Take note of the first two paragraphs in the article below:
Germany’s Catholic and Protestant leaders have mounted a co-ordinated new-year attack on the way some states in the Middle East are “exporting” fundamentalist Islam. Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the president of the German bishops’ conference, and Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, the chairman of the German Protestant Churches, writing in the weekly Welt am Sonntag, criticised the way certain regimes, particularly in the Gulf Region, are abusing Islam politically and promoting fundamentalist interpretations of Islam in Africa and Asia.
“The failure to modernise society, wars and rampant hopelessness, above all among the younger generation, have led to instability in many regions which fundamentalist Islam is instrumentalising for its own purposes”, Marx told Welt am Sonntag. Regimes in the Gulf were exporting “rigid interpretations of Islam with a great deal of money,” he said.”
There are some confusing points here. The first is that Middle Eastern states throughout their history of violent conquest have lived in accordance to what these Church leaders are referring to as “fundamentalist Islam.” It is the norm. States such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar and Pakistan, among others, adhere to sharia and are exporters of jihad terror. These Christian clerics need to recognize that they cannot change history; nor do they have any influence on these states which they criticize for practicing “fundamentalist Islam.”
Bishop Bedford-Strohm states: “Of all the world’s religions, Islam faced the biggest challenge as far as religious freedom was concerned.” Bedford-Strohm appears somewhat oblivious to the reality that religious freedom and pluralism are no part of normative Islamic doctrine. No other religion practices global expansionism like Islam does, nor does any other religion have anything resembling the command of al-wala’ wa-l-bara’ (complete disavowal and hatred of disbelievers). Islam also divides the world in two: the House of War (Dar al Harb) and the House of Islam (Dar al Islam); the House of War must be subjugated under the House of Islam. Normative Islam is the ultimate in supremacism. When adherents of other faiths migrate to foreign countries, they usually live peaceably among others. They don’t challenge Western principles and more or make demands for special treatment and the like.
Breitbart reported that Cardinal Reinhard Marx was just reprimanded “for donating €50,000 of Catholic Church funds to United4Rescue, a coalition of NGOs engaged in migrant sea rescues. ” He was also questioned about whether he “received approval from the church community to donate €50,000 to an organization that encourages people smuggling.”
Cardinal Marx appears to be talking out of both sides of his mouth — a reflection of the deep divisions within the Catholic Church over migration issues. The Pope strongly advocates open borders and does not regard the threat of jihad, Islamic supremacism and Islamic expansionism; others in the Church are not aligned with his views.
“The Fertile (”fruchtbar”) Crescent has become a fearful (“furchtbar”) crescent, the German government’s commissioner for religious freedom, Markus Grübel said in the same newspaper. “One glance at the world unfortunately shows that Christians are being discriminated against and persecuted.
This “fear” Grübel describes is legitimate and prudent, but it is deemed to be “Islamophobic” by Islamic supremacists and globalists.
“Marx deplores export of fundamentalist Islam,” The Tablet, January 10, 2020:
Germany’s Catholic and Protestant leaders have mounted a co-ordinated new-year attack on the way some states in the Middle East are “exporting” fundamentalist Islam. Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the president of the German bishops’ conference, and Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, the chairman of the German Protestant Churches, writing in the weekly Welt am Sonntag, criticised the way certain regimes, particularly in the Gulf Region, are abusing Islam politically and promoting fundamentalist interpretations of Islam in Africa and Asia.
“The failure to modernise society, wars and rampant hopelessness, above all among the younger generation, have led to instability in many regions which fundamentalist Islam is instrumentalising for its own purposes”, Marx told Welt am Sonntag. Regimes in the Gulf were exporting “rigid interpretations of Islam with a great deal of money,” he said.
The fact that meanwhile there was a growing sensitivity for religious freedom – “especially in the USA, the EU and particularly in Germany” – made him hopeful, Marx said. The Churches, whose mandate it was to commit themselves to religious freedom for all peoples, had contributed greatly to this growing sensitivity, he claimed.
