TRUMP IS NOT MENTALLY ILL, BUT THE POPE MAY BE
SOCIALIST/GLOBALIST POPE FRANCIS
HEADS TO EGYPT TO DEFEND ISLAM
BY ROBERT SPENCER
SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/04/robert-spencer-in-frontpage-the-pope-heads-to-egypt-to-defend-islam;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Catholics take note: his favorite religion isn’t yours. My latest in FrontPage:
Reuters reported Tuesday that “Pope Francis hopes to mend ties with Muslims on his trip to Egypt on Friday but faces criticism from church conservatives for meeting Islamic religious leaders after a spate of deadly attacks against Christians.”_________________________________________________________
He has to mend ties? After Palm Sunday jihad massacres at two churches in Egypt, shouldn’t it be Egyptian Muslims who are reaching out to him to mend ties?
“A main reason for the trip,” Reuters explains, “is to try to strengthen relations with the 1,000-year-old Azhar center that were cut by the Muslim side in 2011 over what it said were repeated insults of Islam by Francis’s predecessor, Pope Benedict.”
What did Benedict say? Andrea Gagliarducci of the Catholic News Agency explains that after a jihad terrorist murdered 23 Christians in a church in Alexandria 2011, Benedict decried “terrorism” and the “strategy of violence” against Christians, and called for the Christians of the Middle East to be protected.
Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam, Ahmed al-Tayeb, whom Pope Francis welcomed to the Vatican in May 2016, was furious. He railed at Benedict for his “interference” in Egypt’s affairs and warned of a “negative political reaction” to the Pope’s remarks. In a statement, Al-Azhar denounced the Pope’s “repeated negative references to Islam and his claims that Muslims persecute those living among them in the Middle East.”
Benedict stood his ground, and that was that. But in September 2013, al-Azhar announced that Pope Francis had sent a personal message to al-Tayeb. In it, according to al-Azhar, Francis declared his respect for Islam and his desire to achieve “mutual understanding between the world’s Christians and Muslims in order to build peace and justice.” At the same time, Al Tayyeb met with the Apostolic Nuncio to Egypt, Mgr. Jean-Paul Gobel, and told him in no uncertain terms that speaking about Islam in a negative manner was a “red line” that must not be crossed.
So Pope Benedict condemned a jihad attack, one that al-Azhar also condemned, and yet al-Azhar suspended dialogue because of the Pope’s condemnation. Then Pope Francis wrote to the Grand Imam of al-Azhar affirming his respect for Islam, and the Grand Imam warned him that criticizing Islam was a “red line” that he must not cross. And he hasn’t, and won’t. But all those who think that it’s marvelous that the Pope is “respectful” and refuses to “poke them in the eye” should remember: Benedict’s supposed insults to Islam were denunciations of jihad attacks on Christians. Pope Francis won’t be so indelicate. In contrast to Benedict, Francis energetically defends Islam, and leaves the persecuted Christians twisting in the wind, so he is acceptable to al-Azhar.
The worst part about this is the fact that because this man is Pope, all too many Catholics, including some in positions of high authority, treat him as if he were a divine oracle, his every utterance to be revered, respected, studied, and followed. Because of the statement of the Second Vatican Council that “religious submission of mind and will must be shown in a special way to the authentic magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, even when he is not speaking ex cathedra,” and “must be shown in such a way that his supreme magisterium is acknowledged with reverence, the judgments made by him are sincerely adhered to, according to his manifest mind and will,” Catholic leaders and publications tend to think that they must adhere to anything the Pope says about anything.
This leads them into impossible positions. When Pope Benedict XVI appeared to criticize the aspects of Islam that incite and justify violence, they allowed for criticism of Islam. When Francis showed himself to be an Islamic apologist, they became Islamic apologists. All too many Catholic leaders and institutions, in other words, are more interested in being papists than in being truthful. They would rather show loyalty to the Pope, no matter how damaging his utterances, than stand for the truth on the own against the Pope.
The contradiction is clear, and absolute. If the Catholic Church has become one of Islam’s loudest boosters, then those who are aware of the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat, rooted in Islamic texts and teachings, have to make some decisions about where they stand.
“Leave them; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14)
Pope in Egypt: “Let us say… ‘No!’ to every form of violence…carried out in the name of religion”
BY ROBERT SPENCER
SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/04/pope-in-egypt-let-us-say-no-to-every-form-of-violence-carried-out-in-the-name-of-religion;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
It’s hard to be Egyptian: water turning to blood, frogs, lice, wild
animals, diseased livestock, boils, hailstorms, locusts, darkness, death
of firstborn, and now Pope Francis.Seriously, Francis notes the “incompatibility of violence and faith” and says: “Let us say once more a firm and clear ‘No!’ to every form of violence, vengeance and hatred carried out in the name of religion or in the name of God.”
