Isn’t this wonderful? Now: when is the Easter celebration at the local mosque? What’s that? Never? These expressions of generosity and outreach always and in every case only go in one direction, and are never reciprocated? Now, why is that?
“Lille: during the Easter octave, we will celebrate iftar at the St-Pierre-St-Paul church,” translated from “Lille : durant l’octave pascale, on fêtera l’iftar à l’église St-Pierre-St-Paul,” by Gabrielle Cluzel, BVoltaire, March 27, 2023:
The Easter octave, that is to say the eight days following Easter, is not new. It was the Emperor Constantine, in the 4th century, who introduced it into the Catholic liturgy: it is a question, in the daily mass, of “reviving the event of Easter Sunday.” By songs and texts taken from Easter, we mean to “remember that the Resurrection extends beyond the Easter feast,” we can read on the site of the Catholic Church in France. During this period, “the newly baptized on Easter night wear their white garments.”
This year, the Thursday of the Octave of Easter will be a little special in the Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul church in Lille, the priest welcoming there for the second consecutive year… “the iftar under the stars.” This breaking of the Ramadan fast (according to the definition given by the Larousse of iftar) is part of the “nomadic scene for the time of a moon” imagined by the association (duly supported and subsidized by public funds) Attacafa (culture, in Arabic) which, since 1984, has made a point of “creolizing the cultural places of the region and the metropolis [of Lille] to fight against all forms of ethnocentrism.” Hats off to the artist. Celebrate the breaking of the Ramadan fast in a church, you had to dare. The soothing presentation, as coated in sugar as the pastries associated with the event in the collective imagination, obviously aims to extinguish the prejudices of the most refractory: “This festival offers you, through a desacralized program, to take share in this time of sharing, celebration and tolerance, because this is also the meaning of this particular month.”
For the modest sum of 10 € (full price), and with a reservation, you can start the evening of April 13 by listening to the concert of Turkish singers and musicians Gülay Hacer Toruk and Fawaz Baker. Then, from 8:41 p.m., according to the Allevents and Lille Actu site, “the members of the association “Turkish women from the North” will prepare the meal!
On the side of the diocese, there is a tendency to minimize the event and to keep its distance: according to the communication manager contacted by Boulevard Voltaire, this welcome should only be seen as an “initiative of the parish and not of the diocese” to “live in friendship with our Muslim brothers. And no meal, in any case on the spot. The priest has lent his church ‘only’ for the concert, as he does for secular concerts insofar as respect for this consecrated place, not for the banquet. A priori the banquet will take place outside the church,” says one to Boulevard Voltaire. The sites announcing the iftar, however, suggest the opposite, giving no other meeting place after the concert.
Perhaps the parish priest of Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul and the Attacafa association found their inspiration not far from there, on the other side of the border, in Molenbeek? In June 2016, according to the Saphir News website, a giant fast-breaking meal (iftar) was organized at the Saint-Jean-Baptiste church. 600 people responded “to share a meal prepared mainly by volunteers from mosques and Muslim associations in the town”: “A fraternal gesture, which [was] nothing more than a sign of the good relations […] established over time between Christians and Muslims.” Relations somewhat cooled, we will agree, over the attacks of March 22 in Brussels and the many edifying reports on this city that followed.
Perhaps, who knows, the Lille initiative also aims to restore the image of Wazemmes – a popular district of Lille where the Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul church is located. The reputation of this district was somewhat tarnished in 2016 by a vitriolic open letter from a CNRS researcher, Philippe Froguel – a former leftist sympathizer yet – to Martine Aubry: according to this diabetes specialist, the middle classes and students had fled the neighborhood because the living conditions there had become very difficult, in particular due to “community regression.” He had given as an illustration “the ordeal” experienced by the women in his laboratory, objects of “contemptuous demonstrations by Islamists of all stripes.”
Will this (repeated) gesture of friendship disarm “Islamists of all stripes,” whose presence, seven years later, cannot be doubted, whether residual (if one is optimistic) or exponential (if we are not)…or to be taken by them as a huge symbolic victory?
somehistory says
ah, yes, astrology …that was announced as part of Christianity by which Apostle? This part of the “nomadic scene for the time of a moon” imagined by the association (duly supported and subsidized by public funds)” was authorized by which one, Peter or Paul?
The Apostles, Peter and Paul, would never sanction such as this “sharing a table with the demons.”
And Jesus Christ Himself warned about the “false shepherds” and “false Christs”….meaning, of course, those people who pretend to be Christian, but are only pretending in order to mislead, skin, throw about, and guide the sheep of Christ’s flock down the broad road to destruction.
Shame on them. They will reap as they are sowing…pretending to be in the “light” while walking in the “darkness.”
GreekEmpress says
I’ll bet these churches don’t hold any dinners for Baptists, Jews, or Hindus.
PRCS says
+1
gravenimage says
Good point, GreekEmpress.
gravenimage says
France: Catholic church to host Ramadan iftar during Easter octave
………………………………………
And we are not just seeing this insanity in France:
“UK: Anglican cathedral hosts iftar event to spread ‘the spirit of Ramadan’”
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/04/uk-anglican-cathedral-hosts-iftar-event-to-spread-the-spirit-of-ramadan
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Looks like various churches, be they of Sweden, England or France are all falling over themselves to celebrate Ramadan and hold iftar dinners. At this point, I wonder whether being Christian even means anything, even while missionaries seek to spread it among non-Christians. Maybe they should start at home w/ these church leaders, and then spread it to all the woke people in the West
somehistory says
Many years ago, I was speaking with a “pastor” and with his nose in the air, he told how long he had been “reverend” and told me I didn’t know what I was talking about.
The same thing would likely happen if someone like me made an attempt to set these fools straight.
In fact, on the radio a few days ago, someone was saying how he would invite mozlums to listen to him about Christ. After several minutes, the host of the program asked him a question or two, and his answer, for me, showed how very little some who claim to be Christian actually know. He said there were many he could invite who don’t believe in Christ: ‘mozlums, Jehovah’s Witnesses’, He was clearly speaking without knowledge of the subject.
People who make the claim, and then do as these fools are doing, give True Christianity a bad name with non-Christians.
gravenimage says
Sadly, this ignorance of Christianity even among pastors is rife, Somehistory.
Here’s more of this stupidity of setting up Iftar dinners in churches, from my neck of the woods in the San Francisco bay area:
“Annual Ramadan Interfaith Iftar Dinner”
https://laumc.org/iftar-dinner-2023/
This is a Methodist Church, but of course the Methodists are not the only ones involved in this foolishness.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Among other things, my greater point was that the priorities of missionaries are weird. Instead of straightening out their own existing leadership and flock, they’re going around the third world telling people that they worship false gods. They should first turn that message locally in the West towards the people practicing wokism before they set off on overseas adventures