If Benedict wants to defeat secularism he should help bring the Islamic Caliphate back
Written on 11:03 PM by Jack B.
That what this article: "Secularism, Not Islam, Is The Real Enemy Of The Vatican" by Abid Mustafa says.
Excerpt:
Forming an alliance with other world faiths such as Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism and other Christian denominations will not alter the fate of the Roman Church. These religions are unable to stand up to the menacing ideology of secularism and they too have fallen prey to the secular powers. This is because of two reasons. First, they are all founded on an emotional creed that does not possess the intellectual dynamism to challenge the ideology of secularism. Second, they are based on creeds that only offer a spiritual perspective on human existence and are unable to present a social-political system of life that is a real alternative to secularism.
Islam is the sole ideology in the world that is able to counter secularism and offer genuine protection to people belonging to different faiths. Islam is able to achieve this, because at its heart is a spiritual and political creed that provides spiritual nourishment to its adherents and offers a comprehensive social-political system, where Muslims and non-Muslims are treated equally before the law.
In the past, when Islam was implemented practically, as in Islamic Spain, Jews, Christians and Muslims living in the Spanish cities of Toledo, Cordoba and Granada, enjoyed unrivalled tolerance and prosperity. Martin Hume wrote in his book “Spanish People”
“Side by side with the new rulers lived the Christians and Jews in peace. The latter rich with commerce and industry were content to let the memory of their oppression by the priest-ridden Goths sleep”.
However, when the Catholic monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand took charge of Spain in 1492, they did not reciprocate tolerance but proceeded to expunge Spain of its Jewish and Muslim populace. Similar acts of cruelty with the blessing of the Pope were carried out in other lands controlled by Muslims such as the island of Sicily and Jerusalem.
Of course this totally ignores that there wasn't real "freedom" in Islamic countries, that Christians and Jews lived at the sufferance of their Muslim masters and that if the author wants to go into acts of "cruelty" with the blessing of the pope, but doesn't talk about the invasions of Christian Europe or the creation of the Janisseries (Christian children in the Ottoman Empire kidnapped and turned into fanatical Islamic soldiers for the Sultan who fought to former Christian homelands int their place often as violently and bloody as possible) Or did the Battle of Poiters in which Pepin stopped the invasion of Frankish lands, the Battle of Lepanto in which Don Juan of Austria defeated the Turks at sea and Battle of Vienna in which Jan Sobieski of Poland saved all of Europe from Turkish conquest. But apparently that never happened. Only Christian "cruelty".
Another excerpt:
Today the Islamic world is experiencing a radical transformation from secularism to Islam. Muslims across the Islamic world are rebelling against the secular order that has been forcibly imposed upon them by western powers and their surrogates. Muslims are working day and night to over throw these secular autocracies and to re-establish the Caliphate on their ruins. With the establishment of the Caliphate, millions of Christians who were previously denied their rights under the secular regimes will have their rights restated in full. And like in the Caliphates of the past, Christian beliefs and teaching will be protected. History bears witness that unlike the Roman Empire and the secular order of today, Christian doctrines and teachings were not changed under the Caliphate to agree with Islamic values.
Against this background it would be wise for Pope Benedict XVI to reconsider his position towards Islam and the Muslim world. Instead of opting for a harsh stance against Islam and Muslims, the new pope should support the right of Muslims across the Islamic world to overthrow their secular regimes and re-establish the Caliphate. In this way, the pope will be saving
Catholicism, protecting the rights of his flock in the Muslim world and sending a good omen for future relations with the Caliphate.
I'm not buying this line of reasoning. If the price of defeating secularism is putting myself and my descendants into dhimmitude (and for non-Christians and Jews even worse), with the price of conversion to another faith (or none) being the death penalty, with clerical rule like in Saudi Arabia or Iran, with censorship of the arts and dress codes for women, with having to pay extra taxes because we're not Muslim and the only way to be fully excepted into the ruling society is to convert. If this is the way to defeat secularism, I'll take my chances with things as they are.
