Apparently Ayatollah al-Sistani is a bit less disposed to be deceptive than the Sheikh of al-Azhar, Ahmed al-Tayeb. The “Document on Human Fraternity” that Pope Francis signed with al-Tayeb, and is aggressively pushing upon the Catholic Church, states that “the protection of places of worship – synagogues, churches and mosques – is a duty guaranteed by religions, human values, laws and international agreements.” The conversion in Turkey of Hagia Sophia and the Chora church to mosques demonstrates the signal failure of this document, which anyone could have predicted from the moment it was signed in February 2019. The document did not and could not eradicate Islam’s supremacist doctrines and long tradition of the appropriation of the houses of worship of other faiths to demonstrate the victory and supremacy of Islam. One cannot help but wonder if al-Tayeb was having a little joke at Francis’ expense by including in the Human Fraternity document the stipulation that “every attempt to attack places of worship or threaten them by violent assaults, bombings or destruction, is a deviation from the teachings of religions as well as a clear violation of international law.” Conspicuous by its absence is any mention of the forcible seizure of the places of worship of one faith by the aggressive and supremacist adherents of another. That is not condemned in the document — which is not to say that it would have made any difference if it had been. And now that appropriation proceeds apace.
The document also says:
Terrorism is deplorable and threatens the security of people, be they in the East or the West, the North or the South, and disseminates panic, terror and pessimism, but this is not due to religion, even when terrorists instrumentalize it. It is due, rather, to an accumulation of incorrect interpretations of religious texts and to policies linked to hunger, poverty, injustice, oppression and pride. This is why it is so necessary to stop supporting terrorist movements fuelled by financing, the provision of weapons and strategy, and by attempts to justify these movements even using the media. All these must be regarded as international crimes that threaten security and world peace. Such terrorism must be condemned in all its forms and expressions…
Terrorism is due to “an accumulation of incorrect interpretations of religious texts and to policies linked to hunger, poverty, injustice, oppression and pride.”
So are the authoritative sources in Sunni Islam, the schools of Sunni jurisprudence (madhahib), all incorrect in their interpretations of the Qur’an and Sunnah? Here is what they say about jihad warfare against non-Muslims:
Shafi’i school: A Shafi’i manual of Islamic law that was certified in 1991 by the clerics at Al-Azhar University, one of the leading authorities in the Islamic world, as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy, stipulates about jihad that “the caliph makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians…until they become Muslim or pay the non-Muslim poll tax.” It adds a comment by Sheikh Nuh Ali Salman, a Jordanian expert on Islamic jurisprudence: the caliph wages this war only “provided that he has first invited [Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians] to enter Islam in faith and practice, and if they will not, then invited them to enter the social order of Islam by paying the non-Muslim poll tax (jizya)…while remaining in their ancestral religions.” (‘Umdat al-Salik, o9.8).
Of course, there is no caliph today, and hence the oft-repeated claim that Osama et al are waging jihad illegitimately, as no state authority has authorized their jihad. But they explain their actions in terms of defensive jihad, which needs no state authority to call it, and becomes “obligatory for everyone” (‘Umdat al-Salik, o9.3) if a Muslim land is attacked. The end of the defensive jihad, however, is not peaceful coexistence with non-Muslims as equals: ‘Umdat al-Salik specifies that the warfare against non-Muslims must continue until “the final descent of Jesus.” After that, “nothing but Islam will be accepted from them, for taking the poll tax is only effective until Jesus’ descent” (o9.8).
Hanafi school: A Hanafi manual of Islamic law repeats the same injunctions. It insists that people must be called to embrace Islam before being fought, “because the Prophet so instructed his commanders, directing them to call the infidels to the faith.” It emphasizes that jihad must not be waged for economic gain, but solely for religious reasons: from the call to Islam “the people will hence perceive that they are attacked for the sake of religion, and not for the sake of taking their property, or making slaves of their children, and on this consideration it is possible that they may be induced to agree to the call, in order to save themselves from the troubles of war.”
However, “if the infidels, upon receiving the call, neither consent to it nor agree to pay capitation tax [jizya], it is then incumbent on the Muslims to call upon God for assistance, and to make war upon them, because God is the assistant of those who serve Him, and the destroyer of His enemies, the infidels, and it is necessary to implore His aid upon every occasion; the Prophet, moreover, commands us so to do.” (Al-Hidayah, II.140)
Maliki school: Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), a pioneering historian and philosopher, was also a Maliki legal theorist. In his renowned Muqaddimah, the first work of historical theory, he notes that “in the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and (the obligation to) convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force.” In Islam, the person in charge of religious affairs is concerned with “power politics,” because Islam is “under obligation to gain power over other nations.”
