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=> Rome breaks ceasefire with Islam

Posted by Andreas (Guest) - Thursday, December 4 2003, 7:53:12 (EST)
from 217.255.180.148 - pD9FFB494.dip.t-dialin.net

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Shlama all,

As mentioned in the Zenith interview I posted earlier today, the magazine
"La civiltà Cattolica" (The Catholic Civilization) doesn't publish anything
without the official consent of the Pope.

Obviously then, Rome broke the ceasefire with Islam - and will fight a
SPIRITUAL war which has NOTHING TO DO with bombing, killing and maiming.

BTW: I am not Catholic.

Best

Andreas
---------------------------

http://213.92.16.98/ESW_articolo/0,2393,41931,00.html

The Church and Islam. "La Civiltà Cattolica" Breaks the Ceasefire

Through the prestigious magazine, the Vatican denounces with unusual
harshness the oppression of Christians in Muslim countries. A testimony from
Egypt

by Sandro Magister

ROMA - There is a conspicuous absence among the new cardinals created on
October 21 by John Paul II: Archbishop Michael Louis Fitzgerald, president
of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

The current explanation is that Fitzgerald was not made cardinal because of
his excessively placid approach to Islam.

And it is true that, together with this exclusion, an article was printed in
"La Civiltà Cattolica" that contrasts markedly with the matter of Fitzgerald
's rebuke.

"La Civiltà Cattolica," edited by a group of Jesuits in Rome, is a very
special magazine. Every one of its articles is reviewed by the Vatican
secretary of state before publication. So the magazine reflects his thought
faithfully.

In its October 18 edition, "La Civiltà Cattolica" published a strikingly
severe article on the condition of Christians in Muslim countries. The
central thesis of the article is that "in all of its history, Islam has
shown a warlike and conquering face"; that "for almost a thousand years,
Europe lived under its constant threat"; and that what remains of the
Christian population in Islamic countries is still subjected to "perpetual
discrimination," with episodes of bloody persecution.

What follows is an ample extract from the article printed in "La Civiltà
Cattolica" no. 3680, October 18, 2003, and used here with the kind
permission of the magazine:

Christians in Islamic Countries

by Giuseppe De Rosa S.I.

How do Christians in Muslim-majority countries live? [...] We must first
highlight a seemingly rather curious fact: in all the countries of North
Africa (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco), before the Muslim invasion
and despite incursions by vandals, there were blossoming Christian
communities that contributed to the universal Church great personalities,
such as Tertullian; Saint Ciprian, bishop of Carthage, martyred in 258;
Saint Augustine, bishop of Hippo; and Saint Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspe. But
after the Arab conquest, Christianity was absorbed by Islam to such an
extent that today it has a significant presence only in Egypt, with the
Coptic Orthodox and other tiny Christian minorities, which make up 7-10
percent of the Egyptian population.

The same can be said of the Middle East (Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan,
Mesopotamia), in which there were flourishing Christian areas prior to the
Islamic invasion, and where today there are only small Christian
communities, with the exception of Lebanon, where Christians make up a
significant part of the population.

As for present-day Turkey, this was in the first Christian centuries the
land in which Christianity bore its best fruits in the areas of liturgy,
theology, and monastic life. The invasion of the Seljuk Turks and the
conquest of Constantinople by Mehmet II (1453) lead to the founding of the
Ottoman empire and to the near destruction of Christianity in the Anatolian
peninsula. Thus today in Turkey Christians number approximately 100,000,
among whom are a small number of Orthodox, who live around Phanar, the see
of the ecumenical patriarchate of Constantinople, who has the primacy of
honor in the Orthodox world and who holds communion with eight patriarchs
and many autocephalous Churches in both East and West, with approximately
180 million faithful.

In conclusion, we may state in historical terms that in all the places where
Islam imposed itself by military force, which has few historical parallels
for its rapidity and breadth, Christianity, which had been extraordinarily
vigorous and rooted for centuries, practically disappeared or was reduced to
tiny islands in an endless Islamic sea. It is not easy to explain how that
could have happened. [...]

