Cairo and Muslims

The priest who married my husband and I had been laicized, and married. Now he was a college professor at a Catholic in name only college. I was teaching in a Community College, and was surprised to see a laicized Catholic priest was giving a talk on Islam. I had to go.
After sitting through two hours of lecture on the superiority of Muslim faith, where the former priest did not admit his own religion had any merit at all, I had had enough. I looked for an opportunity to put his supercilious description of Islam in it's place without riling the large crowd of Muslims who had gathered to hear him speak.
When Dr Tom described the Muslim custom of having the woman walk several steps behind her husband as one of misunderstood chivalry, I saw my chance. I stood up and said,
"yes, chivalry is often misunderstood as misogyny. For example when the Vatican and Muslim countries united at the UN Cairo Conference to oppose the imposition of abortion and birth control, they were called anti-woman by Hillary Clinton. In reality, such a position reveals the highest regard for the dignity of woman and their high calling to motherhood. "
I must admit I enjoyed watching the permutations of discomfort which passed over the priest's face. When liberals want to praise Islam they have to be careful about revealing their positions on sexual morality, for there the Muslim faith has much in common with Jewish and Catholic traditions.
After the talk, a beautiful young Muslim wife came to me to thank me for defending the morality of Islam. She shared with me her struggles with infertility and thanked me for my offers to pray for the intercession of St Gerard for motherhood.
Colleen Carroll Campbell in her show "Faith and Culture" was discussing the Muslim reluctance to embrace Western Culture because of it's perversity. Some idiot in Hollywood has claimed that Britney Spears is the voice of freedom. No, Miss Spears is the voice of moral degradation and slavery to sin. If the Muslim world wants no part of Western Culture with immoral entertainment and the sins of abortion and contraception, then as a Catholic, I understand.
Keep your distance from our pernicious culture. I wish I could.
In his recent trip, Obama was warming up to the Muslim world, yet if they truly examined his recent moves toward widening access to abortion by opening up UNPFA funds for agencies in their nations to fund (or force) abortions in their countries, they would have soundly rejected him. Once the Muslim nations find out the true Obama agenda, they will cease to embrace him. But will it be too late? Will his policies already be in place in their countries?
As in the case of “reproductive health,” U.N. agencies have made use of “child health” and “maternal health” as vectors to promote access to abortion. The linkage has been especially clear in the area of maternal health, where U.N. agencies routinely claim that deaths due to illegal abortion are one of the leading health issues faced by mothers — basing this claim on an inflated estimate of annual deaths of women that is completely unverifiable, according to the U.N.’s former chief demographer.
Given this international history of manipulation of concepts related to “health,” Muslim nations would be well advised to scrutinize any and all new “child and maternal” health programs on offer from the Obama administration.
Pope Benedict wants to promote peace with the Muslim world based on our agreement on such moral issues, but Obama wants to build a New World Order based on sexual license and moral relativism. Tom Hoopes does an excellent job discussing the difference in their standpoints:
"Obama’s desire for common ground (and I believe its aims are well-intentioned) wants to minimize differences so we can all get along. He focuses on the horizontal: The Golden Rule.
Benedict’s desire for dialogue wants to define differences to bring more people to the truth, which leads to deep-seated, lasting peace. He focuses on the vertical: Eternal Truth.
The desire for religions to ignore their differences is a secularist’s desire. It’s the desire of someone who doesn’t think there’s a discernable truth. Someone who says faith is always assailed by doubt.
When someone tells you, “Relax. Don’t make such a big deal of your questions about God,” you know that they don’t think questions about God are a big deal. Benedict’s desire for dialogue, on the other hand, starts from the assumption that questions about God are at the very center of our lives. He also has a great confidence in God’s ability to offer clarity in answer to our questions."

Read the entire story and the entire story at the NC Register blog.

American a Muslim Nation?

from the Family Research Council

First he declared that America isn't "a Christian nation." Now President Obama is telling the world that his country is a Muslim one. In a stunning interview with France's Canal Plus, he said, "If you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we'd be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world." The statement, one in a long line of White House shockers, is part of the administration's campaign to soften the opposition to America in advance of the President's speech to the Islamic world tomorrow.