Of all the world’s religions, Islam faced the biggest challenge as far as religious freedom was concerned, Bishop Bedford-Strohm told the Welt am Sonntag. “All religions have the obligation to be forces of peace and reconciliation”, he insisted and called for new rules or legislation “which prevented converts from Islam to Christianity from being deported back to countries like Afghanistan or Iran where Christian converts are particularly endangered and cannot safely practise their Christian religion”. It must be made clear that “only the Church [in question]” could judge whether a person’s wish to be baptised was truly serious, he underlined.
“The Fertile (”fruchtbar”) Crescent has become a fearful (“furchtbar”) crescent, the German government’s commissioner for religious freedom, Markus Grübel said in the same newspaper. “One glance at the world unfortunately shows that Christians are being discriminated against and persecuted…..
E T says
Christianophobia, and slaughter.
mortimer says
‘Baraa’ literally means ‘cleansing from disease’, namely, to become separate from kafirs and to hate them and their beliefs ‘for the sake of Allah’. It is a canonical and ‘essential’ requirement of Islam (usul ud-deen).
Bishop Bedford-Strohm ‘gets’ it. ‘Baraa’ is ‘Christianophobia’ or ‘Kafirophobia’ in practice … but viewed in actuality, ‘Baraa’ looks like almost exactly like APARTHEID … only it is more severely applied. At best, DIRTY KAFIRS are treated with condescension in Islamic countries.
Islam uses ‘BARAA’ as form of sociological pressure and systemic discrimination for the purpose of making kafirs convert to Islam, so they may finally be free from discriminatory restrictions imposed on KAFIRS.
Islamic societies both passively and actively promote discrimination against kafirs, and if Muslims are caught in such acts, the police and legal systems drag their feet to address any crimes or misdemeanors against the dirty kufaar.
‘Baraa’ may with some fairness be called ISLAMIC APARTHEID.
mortimer says
correction: I meant to say Bishop Bedford-Strohm DOESN’T GET IT. In fact, he is CLUELESS about AL WALAA WAL BARAA (Islamic comradeship between Muslims versus Islamic apartheid). Muslims are never ‘COMRADES’ with dirty KAFIRS.
Muslim societies are always SEGREGATED societies.
RichardL says
Bedford-Strohm is as much a Christian as Barack Hussein Obama. He is a member of the socialist party’s extreme left wing. Marx is a total scumbag – and I am a Catholic and teach Catholic philosophy. I am sick and tired of these people and really believe that in most cases they have lost their faith and pray to themselves.
Terry Gain says
Only someone completely ignorant about Islamic doctrine and history, or a liar, would confine his criticism of Muslim migration to “Fundamentalist Islam”.
Frank Anderson says
T.G. we agree with the conclusion. I suggest the point that I raise often. “Deliberate ignorance constitutes knowledge of the truth.” That is what was written in Wyle v. R.J. Reynolds by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. I think that statement is true and applicable even where the law of the US does not cover.
What is being practiced as we watch, and these “leaders” watch, is standard, orthodox islam according to its “final, perfect, complete and unchangeable” teachings of 1400 years. There is no excuse in my opinion for claiming there is some kind of benign, moderate, tolerant islam. Any departure from standard, normal islam is considered reform or apostasy punishable by death.
The question we ought to be asking is why do “leaders” like these, who preside over the destruction of what they have a duty to protect, continue to be followed?
Terry Gain says
Frank
I would only add the words “by others” to your question. I do not see this insanity being ended under the reign of error of Bergoglio unless Catholics stop filling up the collection plates or insert in collection envelopes notes protesting this insanity.
Frank Anderson says
T.G. the cast of collaborators and traitors to Western Civilization is so far and wide, it’s like Marine General Lewis B. (“Chesty”) Puller said about being surrounded at the Chosin Reservoir, “The good thing about being surrounded is that you can shoot in all directions and hit something worth killing!” Between obvious collaborators and pretend to be uninformed deniers, we are surrounded by people in leadership positions who would see us killed or enslaved. One of my best friends and most honored teachers was one of them.
Our host mentions frequently the proverb about blind leaders. This is the time for us to see for ourselves. “With friends like these, who needs enemies?”
mortimer says
I see the point of Frank Anderson, to wit, that German religious leaders actually have OBSERVED how backward Islam is sociologically, but they ‘assume’ that Islam can be modernized … somehow.
