Bible Based Ministries

The World’s Two Largest

Religions Square Off

On September 12, 2006, the Roman pope, Benedict XVI, giving a lecture to university professors and students in Regensburg, Germany, quoted a mediaeval text on Islam which portrayed the Islamic religion as a religion of violence. The text cited the words of a 14th-century Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Palaeologus, who characterised some of the teachings of Mohammed as evil. This is how Benedict quoted the emperor: “He said, I quote, ‘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.’”

Of course, this was utterly hypocritical. For Roman Catholicism is an evil religion itself, intolerant, bloodthirsty, which has been spread by the sword no less than Islam, and by the commands of the popes themselves! One just has to look at the history of this monstrous false “church” to see how diabolically evil, inhuman, barbaric and murderous it has always been: the Crusades, the Inquisition, the centuries of persecutions of Protestants, as well as such recent examples as the massacres of Serbs in Roman Catholic Croatia during World War Two, the Roman Catholic support for the IRA, the deep involvement of Rome in the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990s, the murders of Protestants in Mexico, and much more besides. The history of Roman Catholicism is a history of bloodshed, massacre, terrorism, torture, forced conversions, destruction on a vast scale. History reveals it, and the Bible foretold it: “And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth” (Rev. 18:24); “And I saw the woman [the harlot of Rome, the Roman Catholic institution] drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus” (Rev. 17:6).

Islamic reaction to the Roman pope’s speech was entirely predictable, given the intolerant nature of Islam, which has been increasingly flexing its considerable muscle over the past decade and more (most of the terrorism occurring anywhere in the world these days is Islamic terrorism) and spoiling for an all-out war with what it incorrectly views as the “Christian West”, having never forgotten the terrible Roman Catholic Crusades of centuries ago, and other bloody clashes and wars between Papists and Muslims through the centuries. Many Muslim leaders, in fact, branded the pope’s words as the start of a new “Christian Crusade” against Islam.

In Iraq, Al-Qaeda militants vowed to war against “worshippers of the cross”, and protesters burned an effigy of the pope. The protest was organised by supporters of Shi’ite cleric Mahmoud al-Hasani. Sheikh Ahmad Saadi said, “Grand Ayatollah Mahmoud al-Hasani demands that the pope and the Vatican be put on trial under UN Security Council resolutions.” Tragically Muslims lump all who call themselves “Christians” together, so that a war against “worshippers of the cross” would include the massacres of true Christians, even though true Christians are not the same as Roman Catholics and even though true Christians do not worship the cross.

The Mujahideen Shura Council, an umbrella organisation of Sunni Arab groups in Iraq including Al-Qaeda, said, “We shall break the cross and spill the wine… God will [help] Muslims to conquer Rome… [May] God enable us to slit their throats, and make their money and descendants the bounty of the mujahideen.” It said that the pope and the West were “doomed.” Nice people, these fanatical Muslims. Tolerant and peace-loving. But let it never be forgotten that Roman Catholic armies and thugs and hordes have “slit the throats” of millions of Muslims, Jews, and Protestants through the centuries, with as much zeal and fanaticism as the most fanatical Muslim. What we are witnessing is the squaring off – yet again – of the world’s two largest and most powerful religions, the one equally as intolerant and violent as the other.

In Iran, the Islamic Ayatollah, Ali Khamenei, branded the pope’s remarks “the latest chain of the crusade against Islam started by America’s [George W.] Bush.” Influential Iranian cleric, Ahmad Khatami, warned that if the pope did not apologise, “Muslims’ outcry will continue until he fully regrets his remarks.” He added, “The pope should fall on his knees in front of a senior Muslim cleric and try to understand Islam.”

In Somalia, a Muslim sheikh named Malin called for the pope’s murder.

Outside the Vatican Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, Muslim protesters held placards protesting against the pope, with words such as “Pope Go to Hell.”

In the West Bank, church buildings were bombed, set alight, and shot at. And in Britain, police stepped up their patrols of church buildings and mosques around London, with religious leaders in the London area being visited by police officers to discuss security. Patrols were also stepped up in other parts of England, and in Wales. In a Muslim protest in London, remarks were reportedly made calling for the pope to face capital punishment for insulting Islam. Again it must be pointed out that Muslim violence will be directed not only against Roman Catholics, but against all who call themselves Christians – including true Christians. Muslims will make no distinction.

