Or is he just an indefatigable and useful dhimmi?
"Prince Charles, defender of Islam," by Fazile Zahir in Asia Times, June 4 (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):
[...] One particular member of the royal family, the queen's eldest son, Prince Charles, has come under suspicion of having his own particularly strong connection to Turkey.In October 1996, London's Evening Standard newspaper quoted the Grand Mufti of Cyprus, who claimed that the prince had converted to Islam. "It happened in Turkey. Oh, yes, he converted all right," the Grand Mufti was quoted as saying. "When you get home, check on how often he travels to Turkey. You'll find that your future king is a Muslim." This was one of several reports linking Prince Charles and Islam highlighted by authors Ronni L Gordon and David M Stillman in The Middle East Quarterly in 1997.
There have been various alleged proofs offered for the conversion myth. Numerous times over the past three decades, Charles has spoken to support both Muslims and Islam. In 1989, when the Iranian ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against author Salman Rushdie, Charles reacted to the death decree by reflecting on the positive features that Islam has to offer the spiritually empty lives of his countrymen.
In 1993, speaking at Oxford University, he said, "Our judgement of Islam has been grossly distorted by taking the extremes to the norm. The truth is, of course, different and always more complex. My own understanding is that extremes, like the cutting off of hands, are rarely practiced. The guiding principle and spirit of Islamic law, taken straight from the Koran, should be those of equity and compassion. Islam can teach us today a way of understanding and living in the world which Christianity itself is poorer for having lost."
In a June 1994 television documentary, he declared his preference to be known as "Defender of Faith" rather than "Defender of the Faith", prompting then prime minister John Major to comment, "It would be a little odd if Prince Charles was defender of faiths of which he was not a member."
In a speech at the Foreign Office Conference Center on December 13, 1996, he called on Islamic pedagogy and philosophy to help young Britons develop a healthier view of the world. "There is much we can learn from that Islamic world view in this respect. Everywhere in the world people want to learn English. But in the West, in turn, we need to be taught by Islamic teachers how to learn with our hearts, as well as our heads."
In 1997, the Daily Mail of London reported that he had set up a panel of 12 "wise men" (in fact, 11 men and one woman) to advise him on Islamic religion and culture. No comparable body was established to advise him on any other faith in his future realm.
He is vice patron of the Center for Islamic Studies at Oxford University, a center built by a US$33 million Saudi gift with the stated aim of putting Islam at the heart of the British education system.
In 2003, Prince Charles went to America for an eight-day tour. His mission was to persuade President George W Bush and the Americans of the merits of Islam. He has voiced private concerns over America's confrontational approach to Muslim countries and its failure to appreciate Islam's strengths. He thinks the United States has been too intolerant of the religion.
Charles's most recent visits to Turkey were in 2005 to mark the 90th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings and again in 2007 with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, for a four-day tour.
Whether or not he has converted, which is of course strongly denied by Buckingham Palace spokesmen, he is an immensely popular figure throughout the Middle East. The Saudis regard him as a candid friend of the Islamic world. British academic John Casey, of Cambridge University, says the Prince of Wales' hero status in the Arab world (for his pro Islamic comments and actions) is permanent and "No other Western figure commands this sort of admiration."
Cynics claim his friendship is based on upper-class hobnobbing with the Dubai polo set. Others believe that the UK Foreign Office capitalizes on his popularity and uses him as a point man for British business interests in Muslim countries. Casey commented in the London Daily Telegraph, "The Charles of Arabia phenomenon is here to stay, for it helps assure British commerce with the Muslim world."
Whether or not a conversion did take place in Turkey will probably never be known, Charles is unlikely to give up his claim for the British throne by making a full disclosure. He may even encourage the image of himself as a spiritual dilettante flitting from faith to faith to hide an special leaning toward Islam.
Gee, ya think?
It kind of reminds one of Edward VIII's fondness for the Nazis.
Fearing the same fate as his namesake, Charles II, this inbred idiot is hoping his conversion will encourage muslims to spare his head when they take over.
Ooops, Charles I.
Not enough coffee yet!
'Inbred idiot'.
And it's not just the ears that tell us that.
Is that musty smell from the droppings of a Trojan horse?
He has his own personal reasons to become muslim. He can go to the good old times when kings beheaded subjects for the smallest offenses. He just has to be the Amir of GB and bingo he can chop heads like the old kings. With quranic blessing no less...
Didn't Mark Twain suggest replacing the English Royal Family with a collection of cats?
Well that's hereditary monarchy for you, you have to take the rough with the smooth.
Good job he's got no power really.
"Whether or not he has converted, which is of course strongly denied by Buckingham Palace spokesmen, he is an immensely popular figure throughout the Middle East. The Saudis regard him as a candid friend of the Islamic world. British academic John Casey, of Cambridge University, says the Prince of Wales' hero status in the Arab world (for his pro Islamic comments and actions) is permanent and "No other Western figure commands this sort of admiration."