In actual fact, Islam CANNOT be modernized without turning it into a completely different religion, devoid of JIHAD (Islam’s highest deed) and devoid of AL WALAA WAL BARAA (its main ‘motive’).
Germany’s religious leaders have NOT DONE THEIR HOMEWORK ABOUT ISLAM.
Back to the books, all you cardinals, bishops and moderators. YOU HAVE NOT DONE THE READING LIST.
GRADE: FAIL for lack of knowledge of the Islamic, foundational SOURCE TEXTS.
Frank Anderson says
Mortimer, I continue to respect your far superior knowledge of islam compared to mine. We disagree that any real expectation of wholesale “deprogramming” exists. While it is entirely rational to encourage, welcome and protect any who leave islam, I believe in my own opinion that more new replacements are entering islam than are leaving. How much information can a despised, worthless kafir provide a true believer to persuade the true believer to apostatize?
I always look to examples in history, particularly WWII era, to see how little people changed and few converted from both Communism and Nazism. They could see. They saw it not only in the news reports, but on the streets and battle fields. They saw mass murder. And did nothing. A local Ph.D homeless shelter leader says, “People don’t change: They just get older!”
I suggest that hoping for rescue by apostasy is just as delusional now as hoping for rescue from Nazi death camps by German apostasy then. The time and resources that might go to productive efforts of resisting the plan of world conquest should be focused on the most productive efforts to inform the undecided, rather than trying to convert the enslaved.
If the “leaders” refuse to do “their” homework, how can we imitate DJT with his Twitter narrative and go around them to inform those who are being mislead? The “leaders” are so convinced of their wisdom that they will never listen to us, just like the “believers”..
Spiro says
To little
To late
gravenimage says
Not necessarily. Don’t preach surrender here, Spiro.
Spiro says
It’s not surrender its an observation of countries who are scared to be called
Islamphobic so they do nothing to stem the tide of
So called migrants at the expense of there own people
So far it’s talk talk talk no action no backbone
No it’s not surrender I see
A lack or fear to do anything but talk talk talk
When criminal acts are deported its a start
There’s hope but they must overcome political correctness and fear of. Being called islamphobic
Quickly
Its nice religious leaders say something now let’s see some follow up
gravenimage says
Speaking out against Islam is a good first step, Spiro.
Jaladhi says
Why can’t these people simply say Islam instead of qualifying it as “fundamentalist Islam”> Islam is Islam – the so called fundamentalist Islam is basic Islam !)! and it teaches the same Islam to all Muslims! Learn Islam from Erdogan who says there is no radical or moderate Islam – Islam is Islam!!
4dmin says
“You see, it’s been our misfortune to have the wrong religion. Why didn’t we have the religion of the Japanese, who regard sacrifice for the Fatherland as the highest good? The Mohammedan religion [Islam] too would have been more compatible to us than Christianity. Why did it have to be Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness?” Adolf Hitler
Tony Naim says
There is rarely any book written in literature or in religion that contains as much contradictions as the Koran.
Reading it One might think that God is a schizophrenic .
The name of Jesus is mentioned 25 times in the Koran compared to 4 times for Mohammed.
The only woman mentioned in the Koran is Mary, the mother of Jesus.
The Koran speaks of the immaculate conception. It confirms her assumption.
The Koran describes Jesus as:
-the Word of God
-the Spirit of God
-giver of life ( breathing life in clay to create a bird and raising people from the dead)
– healer of disease
– the Christ
– Jesus still lives ( whereas Mohammed is dead)
-Jesus will return at the end of times.
One can not comprehend why Muslims place more weight and importance on a military/political leader than on God.
That is radical Islam!
Crusades Were Right says
Christophobia and Islamophilia… two of the most important problems in the world today!
Tony Naim says
Well said ?
mortimer says
Germany’s Catholic and Protestant leaders have no idea that Islam is not just rigid … Islam is frozen in the year 1111AD, when the ‘Doors of Ijtihad’ (the possibility of further Islamic theological elaboration) were ‘closed’.
Any further elaboration or liberalization of Islam is considered ‘bida’ (innovation) and is a sin for which the person will displease Allah and may spend eternity in Islamic hell.
