"[...] [Pope] Benedict, however, seemed to know that this Europe is fatally flawed: the continent has endured two spirit-killing global wars, the depredations of two totalitarian juggernauts, and Satan's finest hour, the Holocaust."
Tout un symbole...
[...] on 6 November 2007, Protector of the Two Holy Sites, Mecca and Medina, King Abdulaziz became the first Saudi King to visit a Pope. Abdulaziz was on European tour visiting the UK, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and Turkey to accelerate the phenomenal growth of Islam in West Europe, once the heart of Christendom, and to distribute gifts. The leader of Sunni Islam's most extreme sect, Wahhabism, was in Europe to distribute financial gifts to Saudi-controlled Islamic institutes, and might have felt pressured by protocol to seek a papal audience.
The king presented Benedict XVI with a bejeweled sword [Voir cette vidéo à 3 minutes]. There is little doubt that the Benedict immediately grasped the implied meaning of the gift. Benedict is said to have rubbed the fingers of his right hand down the blade, without comment, before placing the sword aside. Popes have been artful practitioners of diplomacy and theocratic statecraft for many centuries. Benedict undoubtedly knows that the historical struggle between Islam and Christianity continues, that this contest is timeless and universal, and that it is about supersession, and disagreement on the divine revelation of the fullness of truth. The Holy See is fully cognizant that Muslim triumphalism guarantees future acrimonious relations on a grand scale. However, Vatican spokesmen are loath to utter such sentiments in public.
When the sacred months are past, then slay the Mushrikin (idolators) wherever you find them and besiege them, and wait for them in every ambush. If they repent, perform salat (public prayer), pay zakat (alms), leave their way free to them.[9]
A year later, Abdulaziz was back in Europe, this time in Spain. He was to be keynote speaker at a July 2008 conference in Madrid on religious tolerance [!] – an event made possible by Riyadh's substantial financial support. While in Spain, Abdul-Aziz visited the first mosque built in that country in over five centuries. The edifice, the Great Mosque of Granada, was inaugurated on 19 July 2003. Symbolically, it stands close to the Alhambra, the focal point of the last bastion of Muslim power in Spain. It was here in Granada that the Catholic re-conquest of Spain was made complete. It was from here that the last Caliph of Muslim Spain, Boabdil, departed in tears. The Saudi monarchy has placed high value on reviving Islam on the Iberian Peninsula. This is what that visit actually concerned. The al-Saud house has given generously to increase the influence Islam in Spanish society. Some, like Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command leader Ahmad Jibril, will not be satisfied until al-Andalus returns to the Islamic world.[10]
Consequently, Saudi-financed religious proselytizing in Spain by Muslim Imams is in high gear -- an Islamic surge fueled by immigration from North Africa, a high Muslim birth rate, converts to Islam, and aided by substantial Spanish emigration due to a depressed economy.
During the thirty-minute private session, Benedict apparently pressed Abdulaziz on the issue of reciprocity. While mosque minarets spring up like weeds all across "Christian" Europe, not a single church exists in Arabia, nor is allowed to. While in Europe Muslims are energetically engaged in religious proselytizing, on the Arabian Peninsula all proselytizing for any faith other than Islam is forbidden. This lack of reciprocity grates on the Vatican.
The Saudi smiled a lot, nodding his head, but makes no firm commitment. In keeping with Muhammad's final dream of an infidel-free Arabia, there are no churches or synagogues on this "island of the Arabs" (Jazirat-al-Arabiyah). His Holiness should not expect change any time soon. Despite the presence of a million Catholics serving as guest workers on the Peninsula, Riyadh continues to oblige the Prophet's alleged wish. Benedict lost little time in reminding the Saudi King that he expects "acta non verba," actions not words, regarding implementation of the "principle of reciprocity".
It is certain that within the confines of the curia, there was incredulity and sarcastic commentary concerning the incongruence of the Wahhabi standard-bearer sponsoring a conference on religious pluralism. Cardinal Jean-Louis of France, President of the Pontifical Council on Inter-religious Dialogue, who has cautioned Catholics not to become "obsessed with Islam," represented the Vatican at the conference on religious tolerance, in Madrid.
With hopeful confidence, he pointed to the bridgehead of a Catholic Church in Qatar as well as convent of nuns teaching school there. Nevertheless, the Cardinal is no dreamer. He was Papal Nuncio to Lebanon during the mid-1970s, where he experienced the worst of Muslim-on-Muslim violence. But these few small examples of reciprocity are in stark contrast to the advance of Islam in Europe. Perhaps the Cardinal takes the long view. But this inspires little optimism. A few short years after the Saudi monarch's visit of tolerance to Spain, two Spanish language television channels, financed by Arabian money, were broadcasting hate-filled anti-Semitic programming throughout al-Andalus. Sanctioned anti-Semitism apparently exists there under the cover of pro-Palestinian sentiment. This is the case among some leftists in Spain, particularly within the former governing Socialist Party.[11] [...]
The Vatican has often demonstrated that it is no neophyte when it comes to nuanced diplomacy, intelligence collection, or energizing a zealous remnant physically to defend civilization. This seems precisely what Pope Benedict has in mind today. He appears determined once again to deflect this contemporary version of militant Islam off a path of confrontation, conflict and conquest that John Paul II realized was upon us, but was peaking too late in his Papacy. The unfinished business was left for his successor and confidant, whose concept of the West is decidedly Old Europe; Benedict, however, seemed to know that this Europe is fatally flawed: the continent has endured two spirit-killing global wars, the depredations of two totalitarian juggernauts, and Satan's finest hour, the Holocaust. [...]
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