-- from the article above
There are those who, in the apologist vein, might think this is a good thing, that Muslims should be led to believe they have a special friend high up, very high up, in the ruling circles in Great Britain -- or, for that matter, the United States. This will give them the wrong idea, and raise their morale, at a time when we need to weaken their morale, make sure they know that if they persist, for example, in their transfer of tens of billions to finance Islam's expansion in the West, there will be consequences, just as consequences will result from their continued attempts to buy up or create propaganda centers for Islam (see John Esposito, see the Centers at Georgetown, Exeter, Durham, see the large sums being so cunningly deployed all over academic America).
But they can also be given the wrong idea, the idea that Islam has special friends high up, eager to help, eager to do their bidding when the time is ripe. And that can have all kinds of undesirable effects.
Frequest trips or even long periods of living in Muslim lands, a history of close ties to Arabs or Muslims, Arabs and Muslims who might have been their advisers -- and apologists -- on Muslim causes, such as but hardly limited to the Lesser Jihad against Israel, or fundraisers for their political careers, even perhaps other signs and symbols of a close assocation with Islam in the past, with so much remaining undiscussed and undisclosed, so that even if it is true that, for example, Prince Charles, in Great Britain, is not, and never has been a Muslim, all of that history is well-kknown to Muslims, and they are deeply interested and take heart from it, especialy the more primitive they are, and focus onsuch things as that history of Arab or Muslim advisers and fundraisers, a long history that he may now decide it prudent to distance himself from, disown, and may even mean it, and is not just doing it in order to protect his own standing and image, but still, in the Arab and Muslim world, that misperception will continue unless he, Prince Charles, not only denies such rumors, but starts to behave, and demonstrate, with more than "just words" that he sees things, sees Islam, more keenly now -- perhaps even decides to read what the defectors from Islam have written, or view their broadcasts (as Wafa Sultan's appearances to be seen on www.MEMRI.com), or even starts to meet with them -- with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Wafa Sultan, and Ibn Warraq, and many of the others -- not only to put paid to those potentially very dangerous misconceptions in the Arab and Muslim world, but to allay anxieties here in the West, where we cannot, especially high up, be worried that among our most important political officials there are secret sympathizers with Islam. That is not how one can adequately plot a strategy to divide and weaken the Camp of Islam, including a propaganda campaign adequate to the task, if one is worrying constantly about what someone on high may think of too clever, too ruthless, a strategy.
And now that I think of it,Prince Charles is not the only person, and Great Britain not the only country, that comes to mind as presenting such a problem.
Whether he converted or not is irrelevant. Given his statements, he is a muslim for all practical purposes. And as a consequence he should be fired, or whatever the equivalent is for a person in his position: beheaded, quartered, or burnt at the stake, his choice.
BTW, when googling 'quartered', it turned out that 'Pulled apart by horses' is the name of a British band :-)
Now really, how difficult is it to imagine said inane Prince - protector of the faith, soon to be protector of the faiths - reciting the shahada with or without intent, as an act of diplomatic duty?
well if he has converted to islam by English law he can never take the thowen since the monarch has to the head of the church of england
Well, there was Lawrence of Arabia - now we could have Charles of Turkey. In fact, as Crusader mentions above, if he does lose his throne (not to mention his potential position as the head of the Anglican Church), he could become the next Sultan of Turkey, and even the Caliph (since the last Ottoman sultan was the Caliph). The Turks could then, after the Seljuk and Ottoman empires, have the Charlsian empire.
Give it time Crusader, Islam might be the church of england the way things are going over there.
Cynics claim his friendship is based on upper-class hobnobbing with the Dubai polo set.
I would opt for that explanation. I don't see him going to Pakistan and hanging out with the 'plain' people at the local falafel burger joint in Lahore.
And if he is a muslim, what happens to his obligation to jihad???
Who cares about Prince Charles anymore? The crown of England is almost entirely symbolic at this point.
No doubt, symbolism is important. But the symbolism of English legal capitulation in dhimmitude is more telling that that of Prince Charles, no?
One day the British people may chose to become citizens of a republic; they will never chose to become citizens of an Islamic republic.
It's the teeth, too.
And he went nuts some time ago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrrN26n_JxI
Poor Europe.. we had Charlemagne.. now we have this..
And if he became king, would he act as a fifth column to help Islamic nations to Islamisize Great Britain?
Also, I'd like to know Princes William and Harry's position on Islam.
Will their father encourage them to embrace Islam too?
The Prince of Wales is the Defender of the Faith--uh, which faith was that, again?
The British are doomed anyway.Remember that nobody wanted them in the European Common Market. Let them spend their money building mosques and supporting a bunch of lazy clowns like the members of the royal family.
Someday his friends with the Polo ponies will 'smite him with the sword' for apostasy.
Treason.