Technically, such theological modernization is called: Kufrul-Istibdaal: Disbelief because of trying to substitute human laws for Allaah’s Laws.
Reforming or modernizing Islam results in BLASPHEMY accusations and possible retributions from the mullahs, even death by assassination.
Terry Gain says
Mortimer
For the benefit of the unwashed, it would be helpful for you to tell us what happened in 1111.
Michael Copeland says
It was decided in 1111 that no more liberalisation or modernisation would be permitted.
Anyone who does so is, as mortimer says, being blasphemous (and thus open to being killed vigilante-style and penalty-free).
Terry Gain says
Thanks Michael, but who decided that and where was this published? Shoudn’t someone tell Bergoglio?
gravenimage says
Terry, most schools of Islamic jurisprudence considered all questions about Islamic doctrine to be settled by the Middle Ages, and no more questions to be allowed. This is referred to as the “Closing of the Gates of Itijihad”.
Wikipedia has a pretty good entry on this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ijtihad
mortimer says
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3114/muslims-ijtihad
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/ijtihad
http://www.askislampedia.com/en/wiki/-/wiki/English_wiki/Ijtihad
http://www.djibnet.com/mabraze/topic/6700-closure-of-the-gate-of-ijtihad/
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-middle-east-studies/article/was-the-gate-of-ijtihad-closed/6CF0EAA05DBE9E2C324916E27BFFA371
Are you going to read all this?
Terry Gain says
Yes. Thanks.
Bill Sheppard says
Yes I will and thank you for posting them.
mortimer says
Quote: Bishop Bedford-Strohm told the Welt am Sonntag. “All religions have the obligation to be forces of peace and reconciliation.”
Islam has no requirement to be a force of reconciliation. The reconciliation Islam promotes is one-way, namely, to convert to Islam.
There is no co-existence with Islam. The choice is to join Islam or be subjected to unceasing discrimination and religious persecution till you do.
READ: “The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise: Muslims, Christians, and Jews under Islamic Rule in Medieval Spain” by Darío Fernández-Morera, ISI Books, 376 pp., $29.95
gravenimage says
+1
Michael Copeland says
“exporting “rigid interpretations of Islam””
Rigid interpretations?
Are these rigid?
Kill means kill
Stone means stone
Cut off means cut off
What your right hand possesses means slaves
Wellington says
The term “fundamentalist Islam” is as redundant as the term “radical Islam.” It is true that many Muslims don’t completely fulfill all the commands of Mo’s creed—a lot of Muslims are not even aware of all these commands, ignorant of their own faith just as many Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, etc. are—but this is something very different from there being a good and peaceful Islam residing out there somewhere. As Ibn Warraq has said, there are moderate Muslims but there is no moderate Islam.
As for Christians, and most especially the Christian clergy, continuing in willful ignorance mode about Islam, there is absolutely no excuse for this, including from a legal perspective as Frank Anderson pointed out in his 9:37 A.M. post above. Christians making excuses for Islam are enablers of evil. No way around this.
James Lincoln says
Wellington,
I have stopped ALL “prefixes” before islam (lower case intentional)…
PRCS says
“As Ibn Warraq has said, there are moderate Muslims but there is no moderate Islam.”
From this morning’s televised AG Barr presser, and Andy McCarthy’s Fox News appearance–they apparently haven’t read Warraq’s books.
Barr: jihadist ideology
McCarthy: ‘radical Islam’
SAFI says
“rigid interpretations of Islam” is an interesting way of saying traditional, normative Islam
SAFI says
The version that’s been practised by most muslims for most of Islam’s history.
Kepha says
Don’t be too hard on poor old Bedford-Strohm. Raised in the bosom of Protestant modernism, he believes that religion is only a “feeling of absolute dependence”, and is nderstandably shocked when someone (like his countrymen Martin Luther, Zacharias Ursinus, Martin Bucer, Philip Melanchthon, or Martin Chemnitz) comes along affirming a larger system of doctrine, ethics, theory or history, or theory of the state. He hears that Islam is a religion, so he assumes that it, too, is merely a “feeling of absolute dependence” covering its nakedness with a few ragged shreds of older Christian morality. He would be terribly confused to learn that there are Muslims who take the Qur’an far more seriously than he ever took his Bible.
