Proud Canadian]

The Mohamedans seem to be the sole holders of that mantle now.

[boatbums]

Sounds like it's a good time for you to report to Jim Rob about helping to identify all the “little democrat useful idiot” Fascists spreading their lies here on Free Republic. What better time than during a Freepathon?

[boatbums]

What part of “ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” don’t you understand?

[boatbums]

[johngrace]

I guess “all” is not “all” at all the time if the word is used at least twice in all of scripture.

[BlueDragon]

Congratulations! You have had the Catholic warrior posse sicced on you.

I shot the sheriff

[narses]

[Rashputin]

That's Ok, the Yachting set apparently feel they should do so and just have.

By the by, how are the heirs to the Howell fortune these days? Are the till ticked off at you for hiring Gilligan's kids as servants?

[narses]

Hey Jim, is it open season on Catholics again?

[editor-surveyor]

>> “Marian Shrines are somehow wrong?” <<

.
Yes, they are blatant idolatry.

[narses]

I asked, >> “Marian Shrines are somehow wrong?” <<

.
editor-surveyor says, Yes, they are blatant idolatry.

Really? Like Sola Scriptura? Elevating a book to the status of God? That kind of idolatry?

[editor-surveyor]

The book is what Yehova provided.

A book is hard to corrupt, while oral traditions are born corrupt, and worsen hour by hour. Just look at the RCC.

[BlueDragon]

[boatbums]

That's Ok, the Yachting set apparently feel they should do so and just have. By the by, how are the heirs to the Howell fortune these days? Are the till ticked off at you for hiring Gilligan's kids as servants?

Well, let's not wax personal now. That's not allowed. However, had you read my page, you would know that my beloved husband and I are no longer among the "yachting set", not that there's anything wrong with that. God forbid, that professed Conservatives begrudge a retired firefighter and his wife the joy of where and how they wanted to live for a time.

[editor-surveyor]

You’d need a truckload of those to do the job!

[boatbums]

Perfect! ;o)

[editor-surveyor]

The Idolatry set is jealous!