In reality, the reduction of Christianity to a small minority was not due to
violent religious persecution, but to the conditions in which Christians
were forced to live in the organization of the Islamic state. [...]

THE WARRIOR FACE OF ISLAM: "JIHAD"

According to Islamic law, the world is divided into three parts: dar al-harb
(the house of war), dar al-islam (the house of Islam), and dar al-'ahd (the
house of accord); that is, the countries with which a treaty was stipulated.
[...]

As for the countries belonging to the "house of war," Islamic canon law
recognizes no relations with them other than "holy war" (jihad), which
signifies an "effort" in the way of Allah and has two meanings, both of
which are equally essential and must not be dissociated, as if one could
exist without the other. In its primary meaning, jihad indicates the
"effort" that the Muslim must undertake to be faithful to the precepts of
the Koran and so improve his "submission" (islam) to Allah; in the second,
it indicates the "effort" that the Muslim must undertake to "fight in the
way of Allah," which means fighting against the infidels and spreading Islam
throughout the world. Jihad is a precept of the highest importance, so much
so that it is sometimes counted among the fundamental precepts of Islam, as
its sixth "pillar."

Obedience to the precept of the "holy war" explains why the history of Islam
is one of unending warfare for the conquest of infidel lands. [...] In
particular, all of Islamic history is dominated by the idea of the conquest
of the Christian lands of Western Europe and of the Eastern Roman Empire,
whose capital was Constantinople. Thus, through many centuries, Islam and
Christianity faced each other in terrible battles, which led on one side to
the conquest of Constantinople (1453), Bulgaria, and Greece, and on the
other, to the defeat of the Ottoman empire in the naval battle of Lepanto
(1571).

But the conquering spirit of Islam did not die after Lepanto. The Islamic
advance into Europe was definitively halted only in 1683, when Vienna was
liberated from the Ottoman siege by the Christian armies under the command
of John III Sobieski, the king of Poland. [...] In reality, for almost a
thousand years Europe was under constant threat from Islam, which twice put
its survival in serious danger.

Thus, in all of its history, Islam has shown a warlike face and a conquering
spirit for the glory of Allah. [...] against the "idolaters" who must be
given a choice: convert to Islam, or be killed. [...] As for the "people of
the Book" (Christians, Jews, and "Sabeans"), Muslims must "fight them until
their members pay tribute, one by one, humiliated" (Koran, Sura 9:29). [...]

THE REGIME OF THE "DHIMMA"

According to Muslim law, Christians, Jews, and the followers of other
religions assimilated to Christianity and Judaism (the "Sabeans") who live
in a Muslim state belong to an inferior social order, in spite of their
eventually belonging to the same race, language, and descent. Islamic law
does not recognize the concepts of nation and citizenship, but only the
umma, the one Islamic community, for which reason a Muslim, as he is part of
the umma, may live in any Islamic country as he would in his homeland: he is
subject to the same laws, finds the same customs, and enjoys the same
consideration.

But those belonging to the "people of the Book" are subject to the dhimma,
which is a kind of bilateral treaty consisting in the fact that the Islamic
state authorizes the "people of the Book" to inhabit its lands, tolerates
its religion, and guarantees the "protection" of its persons and goods and
its defense from external enemies. Thus the "people of the Book" (Ahl
al-Kitab) becomes the "protected people" (Ahl al-dhimma). In exchange for
this "protection," the "people of the Book" must pay a tax (jizya) to the
Islamic state, which is imposed only upon able-bodied free men, excluding
women, children, and the old and infirm, and pay a tribute, called the
haram, on the lands in its possession.

As for the freedom of worship, the dhimmi are prohibited only from external
manifestations of worship, such as the ringing of bells, processions with
the cross, solemn funerals, and the public sale of religious objects or
other articles prohibited for Muslims. A Muslim man who marries a Christian
or a Jew must leave her free to practice her religion and also to consume
the foods permitted by her religion, even if they are forbidden for Muslims,
such as pork or wine. The dhimmi may maintain or repair the churches or
synagogues they already have, but, unless there is a treaty permitting them
to own land, they may not build new places of worship, because to do this
they would need to occupy Muslim land, which can never be ceded to anyone,
having become, through Muslim conquest, land "sacred" to Allah.