Hanbali school: The great medieval theorist of what is commonly known today as radical or fundamentalist Islam, Ibn Taymiyya (Taqi al-Din Ahmad Ibn Taymiyya, 1263-1328), was a Hanbali jurist. He directed that “since lawful warfare is essentially jihad and since its aim is that the religion is God’s entirely and God’s word is uppermost, therefore according to all Muslims, those who stand in the way of this aim must be fought.”
This is also taught by modern-day scholars of Islam. Majid Khadduri was an Iraqi scholar of Islamic law of international renown. In his book War and Peace in the Law of Islam, which was published in 1955 and remains one of the most lucid and illuminating works on the subject, Khadduri says this about jihad:
The state which is regarded as the instrument for universalizing a certain religion must perforce be an ever expanding state. The Islamic state, whose principal function was to put God’s law into practice, sought to establish Islam as the dominant reigning ideology over the entire world….The jihad was therefore employed as an instrument for both the universalization of religion and the establishment of an imperial world state. (P. 51)
Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee, Assistant Professor on the Faculty of Shari’ah and Law of the International Islamic University in Islamabad. In his 1994 book The Methodology of Ijtihad, he quotes the twelfth century Maliki jurist Ibn Rushd: “Muslim jurists agreed that the purpose of fighting with the People of the Book…is one of two things: it is either their conversion to Islam or the payment of jizyah.” Nyazee concludes: “This leaves no doubt that the primary goal of the Muslim community, in the eyes of its jurists, is to spread the word of Allah through jihad, and the option of poll-tax [jizya] is to be exercised only after subjugation” of non-Muslims.
How did someone with incorrect interpretations of religious texts become a professor on the Faculty of Shari’ah and Law at International Islamic University?
Anyway, as for the idea that poverty causes terrorism, it’s just a call for Western nations to write more checks to governments of Muslim countries. It’s also demonstrably false. The New York Times reported that “not long after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001…Alan B. Krueger, the Princeton economist, tested the widespread assumption that poverty was a key factor in the making of a terrorist. Mr. Krueger’s analysis of economic figures, polls, and data on suicide bombers and hate groups found no link between economic distress and terrorism.”
CNS News noted in September 2013 that “according to a Rand Corporation report on counterterrorism, prepared for the Office of the Secretary of Defense in 2009, ‘Terrorists are not particularly impoverished, uneducated, or afflicted by mental disease. Demographically, their most important characteristic is normalcy (within their environment). Terrorist leaders actually tend to come from relatively privileged backgrounds.’ One of the authors of the RAND report, Darcy Noricks, also found that according to a number of academic studies, ‘Terrorists turn out to be more rather than less educated than the general population.’”
Yet the analysis that poverty causes terrorism has been applied and reapplied and reapplied again. And now here is the Pope signing on to this falsehood.
“Leave them; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14)
“Iraqi official says top Shi’a cleric won’t sign fraternity doc with pope,” by Elise Ann Allen, Crux, February 19, 2021 (thanks to M.):
ROME – Despite widespread speculation that Pope Francis and top Shi’a cleric Grand Ayatollah Al-Sistani will sign a document on human fraternity during their meeting in Iraq next month, an Iraqi state official has said the rumors are false.
According to the Iraqi Kurdish news site Rudaw, in comments made during a media roundtable, Senior Undersecretary of Iraq’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nizar Al-Khair Allah called the pope’s scheduled visit with Al-Sistani “historic.”
A visit like this “has not been witnessed in the history of the Hawza,” he said, referring to a prestigious seminary for Shi’a clerics, “but it won’t include any signings or agreements.”
Pope Francis is set to meet Al-Sistani March 6 as part of his 4-day visit to Iraq, during which he is expected to make stops in Baghdad, Erbil, Qaraqosh, Mosul, the Plain of Ur, and Najaf, where Al-Sistani lives.
For some weeks it has been rumored that during his private meeting with Al-Sistani, the two would sign the Document on Human Fraternity, originally signed by Pope Francis and the Gran Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, during the pope’s visit to Abu Dhabi in 2019.