As ABC's Jake Tapper puts it, President Obama is getting in touch with his "inner-Muslim," even embracing "Hussein," his once-taboo middle name. Wednesday, the President is hoping his silky oratory will translate well in Cairo, where he will try to charm the Arab nations with his Muslim roots. While the White House may talk a good game, this President's agenda is the embodiment of every immorality the Islamic world detests about the West. In five months, his policies have endorsed global promiscuity, sodomy, and abortion.

Just last Friday, his Baghdad embassy presided over the region's first "drag party" in the middle of a war zone. Like a growing number of Americans, the Middle East sees the tension between the President's rhetoric and the global reality. This kind of duplicity only fans the flames of anti-American sentiment.

While the President speaks of peace and reconciliation on the Arab stage, American soldiers are being gunned down in the U.S. by Muslim converts. On Monday, a 24-year-old Army recruiter was killed and another wounded by Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammed in Arkansas. The suspect admitted to the killing, blaming "what [the Army] had done to Muslims in the past."

As my friend Gary Bauer pointed out in his End of Day, "President Obama, who immediately condemned the murder of abortionist George Tiller on Sunday, still has not--24 hours later--said one word about the cowardly attack on these soldiers. The U.S. Justice Department, which sent federal marshals yesterday to guard abortion clinics, has sent no one to guard our military recruitment offices, even though more than 100 of those offices have been attacked in recent years... (only 2 abortion clinic attacks have happened in 10 years)

I guess he was just too busy pouring over his... proclamation declaring June 'Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month.'

The legacy of the Culture of Death: the Death of a Culture

Let me be clear; since the Lambeth Conference in 1930 when the Anglican Church was the first denomination to approve birth control, Christian populations have been in decline. Muslim families are growing eight times faster. Soon Europe will be made of Muslim states, and the US won't be far behind. Disobedience to God's laws always has consequences, but in this case, our children will be paying the price for their grandparents and parents sin.

Review of "Faith, Reason and the War on Jihadism"

An excellent review of George Weigel's new book is up on MercatorNet where he explains why the War on Terror is ineffectual, and what Catholics can bring to the discussion.
Weigel wryly observes that we are not going to “convert 1.2 billion Muslims into good secular liberals.” As should be obvious by now in Iraq and Afghanistan, we cannot also impose our own democratic systems on people who have never known them and who, at least in Afghanistan, are essentially tribal. What we can and must focus on is respect for pluralism and religious tolerance, respect for the rule of law and commitment to persuasion, not coercion. In Islam the fusion of temporal and religious authority – the theocratic state – is an obstacle; there is no mention in the Qur’an of “rendering unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and rendering unto God that which is God’s” which led in the West, albeit slowly, to an understanding of the distinctive roles of church and state.

Why Muslims convert to Christianity: it's up to us

" we Christians especially need to guard our emotions so we can be a good witness to Muslims—a caution raised by Dr. Dudley Woodberry, professor of Islamic Studies at Fuller.
Woodberry, aware that throughout the world Muslims have been turning to Christ, was curious about the reasons why—especially in countries where the cost of converting is so high.
To find the answer, he created a detailed questionnaire. Over a 16-year period, some 750 Muslims from 30 countries filled it out—and the results are eye-opening. The number one reason Muslim converts listed for their decision to follow Christ was the lifestyle of the Christians among them. "
“When Christ’s love transforms committed Christians into a loving community, many Muslims [identified] a desire to join such a fellowship.”
Woodberry’s research shows that when the Church is being the Church—witnessing to the love of Christ and of His transforming power—Muslims are drawn both to us and to Him.
"Read the rest here.
Chuch Colson, Breakpoint
This brings to mind what Mahatma Ghandi said about Christianity, he was intrigued by the teachings of Christ, but never saw it practiced. That's because he missed Mother Teresa. What a duo those two would have been! They could have converted the entire nation!
But that doesn't leave us with an excuse. We are the only Bible our Muslim neighbors might read. Do we "let our light shine before men"?

Sun Times picks up my post on Pope Benedict

I wrote a provocative post on Pope Benedict's overtures to Muslims, and it was picked up by the Chicago Sun Times.