In Sura 9:29 the Koran affirms that the "people of the Book," apart from
being constrained to pay the two taxes mentioned above, must be placed under
certain restrictions, such as dressing in a special way and not being
allowed to bear arms or ride on horseback. Furthermore, the dhimmi may not
serve in the army, be functionaries of the state, be witnesses in trials
between Muslims, take the daughters of Muslims as their wives, be the
guardians of underage Muslims, or keep Muslim slaves. They may not inherit
from Muslims, nor Muslims from them, but legacies are permitted.

The release of the dhimma came about above all through conversion of the
"people of the Book" to islam; but Muslims, especially in the early
centuries, did not look favorably upon such conversions, because they
represented a grave loss to the treasury, which flourished in direct
proportion to the number of the dhimmi, who paid both the personal tax and
the land tax. The dissolution of dhimma status could also take place through
failure to observe the "treaty"; that is, if the dhimmi took up arms against
Muslims, refused to remain subject or to pay tribute, abducted a Muslim
woman, blasphemed or offended the prophet Mohammed and the Islamic religion,
or if they drew a Muslim away from Islam, converting him to their own
religion. According to the gravity of each case, the penalty could be the
confiscation of goods, reduction to slavery, or death - unless the person
who had committed the crimes converted to Islam. In that case, all penalties
were waived.

CONSEQUENCE: THE EROSION OF CHRISTIANITY

It is evident that the condition of the dhimmi, prolonged through centuries,
has led slowly but inexorably to the near extinction of Christianity in
Muslim lands: the condition of civil inferiority, which prevented Christians
from attaining public offices, and the condition of religious inferiority,
which closed them in an asphyxiated religious life and practice with no
possibility of development, put the Christians to the necessity of
emigrating, or, more frequently, to the temptation of converting to Islam.
There was also the fact that a Christian could not marry a Muslim woman
without converting to Islam, in part because her children had to be educated
in that faith. Furthermore, a Christian who became Muslim could divorce very
easily, whereas Christianity prohibited divorce. And apart from all this,
the Christians in Muslim territories were seriously divided among
themselves - and frequently even enemies - because they belonged to Churches
that were different by confession (Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian
Churches) and by rite (Syro-oriental, Antiochian, Maronite,
Coptic-Alexandrian, Armenian, Byzantine). Thus mutual assistance was almost
impossible.

The regime of the dhimma lasted for over a millennium, even if not always
and everywhere in the harsh form called "the conditions of 'Umar," according
to which Christians not only did not have the right to construct new
churches and restore existing ones, even if they fell into ruins (and, if
they had the permission to construct through the good will of the Muslim
governor, the churches could not be of large dimensions: the building must
be more modest than all the religious buildings around it); but the largest
and most beautiful churches had to be transformed into mosques. That
transformation made it impossible for the church-mosques ever to be restored
to the Christian community, because a place that has become a mosque cannot
be put to another use.

The consequence of the dhimma regime was the "erosion" of the Christian
communities and the conversion of many Christians to Islam for economic,
social, and political motives: to find a better job, enjoy a better social
status, participate in administrative, political, and military life, and in
order not to live in a condition of perpetual discrimination.

In recent centuries, the dhimma system has undergone some modifications, in
part because the ideas of citizenship and the equality of all citizens
before the state have gained a foothold even in Muslim countries.
Nevertheless, in practice, the traditional conception is still present.
[...] The Christian, whether he wish it or not, is brought back in spite of
himself to the concept of the dhimmi, even if the term no longer appears in
the present-day laws of a good number of Muslim-majority countries.

To understand the present condition of these Christians, we must refer back
to the history of the 19th and 20th centuries. In the Ottoman empire of the
19th century, where the millet system was in force, the tanzimat,
"regulations" of a liberal character, were introduced. [...] From the second
half of the 19th century to the end of the first World War, there was a
"Reawakening" (Nahda) movement in the Arab world, under Western influence,
in the fields of literature, language, and thought. Many intellectuals were
conquered by liberal ideas.