However, Khair Allah’s statement that there will be no agreements made or document signed appears to debunk that rumor. Al-Sistani himself, who is 90, does not usually leave Najaf and rarely receives visitors, making his conversation with the pope even more significant.
In his remarks to state media, Khair Allah also said the pope would be provided local security, saying, “The Vatican would like the Pope to come via an Iraqi plane with the provision of Iraqi protection.”
Although the trip is less than a month away, some have speculated whether the visit will actually take place, with security being one of the top concerns in addition to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic….
Malcolm (South Afric) says
As a Catholic it is evident that you cannot have a treaty with Muslims, history proves that.
Although the C C P is committing genocide on the Uighur population, there is similarities, between the C C P and Muslims: both do not honor treaties. Its baffling why Muslims do not help their brother Uighur.
Joe Biden does not care about the Human right abuse against these people, he puts the Chinese Communist Party genocide of the Uighur down, to different cultural norms and he needs to forge better trade relations with the C C P.
We are in need of a modern Pope Urban ll.
Atheist Kafir/Infidel says
Over here, in the profoundly dark heart of Dar El-Islam, namely Egyptstan, which is home ? to El-Azhar, Imams and Sheikhs have been yelling at the top of their lungs that Pope Francis has ‘submitted’ to Islamic sensebilities and therefore Moslem rule over non-Koranimal Roman Catholics.
somehistory says
Thanks for the inside information. It’s logical that moslums would believe this as they are taught that when one “compromises” with them, it is submission and not just trying to find common ground or some way of achieving peace.
The pope is an idiot and a traitor to God, Jesus and everyone who believes that a pope is sitting in the place of Jesus Christ. I’m not Catholic, so I don’t believe a pope has any authority, but he sure makes those who believe in Jesus look bad, even those not Catholic.
The pope is a spiritually sick liar, wolf in sheep’s clothing, rotten tree producing rotten fruit.
Sylvia Drummond says
The Catholic Church have their own way of dealing with Popes who are making a mess of things. Remember Giovanni Luciani Pope John Paul 1st? Died mysteriously after 33 days in office. The present cretin needs to get his head out of the mosque or else.
gravenimage says
Pope Jihn Paul I was ill. The implication that the Vatican had he whacked is absurd calumny.
gravenimage says
Thanks for that background, Atheist Kafir.
Beneath the Veil of Consciousness says
Pope Imam Francis’s ‘Magical Mystery Tour’
has the unintended consequence of exposing the fact that Islam’s stated goal is that of, ‘Dying to Take Us Away.’
b.a. freeman says
the hubris of this moron is shocking. he presents a facade of having an understanding of islam, yet even a cursory examination of it proves that his proclaimed ideas are false. as the leader of much of the christian community, he should be leading christians in winning muslims for Jesus, and a good part of that is knowing what muslims believe in order to counter their arguments against christianity. he doesn’t know his a** from a hole in the ground.
tim gallagher says
Christianity and Islam are complete opposites so I believe that this Pope inhabits some type of fantasy land where he thinks that these two version of religion can get along. The Pope should be calling out Islam for all the evil, violent, murderous, misogynistic and hate filled content of that evil religious ideology. He should not be trying to pretend that islam is somehow similar to Christianity and that the two religions can get along. Maybe he believes that some miracle will somehow occur and Islam will become a pleasant and peaceful ideology. That will never happen. Islam and Christianity will always be complete opposites. Apart from a belief in some kind of God, they have nothing in common.
James Lincoln says
I know a local parish priest that knows far more about islam than Pope Francis – and would make an excellent Pope.
But, of course, it will never happen…
OLD GUY says
Oh what a surprise!
Andrew Blackadder says
this current Pope, aka The Antichrist, is most certainly THE worse Pope in at least decades past, and lets remember who shot the Polish Pope, from which country and which religion did the shooter come from?.
Thi Pope is merely a useful idiot of The Left and of islamic nutters as the jihadi morons will,one day, attack the Vatican, overthrow it as they did in Turkey by renaming the City as Istanbul.
the jihadi savages are waiting for the next Pope to attack again, meanwhile this one bows down and washes and kisses their feet,while they all laugh in his face…
gravenimage says
Iraqi official says that contrary to rumors, top Shi’a cleric won’t sign Pope’s ‘human fraternity’ document
……………
No surprise here. Pious Muslims hate human rights–they are un-Islamic.