Pope Benedict XVI recently asked Muslim leaders to teach Islam to young Muslims more effectively, so that they would not become terrorists. He thus evidently thinks that Islam is a religion of peace that has been hijacked by a tiny minority of extremists. However, it appears that Al-Qaeda is working hard to convince him otherwise. From Expatica, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm:
BARCELONA — Spanish police have arrested one man in connection with alleged threats by Al Qaeda against the Vatican.It comes after a document was sent to the Madrid daily ABC and Television Española in the name of Al Qaeda and containing threats against the Vatican.
ABC reported the document, a three-page Arabic manuscript, was mailed from Barcelona and contained the headings 'Operation Vatican' and 'Iraq and the World Terrorist Attack'.
The document says 'the Iraq war has won the Vatican's support for the capitalist countries, all for Iraqi oil'.
"Those authorities will reap what they have sown with their support, and for those they have killed," the document says.
It also justifies Islamic extremist bomb attacks in Madrid last year and last month in London as "acts of self-defence against the terrorism being effected in Iraq and Afghanistan".
The fact that virtually any jihad attack is characterized as an "act of self-defense" demonstrates that protestations that Islam only allows for defensive warfare do nothing to prove that modern-day terror is illegimate from a Muslim standpoint. Those who claim that it is a religion of peace that allows only for defensive fighting have thus done nothing to induce violent Muslims to lay down their arms.
Exactly. Vatican is and will remain a target as long as Christian Missionaries continue proselityzing in Africa, Indonesia, parts of the Middle East and so on. Just as the spread of Islam through word and deed is considered a kind of jihad, similarly, from a Muslim standpoint, Christian proselityzing is considered a part of jihad, only directed against Muslims this time. This is exactly what I argue and successfully prove with hard facts in my latest article “Little Beacons of Hatred”.
That is truly some remarkable fairness. Muslims can convert as many Christians as they wish in our owrn countries, but if a Christian dares to teach Muslims the word of Jesus, this is an act of war which must be met with even more of Islamic jihad.
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dolphin, CAGE co-founder.
http://www.acage.org
The remarkable thing about the way that this document is worded is the complete fusion between prehistoric extreme left - not important for the moment whether Communist, Anarchist or Syndacalist - and Islamic fascism. The whine about "capitalism" and "blood for oil" and the use of "the Vatican" as shorthand for the Catholic Church, are pure Dave Spart. In spite of the Arabic language, it would not surprise me greatly if some Western influence were found at its origin.
People must have said this already, Robert, so I will keep it brief: I think you misunderstand the actions of the Holy Father. See what Magdi Allam made of it, or, for that matter, the anti-jihadist, pro-Western editorialist of the Italian bishops' newspaper Avvenire. Their reading was this: that the Pope ignored any whines about poverty and oppression, refused to meet Muslim leaders on their ground (unlike the Jews he met in their synagogue) and told them in so many words that their duty was to educate their youth away from violence and terrorism. Not bad for a little old guy with, as Stalin pointed out long ago, no divisions.
If, this is carried out, Muslims would proceed to blaming the "Great Satan" and the Jews for conspiring against the Vatican. The Leftists would proceed to associate the Vatican's hand in Zionist conspiracies. I can already see this coming. This is turning into Jews, Christians vs Muslims, Leftists.
Paolo-
The only 'divisions' the Pope has, at present, are those within the Church... and these will melt away as the seriousness of the threat of Islamic Imperialism becomes more and more evident.
Satis superque.
Pope Benedict the XVI is already triumphant!
http://foundingforefathers.com/_wsn/page4.html
It was a false menace, he was spanish, 40 years, and the police thought like a extreme-left supporter who hates the church.
It was a false menace, he was spanish, 40 years, and the police thought like a extreme-left supporter who hates the church.
It was a false menace, he was spanish, 40 years, and the police thought like a extreme-left supporter who hates the church.
It was a false menace, he was spanish, 40 years, and the police thought like a extreme-left supporter who hates the church.
It was a false menace, he was spanish, 40 years, and the police thought like a extreme-left supporter who hates the church.