On another front, the Christians created strong ties with the Western
powers - France and Great Britain in particular - which, after the
dissolution of the Ottoman empire, obtained the protectorate of the
countries that had belonged to the empire. This permitted the Christians
both greater civil and religious liberty and cultural advancement. Moreover,
during the first half of the 20th century various political parties of
nationalist and socialist, and thus secularist, tendencies were born, such
as the Ba'th, the Socialist Party of the Arab Renewal, founded at the end of
the 1930's in Damascus by Syrian professor Michel 'Aflaz, a Greek Orthodox.
In 1953 this party was united with the Syrian Popular Party, founded in 1932
by Antun Sa'ada, a Greek Orthodox from Lebanon. In brief, political regimes
inspired by the liberal and secular principles of Western Europe rose up in
various Islamic countries.

THE BIRTH OF RADICAL ISLAM

These events provoked a harsh reaction in the Islamic world, due to fears
that the secularist ideas and "corrupt" customs of the Western world,
identified with Christianity, would endanger the purity of Islam and
constitute a deadly threat to its very existence. This reaction was fed by
strong resentment against the Western powers, which had dared to impose
their political rule upon Islam, "the greatest nation ever raised up by
Allah among men" (Koran, s. 3:110), and against their customs "despised" by
the "nation (umma) that urges to goodness, promotes justice, and restrains
iniquity" (ibid, s. 3:104).

Thus was born "radical Islam," which set itself up as the interpreter of the
frustrations of the Muslim masses. Hasan al Banna, Sayyd Qutb, Abd al-Qadir
'Uda in Egypt with the Muslim Brotherhood; Abu l-A'li al-Mawdudi in
Pakistan, and the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran are its most significant
witnesses, and their followers have spread from Dakar to Kuala Lumpur. [...]

THE PRESENT CONDITION OF CHRISTIANS IN THE MUSLIM WORLD

Radical Islam, which proposes that shari'a law be instituted in every
Islamic state, is gaining ground in many Muslim countries, in which groups
of Christians are also present. It is evident that the institution of shari'
a would render the lives of Christians rather difficult, and their very
existence would be constantly in danger. This is the cause of the mass
emigration of Christians from Islamic countries to Western countries:
Europe, the United States, Canada, and Australia. [...] The estimated number
of Arab Christians who have emigrated from Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Syria,
Lebanon, Palestine, and Israel in the last decade hovers around three
million, which is from 26.5 to 34.1 percent of the estimated number of
Christians currently living in the Middle East.

Furthermore, we must not underestimate grave recent actions against
Christians in some Muslim-majority countries. In Algeria, the bishop of
Orano, P. Claverie (1996), seven Trappist monks from Tibehirini (1999), four
White Fathers (1994), and six sisters from various religious congregations
have been brutally killed by Islamic fundamentalists, although the murders
were condemned by numerous Muslim authorities. In Pakistan, which numbers
3,800,000 Christians among a population of 156,000,000 (96 percent Muslim),
on October 28, 2001, some Muslims entered the Church of St. Dominic in
Bahawalpur and gunned down 18 Christians. On May 6, 1998, Catholic bishop
John Joseph killed himself for protesting against the blasphemy law, which
punishes with death anyone who offends Mohammed, even only "by speaking
words, or by actions and through allusions, directly or indirectly." For
example, by saying that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, one offends
Mohammed, who affirmed that Jesus is not the Son of God, but his "servant."
With this kind of law, Christians are in constant danger of death.

