Chalk and cheese

News round up 2

"The power of the Church does not lie within itself or its ability to organize, but hides in the deep waters of God" and the Gospel cannot be proclaimed "with inquisitorial beatings of condemnation. No, the Gospel is preached gently, with fraternity and love", with an open heart , "always longing " for God,   Words spoken by Pope Francis' homily during Mass this week.  

How refreshing to see this, when we can see the calls for hate, destruction and warfare by Islamic clerics. On a local scale,  just compare this to what happened in Lebanon lately, where a library run by a Christian priest was torched by mob,who  were given the green light by a local Islamic cleric.   

On a more disturbing level, look at the example of the Grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, sheik Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah,  who said it is " necessary to destroy all churches in the region".  This is the true face of a widely exported version of Islam, called Wahhabism. Where is the 'love' and 'fraternity' in this statement.   He could be viewed as almost being the Muslim counterpart of the Pope, as he wields considerable influence in Islamic issues. Imagine if the Pope had called for the destruction of mosques in Europe, the outcry would instantaneous and tremendous in its intensity.   The Sheik based his pronouncement, fatwa, on the sayings of the prophet Muhammad, (known as a Hadith), that there are not to be two religions in the Arabian peninsula. Effectively, he is mandating extreme bigotry and violence against Christianity and also Judaism as well.  

Destruction: state of ruin, devastation or act of destroying.

We in the West blissfully ignore this type of  provocation,  aided and abetted by the mainstream media as well  cowardly politicians in charge of us.   The vision of Christianity that the Pope stated is far far different from that of the grand mufti. For long, can we delude ourselves that we Christians can counter this bigotry and incitement to violent with ignorance.  The likes of the Grand Mufti will not respond to our 'love and fraternity' in a similar fashion.  That's clear from his fatwa. We are sleep walking into a more destructive society, as our inability to respond to  the power of the Islamic world,  which unlike the Catholic Church, does  engage  in the violent persecution and destruction of those who try to stand up to it.