George Weigel's take on the Muslim Baptism controversy

Weigel, drawing on the themes of his recent book “Faith, Reason, and the War against Jihadism,” said that Pope Benedict’s Regensburg Lecture “identified the linked problems at the center of a lot of turbulence in world politics today.” These problems, according to Weigel, included both the detachment of faith from reason, as shown in jihadism, and the loss of faith in reason, as manifested in western Europe and American “high culture.” The Muslim theological separation of faith from reason encourages the idea that God can and does command the irrational, such as the killing of innocents. Westerners’ loss of confidence in reason, Weigel said, “leaves the West intellectually disarmed in the face of the jihadist challenge.”
At Regensburg, Weigel said, the Pope gave the world a “vocabulary with which to deal with these problems,” which Weigel characterized as “the vocabulary of rationality and irrationality.”
HT CNS

Chuck Colson with some amazing stats on Muslim conversions to Christianity

Is this becoming a mass movement? Unbelievable numbers of Muslims are converting to Christianity according to this article in Catholic Exchange.

Pope Benedict: on a crusade against Islam?

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A Muslim author and critic of Islamic fundamentalism who was baptized a Catholic by Pope Benedict said on Sunday Islam is "physiologically violent" and he is now in great danger because of his conversion.
"I realize what I am going up against but I will confront my fate with my head high, with my back straight and the interior strength of one who is certain about his faith," said Magdi Allam."
HT Yahoo News
What courage this man has! He knows he may have signed his own death warrant by converting to Catholicism, particularly in such a public manner. We should value our faith as much. Pope Benedict invoked the ire and threats of Osama Bin Laden before the baptism, and Fr. Jonathan Morris, spiritual advisor to Fox News, explains why Osama should fear the intellectual octaginarian.
"While Benedict sees rationality as the only suitable launching pad of all true faith, bin Laden sees it as the great obstacle to his manipulation of the masses. While Benedict sees faith and reason as mutually enriching sources of truth, bin Laden sees the former as incompatible with the later. And while Benedict claims God can never command us to do evil because the first universal moral dictate of reason —“do good and avoid evil”— reflects his loving voice, bin Laden on the other hand claims Allah can do whatever he pleases, evil included."
Fr. Morris says that young Muslims are starting to listen to the Holy Father's call to dialogue, thus sparking panic in the radical Islamists like Bin Laden. Who will they get to carry out suicide missions?
The more Muslims enter into dialogue with Catholics, the more I am convinced that Pope Benedict will bring down the radical Islamic establishment the way his predecessor brought down the Iron Curtain. Both seem inpenetrable at first glance, but the Iron Curtain proved fragile against strong spiritual leadership and prayerful people. Are we uniting behind Pope Benedict in prayer? We may accomplish more to secure world peace in the next five years that way, than the war in Iraq did in the last five. We fought Communism all over the world, lost thousands of lives, destroyed whole countries, over 40 years, and under Pope John Paul II, it folded in 11 years like the house of cards it was. I was in Poland on December 8, 1987, when thousands of Poles prayed for the end of Communism on Our Lady's feast day, under the coat of arms of Pope John Paul II. That very day, Gorbachev and Reagan were starting the process which led to peace.
These evil empires cannot stand against the power of prayer and courageous people like Lech Walensa and Christian Magdi Allam. Not to mention Our Lady, revered by Catholics and Muslims alike. The President of Colombia credited Our Lady with halting a war between his nation, Ecuador and Venezuela.
CNS

Bush has it wrong: Islamofacism won't have to invade by force

Why go through all the trouble planning another 911 style attack when you have leading clerics like the Archbishop of Canterbury in England handing their country over to you? Read Chuck Colson's take on this troubling trend here.
Thnk Sharia Law comes only after a full scale invasion? Think again. When Christian leaders have capitulated their core moral beliefs so drastically that their moral leadership is gone, and their churches are empty, Islam will come in to fill that void. It's happening throughout Europe, and it could happen here.
Add to that the devastatingly low population growth numbers in Europe and you see that the Muslim domination of Europe, fought back for centuries, will be an unavoidable fact unless Catholics start acting like Catholics, and stop contracepting themselves into extinction.
To refresh your memory, the 20th century saw more Christian martyrs than all the centuries preceding it combined. Guess what killed many of these Christians? Anti-Christian Muslim governments.
Our Lady has a special devotion among Muslims. Let's ask her protection from this onslaught. Let's ask her to pray for our repentance and conversion before our faith is outlawed. We would only have ourselves to blame.

