POPE FRANCIS, TRAITOR TO CATHOLICS, CHRISTIANS
Egypt: Pope Francis visits Al-Azhar headquarters in Cairo
Published on Apr 28, 2017
Pope
Francis visited the headquarters of the the prestigious Sunni
institution Al-Azhar in Cairo on Friday, during a visit to Egypt to
promote "unity and fraternity" among Muslims and the embattled Christian
minority that has suffered a series of jihadist attacks.
POPE IN FULL DENIAL
Pope in Al-Azhar: "Violence is the negation of every authentic religious expression"
AL-AZHAR GRAND IMAM THANKS POPE
FOR HIS "DEFENSE OF ISLAM"
BY ROBERT SPENCER
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
In reality, Islam is unique among world religions in having a developed doctrine, theology and legal system mandating warfare against unbelievers.Unless and until that is confronted, Muslims will continue to commit acts of violence against non-Muslims, including Christians. The Pope is betraying the Christians of the Middle East and the world, and all the victims of jihad violence, by repeating palpable falsehoods about the motivating ideology of attacks upon them, instead of confronting that ideology and calling upon Muslims to renounce and reform Islam’s doctrines of violence. Pope Francis is not only disastrously wrongheaded about an obvious fact that is reinforced by every day’s headlines, but he is also deceiving and misleading his people about a matter of utmost importance, and keeping them ignorant and complacent about a growing and advancing threat.
Has anyone thanked Pope Francis for his defense of Christianity? Has he offered any? Is Ahmed al-Tayeb really the kind of person from whom Pope Francis wants to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant”?
“Leave them; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14)
“Vatican, al-Azhar focus on papal trip speeches in latest meeting,” by Elise Harris, Catholic News Agency, July 7, 2017 (thanks to Peter):
ROME – In the wake of Pope Francis’s whirlwind visit to Egypt, the Vatican and the prestigious Muslim al-Azhar University have held another meeting, focusing on the landmark speeches given during the pope’s visit.______________________________________________________
The meeting, which took place July 3 at the apostolic nunciature in Egypt, was arranged by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the al-Azhar Center for Dialogue (CAD).
It fell two months after Pope Francis’s April 28-29 visit to Cairo, the result of a recent thawing in relations between the Vatican and the university, which had been strained since 2011.
According to a July 4 Vatican communique, the meeting focused primarily on the speeches of both Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Ahmed Muhammad al-Tayyib, during the pope’s visit.
Specifically, “the joint commitment to continue shared reflections, aimed at promoting a fruitful and effective interreligious dialogue was expressed, focusing in particular on the promotion of peace and the building of a more just world.”
Hailed as one of the most important speeches he’s given so far in his time as Bishop of Rome, the pope’s opening address to the International Conference on Peace, his first speech of the trip, issued harsh condemnation of religiously-motivated violence and a strong call for its rejection in the global sphere.
In the April 28 address, Francis said that “peace alone is holy and no act of violence can be perpetrated in the name of God, for it would profane his Name.
“Together, in the land where heaven and earth meet, this land of covenants between peoples and believers, 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,” he said.
Going on, the pope said we have “an obligation to denounce violations of human dignity and human rights, to expose attempts to justify every form of hatred in the name of religion, and to condemn these attempts as idolatrous caricatures of God.”
Violence and faith, belief and hatred, are incompatible, he said, and asked participants to join him in this affirmation: “together let us declare the sacredness of every human life against every form of violence, whether physical, social, educational or psychological,” he said, as the auditorium erupted in thunderous applause.
Likewise, al-Tayyib, who in his role as Grand Imam of al-Azhar is widely considered to be the highest authority in the 1.5-billion strong Sunni Muslim world, said in his speech that humanity ought to “stress the value of peace, justice, equality and human rights regardless of religion, color, race, or language.
“We need to liberate the image of religions from false concepts, misunderstandings, malpractices, and false religiosity attached to them. These evils bestir conflicts, spread hate, and instigate violence,” he said, adding that “we should not hold religion accountable for the crimes of any small group of followers.”
He thanked the pope for his “defense of Islam against the accusation of violence and terrorism,” and voiced his commitment to working together to establish peaceful coexistence and strengthen dialogue….
Robert Spencer: Pope Francis, Defender of Islam
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Pope Francis received a noteworthy honor last week when Ahmed al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Cairo’s al-Azhar, thanked him for his “defense of Islam against the accusation of violence and terrorism.”Has any other Pope of Rome in the history of Christianity ever been heralded as a “defender of Islam”?
Of course not. But the Catholic Church has come a long way since the days of Pope Callixtus III, who vowed in 1455 to “exalt the true Faith, and to extirpate the diabolical sect of the reprobate and faithless Mahomet in the East.”
If time travel could be arranged and Pope Francis could run into Callixtus III, Callixtus could “expect a punch,” for Francis is not just a defender of Islam, but a defender of the Sharia death penalty for blasphemy: after Islamic jihadists murdered the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists who had drawn Muhammad, Francis obliquely justified the murders by saying that “it is true that you must not react violently, but although we are good friends if [an aide] says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch, it’s normal. You can’t make a toy out of the religions of others. These people provoke and then (something can happen). In freedom of expression there are limits.”
So for the Pope, murdering people for violating Sharia blasphemy laws is “normal,” and it isn’t terrorism for “Christian terrorism does not exist, Jewish terrorism does not exist, and Muslim terrorism does not exist. They do not exist,” he said in a speech last February. “There are fundamentalist and violent individuals in all peoples and religions—and with intolerant generalizations they become stronger because they feed on hate and xenophobia.”
So there is no Islamic terrorism, but if you engage in “intolerant generalizations,” you can “expect a punch.” The Pope, like the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, apparently thinks that the problem is not jihad terror, but non-Muslims talking about jihad terror; Muslims would be peaceful if non-Muslims would simply censor themselves and self-impose Sharia blasphemy restrictions regarding criticism of Islam.
For Pope Francis has no patience with those who discuss such matters: “I don’t like to talk about Islamic violence, because every day, when I read the newspaper, I see violence.” He said, according to Crux, that “when he reads the newspaper, he reads about an Italian who kills his fiancé or his mother in law.” The pontiff added: “They are baptized Catholics. They are violent Catholics.” He said that if he spoke about “Islamic violence,” then he would have to speak about “Catholic violence” as well.
That comparison made no sense, for Italian Catholics who killed their fiancés or mothers in law were not acting in accord with the teachings of their religion, while the Qur’an and Islamic teaching contain numerous exhortations to violence.
But Pope Francis, defender of Islam, cannot concern himself with such minutiae. Nor does he appear to be particularly concerned about the fact that all his false statements about the motivating ideology behind the massive Muslim persecution of Christians over the last few years only enables and abets that persecution, for if that ideology is not identified and confronted, it will continue to flourish.
The Pope of Rome, whom Catholics consider to be the earthly head of the Church, should be a defender of Christianity, not a defender of Islam, the religion that has been at war with Christianity and Judeo-Christian civilization since its earliest days. That any Christian leader would be called a “defender of Islam” by anyone only casts into vivid relief the absurdity of our age and the weakness of the free world. Can you imagine any Muslim leader ever being called a “defender of Christianity”? Of course not: Muslim leaders are more aware than their fond defender in the Vatican that Islam mandates warfare against unbelievers, not defense of their theological views.
Pope Francis is not only disastrously wrongheaded about an obvious fact that is reinforced by every day’s headlines; he is also deceiving and misleading his people about a matter of utmost importance, and keeping them ignorant and complacent about a growing and advancing threat.
“Leave them; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14)\