In Nigeria - where 13 states have introduced shari'a as state law - several
thousand Christians have been the victims of incidents. Serious incidents
are taking place in the south of the Philippines and in Indonesia, which,
with its 212 million inhabitants, is the most populous Muslim country in the
world, to the harm of the Christians of Java, East Timor, and the Moluccas.
But the most tragic situation - and, unfortunately, forgotten by the Western
world! - is that of Sudan, where the North is Arab and Muslim, and the South
black and Christian, and in part, animist. Since the time of president G.M.
Nimeiry, there has been a state of civil war between the North, which has
proclaimed shari'a and intends to impose it with fierce violence on the rest
of the country, and the South, which aims to preserve and defend its
Christian identity. The North makes use of all of its military power -
financed by oil exports to the West - to destroy Christian villages; prevent
the arrival of humanitarian aid; kill the cattle, which are the means of
sustenance for many South Sudanese; and carry out raids, for Christian girls
in particular, who are brought to the North, raped, and sold as slaves or
concubines to rich, older Sudanese men. According to the 2001 report of
Amnesty International, "at the end of 2000, the civil war, which started
again in 1983, had cost the lives of almost two million persons and had
caused the forced evacuation of 4,500,000 more. Tens of thousands of persons
have been compelled by terror to leave their homes in the upper Nile region,
which is rich in oil, after aerial bombardments, mass executions, and
torture."

We must, finally, recall a fact that is often forgotten because Saudi Arabia
is the largest provider of oil to the Western world, and the latter
therefore has an interest in not disturbing relations with that country. In
reality, in Saudi Arabia, where wahhabism is in force, not only is it
impossible to build a church or even a tiny place of worship, but any act of
Christian worship or any sign of Christian faith is severely prohibited with
the harshest penalties. Thus about a million Christians working in Saudi
Arabia are deprived by violence of any Christian practice or sign. They may
participate in mass or in other Christian practices - and even then with the
serious danger of losing their jobs - only on the property of the foreign
oil companies. And yet, Saudi Arabia spends billions of petrodollars, not
for the benefit of its poor citizens or of poor Muslims in other Muslim
countries, but to construct mosques and madrasas in Europe and to finance
the imams of the mosques in all the Western countries. We recall that the
Roman mosque of Monte Antenne, constructed on land donated by the Italian
government, was principally financed by Saudi Arabia and was built to be the
largest mosque in Europe, in the very heart of Christianity.

__________

A link to the complete article, in Italian, on the website of "La Civiltà
Cattolica":

> "I cristiani nei paesi islamici", di Giuseppe De Rosa S.I.

__________

The following is an interview published in the latest edition of "Il Regno,"
the biweekly of the Sacred Heart congregation of Bologna. The man
interviewed is a Coptic Orthodox Christian, the director of a Cairo weekly.
The picture he paints of the condition of Christians in Egypt - usually
classified among the "moderate" Arab countries - fully confirms what was
more generally described by "La Civiltà Cattolica":

Christians in Egypt. The Humiliation Continues

An interview with Youssef Sidhom, director of "Watani"

CAIRO - Youssef Sidhom is the director of the weekly "Watani" ("My
Homeland"). Founded in 1958 by his father, Antoun Sidhom, it has always
published news and commentary on the Church and Christianity, themes
completely overlooked by all the other Egyptian newspapers. Many believe it
to be a newspaper of the Coptic Orthodox Church, but that's not true. It is
independent, and has no particular relationship with that Church, nor does
it receive financial support from it. [...]

What are the main problems of the Christians in Egypt?

"The most striking problem is the extreme difficulty in receiving permission
to build a church. Current legislation offers all of the incentives for the
construction of mosques, but it poses almost insurmountable obstacles to the
construction of churches. In 1934, the undersecretary for the minister of
the interior, Muhammad al-'Azabi, made ten conditions for giving permission
for the construction of a church, and those conditions are still valid. Let'
s cite a few of them: a church must not be built on farm land; it must not
be close to a mosque or monument; if it is to be constructed in a zone in
which Muslims also live, one must first obtain their permission; there must
be a sufficient number of Christians in the area; there must not be other
churches nearby; police permission must be obtained if there are bridges or
canals of the Nile near or if there is a railroad; the signature of the
president of the republic must be obtained. All these conditions cause
insurmountable difficulties. In fact, more than ten years can go by while
waiting for police permission, and in the meantime mosques are hurriedly
erected in the vicinity of the area where the church was meant to be, and
the project stumbles against another prohibition. Moreover, it is not
specified how many Christians there must be for them to have the right to a
church. If, for example, there are 1,500, the government can say that that's
not a sufficient number, when a hundred would be enough to fill one of our
churches."

