BENEDICT’S EGG
By: Roderick T. Beaman
Ether Zone, IL
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
The Truth Doesn’t Make Them Free
Pope Benedict XVI’s quote of a medieval ruler who stated that Muhammad
and Islam had brought "evil and inhuman" things to the world has
raised rankles throughout the Islamic world.
Islamic believers are so horrified at it that they are burning churches
and shot one 60 year-old Italian nun in the back.
I have read only excerpts from the words of The Prophet Muhammad and
Islamic scripture and although those excerpts may have been carefully
selected to prove a writer’s viewpoint there is little doubt that
there is a far higher incidence of exhortations to violent vengeance
threaded throughout Islamic scripture than in Christian scripture.
I know of only two references to violence in the New Testament. In
one, Jesus states that he does not wish to bring peace but discord
between fathers and sons, mothers and daughters-in-law, etc. He knew
his message It’s been explained as the disagreement that his message
would engender. The second is where Paul states that if the arm is the
problem, cut it off and if the eye is, gouge it out. Neither concerns
retribution against nonbelievers. They are far fewer than the many
that I have read from The Qur’an and other Muslim sacred scriptures.
It is especially telling to examine the methods of conversion to
Christianity vs. Islam. The term Dar-al-Islam means an area where
Islam has triumphed, Dar-al-Harb refers to areas in the midst of
conquest and Dar-al-Suhl means areas yet to be conquered. This
should not bring comfort to nonbelieiver, infidels as they call
them. Dar-al-Salam refers also to the government, not necessarily
that all within are Muslim.
Christianity was expanded through persuasion. To achieve Dar-al-Islam,
it is not necessary that all within become Muslims. Rather, the entire
government and society are according to Islamic scripture. Often,
infidels are accorded secondary citizenship and have no choice but
to live according to Islamic law, under which conversions to other
religions are capital crimes! It’s like what’s ours is ours; what’s
yours is negotiable.
Muslims claim that ‘Islam’, means peace, however others translate it
as submission, authoritarian flavored. What happens if one doesn’t
submit? History suggests the sword is the alternative.
Most of what today is Islamic, was once Christian, primarily
Catholic. Christianity originally dominated most of the Mideast and
North Africa. The apostles went to Europe through Rome, and from
Judea across northern Africa and north into what is today Asia Minor
and Armenia. St. Thomas brought Christianity east into Iraq, Iran,
Afghanistan and even India. In 1498, Portuguese explorers found
Christians on the west coast of today’s India who traced their
conversion to St. Thomas.
St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, today’s Annaba, Algeria, is one of
the most important theologians in western history. His book, The City
of God, was fundamental to the development of Christian theology and
is cited by Catholic and Calvinist authorities.
Indeed, it would be nigh impossible to be able to speak with any
authority on Christianity without a thorough understanding of that
epochal book.
Today, The People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria is Islamic and
has fewer than 60,000 Christians out of a population of nearly
28,000,000. Most are likely descendants of French, Spanish, Maltese
and other Christians who fled after independence from France in
1962. It is highly unlikely that they are descendants of original
Christians who resisted conversion under the Berbers. Christianity
was the dominant faith before Muhammad.
I was taught in Catholic grammar school that most of the conversions
from Christianity were under threat of violence. As biased as those
teachings may have been, history supports that conclusion. Muslim
hordes swept east, west and northwest threatening to overrun all of
Europe. They were stopped only in the Balkans and in Southern France
in 732, by Charles Martel. The Mediterranean was in danger of becoming
an Islamic lake, as it had once been Roman. That threat was one of the
reasons that Pope Urban II called for the Crusades to drive back the
Muslim hordes. The onslaught of those hordes was part of the reason
for the Crusades. Christianity’s very survival was at stake.
Another reason was to make The Holy Land safe for Christian pilgrims
who were being harassed and killed.
A muslim caliph had ordered the destruction of The Church of The
Holy Sepulchre in The Holy Land and a hospice for Christian pilgrims
looted. It would be analogous for a Christian ruler to destroy The
Great Mosque in Mecca and deny Muslims access to Mecca and Medina.
It took several hundred years to drive the Moors out of Iberia. Islam
left its imprint on Spanish and Portuguese art, architecture, music
and even language.
Fatima is an arabic word. Later, Islam attempted another conquest
only to be stopped at Vienna in the seventeenth century.
During Desert Shield and Desert Storm, American Christian military
personnel could not have services if stationed in Arabia. Then there
was the fatwa placed upon Salman Rushdie for his satire of Muhammad.
Islamic tolerance and peace?
Personally, I believe that Islam is a false religion of a false prophet
and Muhammad may even be the false prophet that the scriptures warned
against. Islam is an entire social prescription, unlike Christianity
and far more than even the most extreme Jewish sects such as the
Hassids.
I have known several Muslims over the years. Most seem like decent,
peace-loving people. Some have not. But nevertheless, it is a religion
with a constant thread that advocates violence to further its ends.
It is a religion that emphasizes the possibilities of great rewards and
pleasures in the afterlife for martyrdom. With 1.5 billion adherents,
all its leaders need is to convince a very small fraction of them for a
series of horrors to be unleashed on the world. With the acceleration
of violence in recent years, exemplified by 9/11, there is a very
strong possibility that this is the beginning of a third attempt to
bring the world into Dar-al-Islam.
The Pope has not apologized for his remarks, nor should he. He was
quoting someone else. The truth remains as the truth but this may
unleash more than anyone has thought possible as often as has happened
throughout history. This despite The Vatican having been critical of
the war in Iraq. Gratitude may not count for much in Islam.
The assaults this time around, however, will not be simply from without
but compounded by the millions of Muslims who will undoubtedly be
sources for fifth columns throughout Western Europe. Germany, Italy
and France all have substantial Muslim minorities, as does America,
and in many cases they are poor and uneducated, the most vulnerable
to all extremism, especially religious. It is further compounded
by demographics.
The fertility rate of native Germans is currently below replacement
level and Italy’s is not much better. Immigrant populations throughout
Europe, just as in the United States, have some reproductive rates
far higher than natives, partly due to generous subsidies. The specter
of Muslim majorities in many formerly Christian countries is very real.
Hold onto your hats. This could be a very rough ride, compounded by
the coming economic collapses in the West.
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