This all sounds good, but this is the man who said that “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence.”
It is clear that he has not revised that catastrophically counterfactual view, for instead of moving from his statement about rejecting violence in the name of religion to call upon Al-Azhar to reform the teachings of Islam that call for violence against unbelievers, Francis went on to an appeal for arms control and an oblique denunciation of Donald Trump and European leaders who want to stem the Muslim migrant onslaught: “Francis called for an end to the ‘proliferation of arms’ and lambasted ‘demagogic forms of populism.” On guns he said: “If they are produced and sold, sooner or later they will be used. Only by bringing into the light of day the murky maneuverings that feed the cancer of war can its real causes be prevented. National leaders, institutions and the media are obliged to undertake this urgent and grave task.” As if taking away weapons would end the jihad, which is what someone who believes that the Qur’an is opposed to any form of violence would think.
In greeting Al-Azhar’s sinister Ahmed al-Tayeb, Francis was once again photographed grinning happily while Tayeb stares back coldly. Every photo of them captures the same expressions, and they are a parable for the “interfaith dialogue” scam and for the Western leaders’ attitude as compared with that of the leaders of Muslim countries: the naive and ignorant Westerner reaching out in unfeigned friendship, happy to prove himself “tolerant” and not “Islamophobic,” while his Muslim counterpart, far more aware of what is going on, reacts coolly, and does not reveal what he is thinking.
But those who are aware of the contempt for Christians that is in the Qur’an and Sunnah, and the nature and magnitude of the global jihad, will have a pretty good idea of what is going through al-Tayeb’s mind.
“Leave them; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14)
“Pope Francis in Egypt: ‘No to every form of violence,'” by Sarah Sirgany and Joe Sterling, CNN, April 28, 2017:
Cairo (CNN)Pope Francis, speaking at the heart of Sunni Islam scholarship, stressed the importance of unity between Muslims and Christians to shape world peace and emphasized the “incompatibility of violence and faith.”
“Let us say once more a firm and clear ‘No!’ to every form of violence, vengeance and hatred carried out in the name of religion or in the name of God,” the Pope said in Italian in a speech at a peace conference at Al-Azhar University, the premier seat of high learning among Sunni Muslims.
The Pope arrived in Egypt on Friday, kicking off a two-day trip designed to forge Muslim-Christian brotherhood and show solidarity with the country’s persecuted Coptic Christian minority.
Francis met with Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb and became the first pontiff to visit the institution since Pope John Paul II in 2000.
The Pope and the Grand Imam spoke at the closing of the International Conference for Peace, organized by Al-Azhar. When he greeted the Grand Imam, the Pope called him “my brother.” The men sat side by side at the conference….
Francis opened his speech with “As-Salaam Alaikum,” the traditional Muslim greeting in Arabic that means “Peace be upon you,” after the imam’s address.”In order to prevent conflicts and build peace, it is essential that we spare no effort in eliminating situations of poverty and exploitation where extremism more easily takes root, and in blocking the flow of money and weapons destined to those who provoke violence,” he said.
Francis called for an end to the “proliferation of arms” and lambasted “demagogic forms of populism.”
“If they are produced and sold, sooner or later they will be used,” he said. “Only by bringing into the light of day the murky maneuverings that feed the cancer of war can its real causes be prevented. National leaders, institutions and the media are obliged to undertake this urgent and grave task.”…
The Pope, again speaking in Italian, focused on Egypt’s role in fighting terrorism in the region, evoking incidents from its biblical and modern history. He ceremonially greeted all Egyptian people, including minority Christians — Coptic Orthodox, Greek Byzantines, Armenian Orthodox, Protestants and Catholics.”Your presence in this, your country, is not new or accidental, but ancient and an inseparable part of the history of Egypt,” he said. “You are an integral part of this country, and over the course of the centuries you have developed a sort of unique rapport, a particular symbiosis, which can serve as an example to other nations.”
Francis highlighted the sacrifice of members of the army and the police, the forced exodus of Christians from Sinai and the latest church bombings. He also stressed respect for human rights and religious freedoms….
Pope Tawadros II, head of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church, then greeted Francis at St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo’s Abbassiya district, state TV said. They walked together in procession and took part in ecumenical prayers at the adjacent church of St. Peter, the site of a deadly blast in December that left at least 23 people dead….