But hasn't President Mubarak facilitated the granting of these permissions
by delegating the matter to the provincial prefects?

"Yes, he allowed the permits to be given by the provincial prefects, and a
year later he ruled that they can also be given by the territory's local
authority. But this delegated authority only regards the permits to repair
and restructure the churches. The permission to construct a new church is
still the sole prerogative of the president of the republic. [...] This
discrimination in the matter of the construction of churches leads
Christians to the bitter conviction that the state considers them
second-class citizens. For the state, a Christian is a kafir, an infidel, he
doesn't know the true religion or have the true faith, so it's not worth it
to listen to him. In Egypt we live with humiliating discrimination on
religious grounds." [...]

Does the discrimination regard only the construction of churches, or other
aspects of social life for Christians in Egypt as well?

"It regards our entire life. There's discrimination in state offices.
According to the constitution, the president must be a Muslim. The Islamic
religion is the foundation of Egyptian legislation. Today, no Christian can
be prime minister, even though there have been Christian prime ministers in
the past. Of the thirty-two ministers, only two are Christians: the finance
minister and the minister of the environment. No city or village mayor can
be a Christian. The high posts in the military, the police, and the
presidential guard are filled only with Muslims. There are hundreds of
persons in the diplomatic corps, but only two or three Christians. No
Christian can attain high office in the tribunals. According to the law, two
witnesses are necessary to justify a sentence, but if one of them is
Christian, the judge may refuse his testimony because it comes from an
infidel. The rectors of the universities must be Muslim. [...] In any
office, the career of a Muslim who has just arrived will advance beyond that
of a Christian who has been in his post for years. In the 2000 elections,
the al-Watani party, which dominates politics in the country, listed only
three Christians among 888 candidates. A Christian may not teach Arabic,
because this material is linked to the teaching of the Islamic religion.
Discrimination is at work even on our identity card, where the religion of
one's father is shown."

And in case of divorce?

"The law provides that the children should remain with their mother. But if
the father wants to divorce because he has become a Muslim, which happens
frequently, the judge rules that the children should remain on the side that
has the true faith, meaning the father. So children born to Christians grow
up in a completely Muslim family."

"Is changing religions permitted?"

"Anyone who becomes Muslim is welcomed with big parties. They change his
identity card very quickly; he is helped in his job, with his house, etc.
But if a Muslim wants to become Christian, they not only seek to dissuade
him by any means, but his very life is in danger. I believe that every day
there are Egyptians who change religions, but it's impossible to know how
many. Al-Ahzar would willingly publish the statistics, which would be a sign
of victory and glory, but the Church could never make a choice like this,
because it would bring about many tragedies. In any case, there is a ruling
by the tribunal that establishes that if an Egyptian is born non-Muslim,
becomes Muslim, and then wants to return to his original faith, he may do
it. But a Muslim by birth may never change religions, on pain of exclusion
from his inheritance and from the society to which he belongs - with danger
to his own safety."

(Interview by Camillo Ballin and Francesco Strazzari)

__________

The complete text of the interview is in the September 15, 2003 edition of

> "Il Regno"

__________

A link to the Cairo weekly directed by Youssef Sidhom, with articles in
English:

> "Watani"

__________

On this site, on the confrontation being played out in the leadership of the
Catholic Church over relations with Islam and the manner of treating
conversions from Islam to Christianity:

> My Friend, Islam: The "Dialogue At All Costs" of Pope Wojtyla (8.9.2003)

And on the roots of the widespread philo-Islamism in Catholic circles:

> Is Europe a Province of Islam? The Danger is Called Dhimmitude (17.3.2003)

__________

Go to the home page of > www.chiesa.espressonline.it/english/, to access the
latest articles and links to other resources.

Sandro Magister's e-mail address is s.magister@espressoedit.it

English translation by Matthew Sherry: > traduttore@hotmail.com

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