Good question. You find people who want to talk who don't try to push something down your throat.
Right now there are so many people in Iran converting to Christianity that the country is no longer punishing them for doing so.
Now, if there are muslims today who are willing to convert that means there are also people who would be willing to dialogue without cramming a Koran down another person's throat.
Francis thinks it would be good to find people like that, not necessarily willing to convert, but willing to talk.
Now the type of dialogue desired is not two people trying to convince the other that they are right. It is rather two people willing to listen to each other and to find common ground.
The kind of common ground has historically been on the basis of classic philosophy, that type which goes back to the Greek and Latin philosophers.
If it would be possible to get everyone at the table to agree on certain first principles, then there would be true progress.
While I love you and your leader’s positive spin on the matter it’s just not biblical. Scripture tells about Ishmael and his descendents and it isn’t positive.
Genesis 16:12 New International Version (NIV)
12 He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
toward all his brothers.”
They will only concede to buy time for your demise the end always justifies the means what ever they may be. Since they don’t acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Son of God then that makes them of their Father the Devil. Now since the Devil lies or as Scripture tells us he’s the Father of lies I personally don’t see the point of dealing with him since he will not concede EVER!
2 John 1:7-11 New International Version (NIV)
7 I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. 9 Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. 11 Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.
On the surface it sounds just peachy, but that does not make it reality.
The Koran orders believers to slit the throat of a non-believer
Sura (8:12) - "I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them"
Right now there are so many people in Iran converting to Christianity that the country is no longer punishing them for doing so.
Then they are not following the Koran.
Sura (8:12) - "I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them"
Sura (8:39) - "And fight with them until there is no more persecution and religion should be only for Allah"
Sura (9:29) - "Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, even if they are of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued."
Now, if there are muslims today who are willing to convert that means there are also people who would be willing to dialogue without cramming a Koran down another person's throat.
These are the same people. Those who convert no longer follow the Koran
Francis thinks it would be good to find people like that, not necessarily willing to convert, but willing to talk.
The earlier Popes saw the necessity of Crusades, not conversation, to save Western Civilization.
Now the type of dialogue desired is not two people trying to convince the other that they are right. It is rather two people willing to listen to each other and to find common ground.
There is no common ground with Islam.
Sura (9:30) - "And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away!"
Sura (47:4) - "So when you meet in battle those who disbelieve, then smite the necks until when you have overcome them, then make them prisoners,"
The kind of common ground has historically been on the basis of classic philosophy, that type which goes back to the Greek and Latin philosophers.
The Taliban ‘respected’ other beliefs so much they destroyed the statues of Buddha in Afghanistan. ISIS destroyed the tomb of Jonah in Nineveh. The Muslim brotherhood threatened to destroy the pyramids and Sphinx in Egypt.
And from the Haddith:
Muslim (1:33) - the Messenger of Allah said: I have been commanded to fight against people till they testify that there is no god but Allah, that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah
Bukhari (8:387) - Allah's Apostle said, “I have been ordered to fight the people till they say: 'None has the right to be worshipped but Allah’”
If it would be possible to get everyone at the table to agree on certain first principles, then there would be true progress.
Islam means submission to Islam. This is the first and only principle of Islam.
This is not just me. Here is a quote from an 1899 book by Winston Churchill, "The River War", in which he describes Muslims he apparently observed during Kitchener's campaign in the Sudan
“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property - either as a child, a wife, or a concubine - must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.
Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science - the science against which it had vainly struggled - the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.”