The highly-publicized conversion to Catholicism of a
naturalized Italian citizen of Egyptian origin this week once
again illustrates the uneasy relations between Islam and
western Christianity.
The problem, of course, doesn't lie in the conversion itself.
People after all should be free to choose their faith and way
of life without coercion. The Quran itself declares that "let
there be no compulsion in religion." The way Muslims ought
to relate to disbelievers is engraved in Sura (or chapter) 9 of
Islam's holy scriptures, which reads:
Say : O ye that reject Faith!
I worship not that which ye worship,
Nor will ye worship that which I worship.
And I will not worship that which ye have been wont to worship,
Nor will ye worship that which I worship.
To you be your Way, and to me mine.
But the problem lies in the vindictive atmosphere
surrounding the conversion ceremony, including the
anti-Islamic allusions and insinuations.
Magdi Allam, who an Israel newspaper once called a
"Muslim Zionist" admitted that he had always been a nominal
Muslim, that he had never really practiced Islam and never
prayed in his life. Yet, we have been told ad nauseam by a
wantonly ignorant or dishonest Western media that Allam
was "a prominent Muslim."
Well, the truth is that he was neither Muslim nor prominent.
How could a person who praises and glorifies Israel's genocidal
crimes against his fellow human beings (Christian and Muslims
alike) be a man of faith? Morality, honesty and candor are the
ultimate signs of faith, characters that Allam conspicuously lacks.
So, it is highly doubtful that a man who believes Zionism
represents true righteousness and genuine civility will be a
righteous individual, let alone a good Catholic.
In the context of his baptism at the hands of the Pope of the
Vatican, Allam made a series of provocative lies against Islam.
The man who had written a book titled "Long Live Israel" was
quoted as saying that "the root of evil is innate in an Islam
that is physiologically violent and historically conflictual.
This is a cardinal mendacity, because all religions, ideologies,
and isms are by definition "conflictual." Indeed, in order for an
idea, any idea, to be un-conflictual, it has to be completely
"morally neutral" between good and evil. Christianity itself
was conflictual from day one.
In Matthew 10-34-39, Jesus is quoted as saying that:
"Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not
come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man
against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's
enemies will be the members of his household. He who
loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me;
and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy
of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me
is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and
he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.
In the Gospel of Thomas 16, (SV), Jesus said:
"Perhaps people think that I have come to cast peace upon
the world. They do not know that I have come to cast
conflicts upon the earth: fire, sword, war. For there will be
five in a house: there'll be three against two and two against
three, father against son and son against father, and they
will stand alone."
The above shows beyond doubt that Allam doesn't know
what he is talking about when he faults Islam for being
"historically conflictual."
As to the issue of violence, Allam is being equally ignorant
of historical facts, because if a religion is to be judged solely
by the behavior of its followers, then Christianity stands out
as the main candidate for being the most violent religion
under the sun.
Let us consider some of the following historical facts pertaining
to the relationship between Christianity and violence. In the past
century alone, Western "Christians" killed more than a hundred
million people, mostly other Christians. In just two essentially
'Christian" World Wars, as many as 70 million people were killed.
Indeed, the numerous crusades, holocausts, pogroms, inquisitions,
gulags and ethnic cleansings that the White man committed in the
name of Jesus make Muslim violence and wars look utterly
negligible in comparison.
In the Middle Ages, Catholics spread death, terror and havoc
through Europe, Asia Minor and the Levant. The Franks not only
slaughtered Muslims and Jews en mass, but targeted their
Orthodox coreligionists, destroying and desecrating their churches,
murdering their priests and raping their women.
In North America, South America and Australia the White man
murdered millions in the name of Christ and Manifest Destiny?
To be sure, Muslims, too, indulged in violence, including unjustified
violence. However, stigmatizing Islam with this calumny, as if the
hands of Catholics and other western Christians were clean,
constitutes a pornographic deviation from historical truth and honesty.
Samuel P. Huntington is one of the West's most prominent
contemporary intellectuals. He argued that "the west won the
world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion, but
rather by its superiority in applying organized violence."
"Westerners," he said, "often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do."
One Vatican official, Cardinal Giovanni, told an Italian newspaper following
the conversion ceremony that "conversion is a private matter, a personal
thing and we hope that the baptism will not be interpreted negatively
by Muslims."
Well, one might give Giovanni the benefit of the doubt were it not for
the purposefully high profile the Vatican gave this conversion. In the
final analysis, the Vatican can't hope for good relations with Muslims
and at the same time continues to incite hatred and racism against a
religion that has as many as 15 hundred million followers, including
millions of Europeans and hundreds of thousands of Italians.
Millions of erstwhile Christians converted to Islam in Europe and
North America in recent years. However, unlike the Vatican, the
Muslim religious authorities have chosen not to turn every
conversion into a trial of Christianity.
Finally, it is imperative to remember that Muslims and Christians are
neighbors and compatriots all over the world. This fact alone, which is
not going to disappear, necessitates that each community be sensitive
to the sensibilities and feelings of the other.
Mutual respect, we are told, is the essence of religious faith.
0 Have Your Say!:
Post a Comment