Well, yeah, and long before he went to Iraq, too. See, for example, here and here.
“Iraq: Pope’s Trip Leaves Collateral Damage,” by Jules Gomes, Church Militant, March 9, 2021:
ERBIL, Iraq (ChurchMilitant.com) – Pope Francis’ Iraq trip has triggered a tidal wave of mockery on social media, with Muslims gleefully announcing that the pontiff has surrendered to Islamic supremacy, an Iraqi Muslim convert has told Church Militant.
The Kurdish response to Francis on the final day of his visit has been largely negative, as “many Kurds see the pope as a person who flatters wicked people like President Erdoğan,” observed Nasser Aza, an academic from Erbil.
While the pope’s visit has certainly created a feel-good atmosphere among Catholics, Aza is predicting that “the collateral damage for evangelism among Muslims” will be monumental.
Aza, who came to faith in Christ in 2014, told Church Militant that approximately 7,000 to 10,000 Muslims had converted to Christianity from Islam in the last decade, and, as in Iran among Shia Muslims, many more souls are ripe for conversion.
Speaking through an Arabic translator, Aza lamented the fact that only “small pockets of Catholics who are influenced by evangelicals are engaged in evangelization, while the Orthodox churches in Iraq have no interest whatsoever in evangelism.”
Aza, an amateur Arabist who had been brought up to believe that the Koran was linguistically inerrant, said that he began to have doubts about Islam after detecting a number of linguistic errors in the Koran.
When a Christian gave him a copy of the New Testament in Kurdish, Aza, who is of part-Kurdish heritage, broke down emotionally after reading it. “God speaks my language!” he exclaimed, overwhelmed by the fact that the Word had not only become flesh in Jesus but also was written in his own mother tongue.
Keen to reach out to Muslims with the gospel, Aza said he was “grieved that Francis’ interfaith engagement was counterproductive for Christians like him seeking to carry out Jesus’ Great Commission to proclaim the good news and declare Jesus as the only savior.”
“Muslims on social media are triumphantly declaring that the pope has surrendered to Islam,” Aza said. “The mockery is incredible as the Muslims say Francis is bowing to Muhammad as his prophet as he goes on Hajj [Muslim pilgrimage] to the birthplace of the Muslim Ibrahim.”
“Of course, the majority of the converts don’t care and have no interest in the papal visit to Iraq because they strongly feel the pope does not represent them or their passion for the gospel,” he added.
“And while Catholics are rejoicing thinking that the pope will bring about betterment in their situation and pull them out of persecution, the situation for all Christians will worsen because the pope is seen as giving in to Islam and abdicating his role as … head of the Church,” Aza predicted.
“Muslims don’t distinguish between Catholics, Orthodox, Pentecostals and evangelicals,” he explained. “Anyone who is not a Muslim is fair game for hostility and persecution.”…
Peter Buckley says
Muslims are perfectly entitled to crow about the Pope submitting to Islam, if they wish. At the end of the day, this is mere idle talk. All that matters is what is happening on the ground. Those same muslims become very angry merely hearing about converts to Christianity. We know that the more violent Islam becomes, the more muslims leave it:
https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Muslims-convert-to-Christianity-in-Syrian-town-once-besieged-by-ISIS-587021
https://www.ncregister.com/blog/muslims-are-converting-to-christianity-in-record-numbers
No escape for Islam now.
What wondrous times are these….
mortimer says
The optics for triumphalist Muslims is that the pope has knelt before Islamic blasphemy laws and he will keep the RCC from criticizing Islam … that is what they want. But has Frances not delivered that? I think he has. So, it is not wrong to agree with the accusation. Frances just surrendered our freedom of expression without a fight.
Hamisu Idris says
Islam is elevating all over the world.keep deceiving your self,all Europe and Asia, Africa Islam is propagating
gravenimage says
And yet, the story above is reported by a Christian who converted from Islam–think about that, Mohammedan.
Hoi Polloi says
Well, let’s see if it is truly “elevating.” Remove the penalty of death for leaving Islam. Stop kidnapping and forcefully converting and banning all other walks of faith. Then we will see truth. Or are you acknowledging its violence?
Jayell says
It’s quite interesting but unedifying to witness all the smug left-wing ‘intelligentsia’ and C of E clerics celebrating Pope Francis even though they’re nothing at all to do with the Roman Catholic Church. No doubt all these C of E types will be even more jubilant when the churches they can no longer afford (because no one goes to them anymore, but they never ask why) are turned into mosques and we have a Grand Mufti of Canterbury.
mortimer says
Anyone who knows little or nothing about Islamic blasphemy laws might think that handshakes are wonderful thing. Muslims make temporary truces with the kafirs.
What did the pope get from his surrender? Mostly TAQIYYA.
– “Taqiyya permeates almost all the activities and dealings of Muslims with non-Muslim societies…” – former sheikh Sam Solomon
– “Taqiyya is of fundamental importance in Islam. Practically every Islamic sect agrees to it and practices it … We can go so far as to say that the practice of taqiyya is mainstream in Islam, and that those few sects not practicing it diverge from the mainstream … Taqiyya is very prevalent in Islamic politics, especially in the modern era.” – Sami Mukaram, At-Taqiyya fi ‘l-Islam (London: Mu’assisat at-Turath ad-Druzi, 2004)
11B40 says
Greetings, Mr. Spencer:
You sir have been a major influence on my understanding and thinking about Islam, Muslims, and the Middle East and I am grateful to you for your, in these times, risky ventures.
But, please sir, reconsider your usage of that photo image of Pope Francis. It continues to strike me as unnecessarily belittling and a kind of juvenile act when you have so much profound intelligence to share.
Respectfully yours,
Denis Eugene Sullivan
CogitoErgoSum says
Maybe someday someone will figure out a way to add a clip, a pin, a snap or maybe even some velcro to the Pope’s cassock so as to keep his cape from flying into his face on a windy day.
gravenimage says
Given the horrors we see every day here at Jihad Watch, it seems that using a mildly unflattering photograph is a very minor thing.
James Lincoln says
11B40 says,
“…reconsider your usage of that photo image of Pope Francis. It continues to strike me as unnecessarily belittling…”
The current pope is a socialist / globalist / muslim apologist.
And he always puts islam *ahead* of Christianity – as he submits to the demands of influential muslims.
Why should he not – at the very least – be belittled?
The alternative as is to do / say nothing – while he destroys the Roman Catholic Church…
DavidR says
Religion is a contest and the most powerful religion is the right one. Right?
gravenimage says
If by “powerful” you mean “murderous”, I think not.
somehistory says
Did the pope shake the hand hard enough to make the large knife inside the mo slum sleeve, fall out?
Of course, mo slums are gleeful. And it does look as though he has “surrendered.”
His own soul may have been, but not that of Christianity.
Christianity stands firm against the “machinations of the devil.”
gravenimage says
Iraqi convert to Christianity: ‘Muslims are triumphantly declaring that the pope has surrendered to Islam’
……………..
Yes–Muslims just see this as weakness.
Hoi Polloi says
“many Kurds see the pope as a person who flatters wicked people like President Erdoğan,” …..the lament of many Christians as well. I’m also “grieved that Francis’ interfaith engagement was counterproductive for Christians like him seeking to carry out Jesus’ Great Commission to proclaim the good news and declare Jesus as the only savior.”