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At the risk of straying where I should not tread, I wonder if Catholic Answers itself observes this rule?
Catholic Answers has featured Robert Spencer, the author of Not Peace, But A Sword, on its radio show many times. Mr. Spencer is clearly of the belief that the Koran argues for the armed expansion of Islam. And I’d note that on the Catholic blogosphere right now he’s not alone in that view. Even the Egyptian Jesuit quoted in the article above stated:
We hear, very often, Muslims say: ‟This has nothing to do with Islam.” This is a spontaneous reaction of Muslims on the street. But, in fact, it’s a false reaction. This is a part of Islam, and we can find it in the Quran itself and much more in the life of Mohammed, who had a very strong and violent attitude toward unbelievers.
Mohammed was somewhat tolerant towards Jews and Christians. But he was absolutely intolerant to those who were neither Jews nor Christians. The only solution for them in the Quran and in the life of Mohammed was to convert or die.
So these fanatics are following this line, with one difference: They call ‟unbeliever” (kāfir) anyone who is not like them, even the Shia, the Yazīdi or the Christian. In this case, the fanatics are not following the Quran and the sunnah [a Muslim way of life based on the teachings of Mohammed and the Quran]. But when they say, ‟We have to kill unbelievers, unless they become Muslim,” this is part of the teaching of Islam.
The main thing to note is that violence is an element of Islam. Violence is not an element of Christianity. When Christians were using violence in wars and so on, they were not following the Gospel, nor the life of Christ. When Muslims are using it, they are following the Quran and the sunnah and Mohammed’s model. This is a very important point.
Muslims have to rethink Islam for today’s world. We have a similar problem in Christianity, Judaism and in all religions. In the Old Testament, we have a lot of violence: When Jews entered the so-called Holy Land, they used violence under order of God, not because they were fanatics, but because God ordered it. They had to use it, and when they refused, they were sinners.
Now, I do not wish to get myself in trouble with the moderator here, but at the top of the page I’m reading right now, there’s a request that we buy magnets “for Chaldean Catholics suffering from Islamic tyranny in Iraq”. Is the ad in violation of this policy.
I surely agree that not every Muslim is an evil person, and I hope for the day when, if they don’t come to Christ, it will at least be the overwhelming Islamic theological view that calls to struggle in the Koran are to spiritual struggle. No doubt there are many who interpret it that way now. No doubt the overwhelming majority of Muslims are not violent. Indeed, as most Muslims are not Arabs, and most Korans are in Arabic, I suspect that the majority of Muslims only have a loose knowledge of their own faith, a statement which would also be true for most Christians of any denomination. Indeed, most people of any faith are only loosely observant.
And we have the majority rule example that most observant Muslims aren’t violent and don’t feel a call to violence.
Nonetheless, while I appreciate the nature of this warning, I do wonder if we do our Faith credit if we discourage what our own clerics have noted about Islamic texts, and what more than one guest on Catholic Answers radio has noted, and I hope this isn’t intended to preclude all such conversation. I.e., can we discuss the root causes of what this violent Islamic minority movement represents, or is that off limits?
