Edited for brevity, more at the source Pope Francis Tears at History's Walls against Islam
BY RAYMOND IBRAHIM
[JihadWatch] Pope Francis continues to argue for two interrelated points that, while seemingly humane, compromise Western nations and expose their citizens to danger.
He reiterated his first point earlier this month when he said, "I appeal not to create walls but to build bridges."
Francis reiterated his second point a few days ago when he said, "Muslim terrorism does not exist."
His logic is that, because there are Christians who engage in criminal and violent activities--and yet no one blames Christianity for their behavior -- so too should Islam not be blamed when Muslims engage in criminal and violent activities.
In this, the Catholic pope appears unable or unwilling to make the pivotal distinction between violence committed in accordance with Islamic teachings, and violence committed in contradiction of Christian teachings.
But there's another relevant and often overlooked irony: every morning Francis wakes up in the Vatican and looks out his window, he sees a very large and concrete reminder that gives the lie to both his argument against walls and his argument in defense of Islam. I speak of the great walls surrounding Vatican City, more specifically the Leonine Walls.
Context: A couple of years after Islamic prophet Muhammad died in 632, his followers erupted out of Arabia and conquered surrounding non-Muslim lands in the name of Islam. In a few decades, they had annexed two-thirds of what was in the 7th century Christendom. They took all of the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain, until they were finally stopped at Tours in central France (732). By the late 9thcentury, jihadi incursions had transformed the Mediterranean Sea into a Muslim lake; the major islands -- Sicily, Crete, Rhodes, Malta, Cyprus -- were conquered, and the European coast was habitually raided for booty and slaves.
According to the most authoritative and contemporary Muslim chroniclers -- al-Waqidi, al-Baladhuri, al-Tabari, al-Maqrizi, etc. -- all this was done because Islam commands Muslims to subjugate and humiliate non-Muslims.
It was in this context that, in 846, Muslim fleets from North Africa landed near Rome. Unable to breach the walls of the Eternal City, they sacked and despoiled the surrounding countryside, including -- to the consternation of Christendom -- the venerated and centuries-old basilicas of St Peter and St Paul.
The Muslim invaders desecrated the tombs of the revered apostles and stripped them of all their treasures. Pope Leo IV (847-855) responded by building large walls and fortifications along the right bank of the Tiber to protect the sacred sites from further Muslim raids. Completed by 852, the walls were in places 40 feet high and 12 feet thick.
Today, many Muslims, not just of the ISIS variety, continue to boast that Islam will conquer Rome, the only of five apostolic sees -- the other four being Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Constantinople -- never to have been subjugated by jihad.
Similarly, Muslims all throughout Europe continue exhibiting the same hostility and contempt for all things and persons non-Islamic, whether by going on church vandalizing sprees and breaking crosses, or by raping "infidel" women as theirs by right.
In short, Pope Leo's walls prove Pope Francis wrong on both counts: yes, walls are sometimes necessary to preserve civilization; and yes, Islam does promote violence and intolerance for the other -- far more than any other religion. This fact is easily discerned by examining the past and present words and deeds of Muslims, all of which evince a remarkable and unwavering continuity of hostility against "infidels."
Perhaps most ironic of all, had it not been for Pope Leo's walls -- and so many other Christian walls, such as Constantinople's, which kept Islam out of Europe for centuries, and Vienna's, which stopped a full-blown jihad as recent as 1683 -- there might not be a pope today to pontificate about how terrible walls are and how misunderstood Islam is.
And when Francis accuses those who build walls of not being Christian, as he did of Trump, he essentially accuses men like Pope Leo IV -- who did so much to protect and preserve Christendom at a time when Islam was swallowing up the world -- of being no Christians at all.
#1
he doesn't know much about Islam then. Islam was spread by the sword. he would be given three choices:
Convert to Islam.
Pay a special tax in humiliation. That includes bowing and groveling before your Islamic Masters. You are not allowed to publicly display your religion or practice it - (Allah is pathetic little god who cannot stand up to competition or criticism after all). You can be killed out-of-hand and you have no legal rights.
Be killed.
Perhaps the good Pope should deliver his message in Mecca...
#6
Kind of sad to see the oldest organization in the world going down the tubes
Organizations are just groups of people, only mortal on a somewhat longer timeline. The Vatican needs a dirt nap along with a bunch of "foundations" that have ossified into hard left mummies at this point. Many of them do not even need to be replaced...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/28/2017 8:43 Comments ||
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#7
It's been said that the church survives despite the best efforts of her leaders.
Posted by: James ||
02/28/2017 11:01 Comments ||
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#8
It's been said that the church survives despite the best efforts of her leaders.
