DAYS OF RAGE

[1] Christian v Moslem scholars

Manuel II Paleologus:

‘Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.’

Context for Manuell II Paleologus's statement:

"The leader of the world’s most ancient institution, one with an unbroken continuity that spans over two millennia, and a memory to match, took a stand with his report of the dialogue between Byzantine Emperor Manuel II and an “educated Persian” on he subject of Islam and jihad.

That dialogue occurred in year 1391. There is a context, which only ignoramuses could suspect the pope of not having taken into full account: in those years, the Ottoman Turks crushed and overran the Serbian kingdom, the Muslim warlord Tamerlane broke the back of the Persian empire and occupied it, the empire of Bulgaria was destroyed by the Ottomans and incorporated into their empire.

The Muslim jihad was threatening the whole of Christendom, and was devastating Muslim lands as well, such as the anciently civilized Persia. To broaden the perspective, add that in short order, the Islamicized Mongols were to besiege Moscow, crush a Hungarian-German army in Central Europe, occupy Bosnia, besiege, sack, and slaughter New Delhi, and take Syria — even before the 14the century expired. "


Ibn Khaldun's scholarship concerning Christianity:

"Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406), jurist, renowned philosopher, historian, and sociologist—one of the greatest luminaries of Muslim civilization—was a contemporary of the Byzantine “philosopher king” Manuel II Paleologus. Here are Ibn Khaldun’s personal observations on Christianity, from his monumental historical treatise “The Muqaddimah”

We do not think that we should blacken the pages of this book [The Muqaddimah] with discussion of their [Christian] dogmas of unbelief. In general, they are well known. All of them are unbelief. This is clearly stated in the noble Koran. To discuss or argue those things with them is not up to us. It is for them to choose between conversion to Islam, payment of the poll tax, or death. "


Anyone in their right mind can see the truth of what Manuel II Paleologus said and I disagree with the Pontiff, Manuels' words were not shocking to my ears or my 21st century sensibilities or should I say POLITICAL CORRECTNESS...

[2] Contemporary moslem scholar calls for "DAYS OF RAGE"

“Spiritual” leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, and head of the European Fatwa Council, Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi.

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Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, one of the most influential contemporary Muslim thinkers

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This past February 3, 2006, in a sermon calling for an earlier “rage” ...against the publication of 12 rather tame Danish cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad, Qaradawi exhorted his millions of Muslim followers to “rage in anger”...

It is told that Imam Al-Shafi' [d. 820, founder of the Shafi’ite school of Islamic jurisprudence] said: 'Whoever was angered and did not rage is a jackass.' We are not a nation of jackasses. We are not jackasses for riding, but lions that roar. We are lions that zealously protect their dens, and avenge affronts to their sanctities. We are not a nation of jackasses. We are a nation that should rage for the sake of Allah, His Prophet, and His book. We are the nation of Muhammad, and we must never accept the degradation of our religion.


[3] Mohammad, the PROTOTYPE JIHADIST according to Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, one of the most influential contemporary Muslim thinkers:

During a June 19, 2001 broadcast of one his widely viewed Al-Jazeera religious programs, Qaradawi, in a sermon entitled, “The Prophet Muhammad as a Jihad Model”, highlighted the unique characteristics of the Prophet Muhammad when compared to the prophets that preceded him:

The prophets that Allah sent prior to Muhammad were sent for a limited time …and to a specific people. … Allah established in the life of the Prophet Muhammad general, eternal, and all inclusive characteristics, and he gave every human being the possibility to imitate him and take his life as a model…The Christian is incapable of imitating Jesus regarding war and conciliation since Jesus never fought or made peace.

Allah has…made the prophet Muhammad into an epitome for religious warriors [Mujahideen] since he ordered Muhammed to fight for religion …

[4] "Jihad Which You Seek"

Qaradawi, in accord with all classical Islamic jurisprudence on jihad war, also maintained that there is in fact a “jihad which you seek,” i.e., invading other [countries] in order to spread the word of Islam and to remove, by force of arms, “obstacles” standing in the way of this coercive Islamization.

[5] Moslem intolerance, then & now

The ultimate source of the convulsive reaction to the Pope’s speech is the Islamic belief that spiritually and physically debauched infidels have no right to express opinions—least of all negative opinions—regarding Islam’s sacred text, the Koran, the Muslim prophet, Muhammad (Ecce Homo Arabicus), or the sacred Islamic Law (Shari’a), which includes the permanent institution of jihad war.

Such deep-seated intolerance has always predominated under Muslim rule, even in that mythical paragon of Islamic ecumenism, Muslim Spain.

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“…having insulted the Prophet or blasphemed against the Word of God (i.e., The Koran)”, dhimmis were executed. But, as Dufourcq notes, even lesser offenses could result in the collective punishment of entire dhimmi communities:

…from one day to the next, all the Christians (or Jews) in a city could lose their status as a [dhimmi] people through the fault of just one of them. Everything could be called into question, including their personal liberty…Furthermore, non-payment of the legal tribute [the Koranic (verse 9:29) poll tax, or jizya] was not the only reason for abrogating the status of the ‘People of the Book [Bible]’ [i.e., dhimmi Christians and Jews]; another was ‘public outrage against the Islamic faith’, for example, leaving exposed, for Moslems to see, a cross or wine, or even pigs.

The global Muslim reactions to both the Danish cartoons, and the Pope’s Regensburg lecture manifest these same motifs of dehumanizing infidel hatred, replete with the collective punishment of non-Muslim societies and religious institutions for their modern “blasphemies”.

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Witness the much lionized Georgetown Professor of Islamic Studies Seyyed Hossein Nasr, the quintessential, “enlightened” Muslim moderate. During an interview this week (9/19/06) on National Public Radio’s Diane Rehm Show, Professor Nasr revealed that he cannot accept reasoned criticism of either Muhammad's sacralized violence, from which the institution of jihad arises, or Muslims acting violently at mere mention of this undeniable linkage by infidels. As columnist/blogger Mona Charen reported, Nasr

took issue with [the] description of the violence perpetrated against Christians worldwide following the Pope’s remarks as ‘unprovoked.’ He [Nasr] interjected ‘But it was provoked.’ Diane Rehm equably restated his position (I paraphrase) ‘So you think words are violence.’ He [Nasr] confirmed.

The same day, moderate Pakistani Muslim autocrat Pervez Musharrraf, also in response to the Pope’s lecture, argued for international blasphemy laws to be imposed (i.e., international Sharia) upon those who “defame Islam”. His comments give voice to a process that is being institutionalized by the Organization of the Islamic Conference on behalf of all 57 of its member nations: the Islamization, or creeping “Sharia-zation” of human rights standards, including the creation of international Sharia Courts. These developments pose a grave threat to mankind’s most basic freedoms, in particular freedom of conscience.

G.K. Chesterton, circa 1920, offered these penetrating insights on religious tolerance which remain apposite more than 85 years later:

Now a man preaching what he thinks is a platitude is far more intolerant than a man preaching what he admits is a paradox. It was exactly because it seemed self-evident, to Moslems as to Bolshevists, that their simple creed was suited to everybody, that they wished in that particular sweeping fashion to impose it on everybody…Those who complain of our creeds as elaborate often forget that the elaborate Western creeds have produced the elaborate Western constitutions; and that they are elaborate because they are emancipated.

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Pertinent Links:

1) Rekindling an Ancient Rage

2) The Wisdom of Benedict XVI

3) 'Day of Rage': Anger Not Jihad