Secularism is Not the Answer for War on Terror

Great article by Dinesh D'Souza, who truly understands the nature of the clash of cultures. "Islamic radicals like Bin Laden make their case against America and the West on the grounds that these cultures have abandoned Christianity. In his May 2006 letter to President Bush, Ahmadinejad faulted America not for being Christian, but for not being Christian enough. Many years earlier, the radical theoretician Sayyid Qutb made the same point. The main reason for the West’s moral decay, Qutb argued, is that in the modern era “religious convictions are no more than a matter of antiquarian interest.”

I have no argument here: when you consider the filth of American culture which is pumped out of our country via TV, Hollywood, and the Internet, and that this is all the radical Muslim sees of our culture, and how this offends his religious sensibility, what reaction do you expect? Would that Americans could see how offensive we are to traditional cultures which respect the modesty of women, fidelity in marriage, the sanctity of human life, and the glory of large families.

I attended a series of lectures given by the priest who married my husband and I. He's laicized and married now, and a liberal college professor touting the greatness of Islam. He was defending the tradition of the man walking ahead of the woman, saying that, in the desert where brigands abound, this tradition arose to protect the woman from ambush. The room was full of liberal Catholics and conservative Muslims. I saw an opportunity and stood up, and said,
"that is why traditional Catholics represented by the Vatican at the Cairo Conference, stood together with the Muslim countries against the UN's attempt to force abortion upon them.We have our traditional morality in common, which is potrayed by the left as oppression of women, but is truly apprecitation of the sacred role of motherhood, and protection against their exploitation as sexual objects."
I sat down to smiles from the Muslims who surrounded me to congratulate me, and a very uncomfortable speaker. Liberals who think they embrace Islam don't share the morality of home and family. If a radical Islamist government ever takes over this country, they would be the first to be lined up and beheaded.

The Moon Under Her Feet

As a devoted listener of Fr. Corapi on EWTN, I am used to his strong preaching style, and take-no-prisoners approach to Catholic morality. That's why I listen to him! I'm sick of non-committal homilies about 'being nice'. Charity sometime looks harsh at the outset, but it always has the eternal destiny of the soul in mind.

In this series, Fr. Corapi relates a series of facts regarding the Muslim connection to two of the most popular Marian apparitions in history, Fatima and Guadalupe. Both had connections to the Moorish occupation of the Iberian Peninsula.

The very name "Fatima" is the name of Mohammed's daughter.Today, the Basilica of Our Lady of Fatima has thousands of Muslim visitors.

The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a bit more complex. A revered icon of Our Lady, was hidden during the Moorish occupation of Spain for centuries, and discovered around 1500 in a place with an Arabic name, meaning 'hidden river', or Guadalupe. The icon became known in Spain as "Our Lady of Guadalupe" and a shrine in Spain dedicated to her honor. Bishop Zumarraga, the bishop to whom Juan Diego reported his apparitions of Our Lady, didn't understand the name "she who stands in front of the sun"(an Aztec word) and mistakenly used the name of the popular Spanish shrine to describe the apparitiong, thus "Our Lady of Guadalupe" has a Muslim name!

These are surely not accidents, and Our Lady clearly is calling her children there so she can lead them to her Son.

St Francis of Asissi

Blessed Feast of St. Francis of Assisi

He is known for his love of nature,and poverty, but few know that he is only one of two men to be marked with the stigmata (Padre Pio was the other).

St Francis made at least three attempts to personally convert the Muslims, and did meet with Sultan Malek al-Kamil in Egypt. Unfortunately,he failed to convert the sultan, so Francis sent his friars to establish missions in Tunisia and Morocco.May we learn from St. Francis a zeal for praying for the conversion of the Muslims, which may be our only real chance for peace.