Kepha says
By the way, a “fundamentalist” is a traditionally devout person of any tradition whom a liberal writer does not like.
Ole Pederson says
Incredible hypocrisy of these “Church Leaders”!
This comes after Europe was flooded, with the active and ongoing* help of these men, with millions of young men who were raised in radical Islamic cultures!
*(one Bishop even helped organise a ship to “rescue” African Muslim migrants to Europe).
Kenneth says
wait until Islam finds out about Mohamad’s past : Origin of Islam
Mohammed (570-632)…real name Lothar Schmalfus.
Ancient Christian writings recorded a remarkable revelation about Mohammed’s early life and revealed the true reason for the commencement of the Islamic faith. The reference is found in a book called Chronica Majora, a summary of world history from biblical creation to the year of the author’s death. It was written by Matthew Paris (d. 1259), a pious Christian monk…
It is well known that Mohammed was once a cardinal, and become heretic because he failed to be elected pope. Also (later in life) having drunk to excess, he fell by the roadside, and in this condition was killed by swine. And for that reason, his followers abhor pork even unto this day.
gravenimage says
This is ahistorical claptrap promulgated in a pot boiler called “The Crucifixion of Truth” by a Tony Bushby. He’s written a lot of conspiracy theory claptrap about Christianity–sort of “Da Vinci Code” stuff.
gravenimage says
Germany: Catholic and Protestant leaders launch “attack” on export of “fundamentalist Islam”
…………………
Christine Douglass-Williams aptly notes the ways in which these Christian leaders are confused–but still, to see some Church leaders speak out against the threat of Islam *at all* is a heartening thing.
Save Europe says
They maintain their countries as s-holes, so as to export and promote the Hijra invasion of non Muslim countries.
Battle says
Cardinal Reinhard Marx “… Islam is instrumentalising for its own purposes.”
Cardinal Marx calls out Islam as is.
Along with Protestant Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, with fifty signatures each of priests and pastors, would make a good petition.
Send petition to Merkel to order her preferred back home as in deported.
Next to Macron etc.
CogitoErgoSum says
These guys suffer from the delusion that all religions are good. No, not all religions are good. Some religions require offering babies to an idol made of stone or ripping a man’s heart out atop a pyramid and offering it to the sun or the binding of a virgin with rope and throwing her into a deep pool of water so her drowning ensures plenty of rain for the crops. Not all gods are the same either. Some gods are like Mars and have contempt for those who will not fight and some disguise themselves as animals that have the power to seduce women. What makes these men think all religions worship the same god and have as their goal the freedom of all mankind? This is such delusional thinking from men who should know better. When did the injunction to teach all nations about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit morph into let all manner of religion increase and multiply upon the Earth? So okay, tell people they should be free to pick their religion but also tell the truth about what is out there and how some religions make slaves of men and force them to do bad things.
jca reid says
These “religious” figures still don’t get it! Islam is Islam – no moderate Islam, no Islam ‘Lite’, etc. Just the Koran ordering its followers to massacre, rape & enslave non-Muslims & each other if they deem them, ‘not Muslim enough.’. Follow the conduct of Mohammed – the BEST example of human conduct ever! What is scaring these Western Religious Leaders is that they’ve been peddling b*llsh*t for centuries & are being found out! Why hasn’t “God” wiped out the Atheists etc. for not following his “word”? If God was about he’d do the entire Planet in 2seconds flat & just leave the ‘True Believers’. Monty Python’s ‘Life of Brian’ explains it all most succinctly.
CogitoErgoSum says
Monty Python is all about finding the humor in absurdity. Our minds tell us there must be some point to our existence but life just seems absurd so we come up with something to give our lives meaning. Religion provides an answer for some but many see religion only as another part of the absurdity. The big question is this: Is there a point to life or is it just absurd? Maybe the ending of “Life of Brian” does provide the best answer — always look on the bright side of life. Find out what most often helps you do that and perhaps there’s your answer.
gravenimage says
Whether you believe in any religion or not, not all faiths are the same as the evil of Islam.