The cardinals wanted someone less rigourous than the last guy they gave the hat to, and now they'll have less rigour until they're sick to their back teeth of it. The next election will benefit from more African cardinals among the voters, I suspect, with their personal knowledge of Muslims in the non-abstract.
#11
I think it's time the Pope builds some bridges and goes out to meet as many Imams as he can on their home turf. Maybe Saudi Arabia will let him in.
#5
. But where Mr. Trump ran a chaotic campaign and veered constantly off message,
That's an interesting perspective since he got where he was going. When all you have is a hammer you pretend that every problem is a nail. Makes sense only in your own private universe.
I wonder if France has the "Silent Majority" that will come out and give Le Pen the "unexpected" victory.
#6
It may help Le Pen in the runoff that her contemptible likely opponent really dropped the ball:
Mr. Macron angered many of the Fillon supporters he will need to beat Ms. Le Pen on the final ballot by calling France’s colonization of Algeria “a crime against humanity, a real barbarity.” Not even French politicians on the radical left typically go that far and a suddenly irritable Mr. Macron, who had been surfing on a wave of favourable media coverage, spent several days on the defensive.
We'll find out soon enough how stupid French voters are. Given their affinity for Obama, I'm inclined to think 10 on a scale of 10. British voters are not much better.
#7
good points alan c. france has had too much migration they can actually swing polls now
it would take every true frenchman and woman to vote as one for Le Pen, but they are so left, so regressively left. Zhang Fei: i think they are worse than the Britons. At least the UK voted Brexit...
In polls the French were more anti-EU than the British, anon1. We'll see if that translates into votes, now that's become a ral possibility with Madame Le Pen.
The French were clever enough to put a Corsican at the head of their troops. The Germans at that time would not have been.
#9
I dunno if French voters are any dumber than American voters. After all, American voters elected Obama and then reelected him. I think most likely the French MSM is no better than ours.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/28/2017 11:38 Comments ||
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#10
Give an Italian general to the Germans and let them try. We will then be able to determine if the decisive factor was the Italian or the troops.
#13
Mr. Macron angered many of the Fillon supporters he will need to beat Ms. Le Pen on the final ballot by calling France’s colonization of Algeria “a crime against humanity, a real barbarity.
Even though it ended piracy and slaving from the area which today we consider a crime against humanity.
#15
Wolves in the city is a good read about the end of French rule in Algeria. Although it is many years since I read it.
Interesting in a number of ways, including Islamic terrorism isn't the modern phenomena we imagine, and how it led to French counter terror is relevant today.
[Mail] US President Donald Trump's senior adviser Kellyanne Conway has come under fire after a picture of her casually kneeling on a couch in the Oval Office was widely shared on social media.
In an image captured by an AFP photographer, Conway appears on the couch with her shoes on as Trump poses for a photo with leaders of historically black colleges and universities.
Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens was among those taking aim at Conway, suggesting that aides under previous administrations would have elicited even greater outcry.
"If Rice or Jarrett had sat like this in Oval Office, conservatives would have screamed themselves hoarse for weeks. Now we own trashy," he wrote, referring to previous presidential aides.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/28/2017 7:33 Comments ||
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#4
Possible malware. You really should rename the pictures with a much shorter name, no more than 32 characters long if possible. Long file names is a great way to infect your machines with malware.
Where are you getting these pictures from anyway? I would suggest you not use pictures from that site, or at least change your naming policies.
#9
Of course, the REAL story here is that Trump, supposedly racist, was meeting with the heads of historically black colleges. Totally ignored by the press.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/28/2017 10:10 Comments ||
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#10
Leave Kellyanne alone; she brightens the day for many. It seems that some people just like to bitch about everything.
#11
Trying to gin up outrage. The lady took a photo with her cell phone from the best vantage point, as cell phone photographers do, and no doubt immediately shared it with the pleased participants.
With the counter-examples of President Obama out there so quickly, it will fizzle out quickly.
#17
The genious is that by having her on the couch everyone paid attention to a story they otherwise would have tried to ignore. Then the following photo comes out showing she was taking a photo of the group and the complainers look stupid. It's a two-fer.
Posted by: Bill Snore2403 ||
02/28/2017 15:22 Comments ||
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#21
Did the incident involve interns, cigars and a blue dress? Was it necessary to hose down the Oval Office with bleach afterwards? If not STFU lefty media.
#22
The Pope and current POTUS were on a boat together. The Pope's hat flew off in gust and landed on the water. The Pope and members of his entourage tried, tried but couldn't retrieve the Pope's hat. Trump said, "I'll get it for you" and got down onto the water, walked across the water and retrieved the Pope's hat. The next day the NYTs headline boldly stated "Trump can't swim."
#24
"My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw boredom forever. Kellyanne begins photobombing in five minutes."
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