The Pakistani parliament called on the pope to retract his remarks, saying in a resolution, “This house demands that the pope should retract his remarks in the interest of harmony between religions. The derogatory remarks of the pope about the philosophy of jihad and Prophet Mohammed have injured sentiments across the Muslim world and pose the danger of spreading acrimony among the religions.” And a foreign office spokeswoman said, “Anyone who says that there is anything inherently evil or inhuman about Islam only shows his own ignorance of this great religion.” First, Ma’am, Islam is not a great religion, it is a bloodthirsty one. Second, it most certainly is inherently evil and inhuman, and it is only those who are ignorant of it who do not know this.

In a protest rally in Pakistan, one of the placards held by a Muslim woman read, “Muslim women consider Pope’s remarks as Prelude to Crusade.” A reference to the Crusades again. For centuries, Muslims have associated “Christianity” with the Roman Catholic Crusades. Of course, the Islamic world has been as violent as Romanism throughout its history, but they conveniently ignore this, and harp on and on about the violence of the Crusaders. As I said, both are intolerant, vicious religions. Roman Catholicism is not Christian.

In India, the head of the Minorities Commission said, “The language used by the pope sounds like that of his 12^th-century counterpart who ordered the Crusades.” And a member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board said that “what he said was nothing but blasphemy”.

In response to this worldwide anger, Benedict XVI said, “I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims. These in fact were a quotation from a medieval text, which do not in any way express my personal thought. I hope this serves to appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address, which in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with mutual respect.”

Some Muslims were satisfied with his explanation, but others remained furious, especially as the pope did not actually retract his speech. The deputy leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Habib, initially said that it was “a sufficient apology”, but later said: “It does not rise to the level of a clear apology and… we’re calling on the Pope of the Vatican to issue a clear apology that will decisively end any confusion.”

Italian Roman Catholic bishops firmly defended the pope. “As Italian bishops we express our total closeness and solidarity to the pope and we intensify our prayers for him, for the Church, for religious liberty, for dialogue and friendship between religions and people,” a cardinal said, adding, “On the other hand, we deplore those interpretations which attribute to the Holy Father responsibilities that he absolutely does not have or errors that he has not committed and aim at attacking his person and his ministry.”

The pope then met with Islamic envoys from some twenty Muslim countries, and at the meeting he said that “Christians” (i.e. Roman Catholics) and Muslims must reject violence, called for greater dialogue, and expressed his “esteem and profound respect” for Muslims. He then greeted each of the envoys personally.

The great question is: why did Benedict say such things in his speech?

And before proceeding, let me make myself clear: although true Christians will never cheer the Roman Antichrist on, or support anything he says or does; yet his words in this instance, taken in themselves, were not incorrect, and the fact that we do not support the pope of Rome should not be construed as meaning that we believe Islam should not be criticised. It should be! It must be! Muslims love to scream about how the West (which, tragically, they equate with “Christianity”) is attacking them. They are doing their level best to portray themselves as victims. Yet they are not victims, not in any sense. Islam has declared jihad, “holy war”, against the West. Around the world, Muslims are committing most of the terrorist atrocities. They have bombed embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, murdered commuters on the London underground and on trains in Madrid, and flown planes into the World Trade Centre in New York. Yet when Western countries retaliate -as they must, in their own defence – the Muslim world screams foul.

We can have no sympathy with radical Islam. It is a ruthless, bloodthirsty religion, that seeks the total annihilation of all that is un-Islamic. We are not to be cowed into silence by the fanatical, demonical, violent reactions of Muslims whenever their vile religion is shown up for what it is. The Gospel must be preached to Muslims, and that includes exposing the hideousness of the Islamic religion. But Christians must also be very careful not to in any sense support the pope of Rome in this matter, or to fall for the lie that Islam is a greater danger than Roman Catholicism. Christians need to always remember that of the two religions, the one that claims to be “the one true Church” is by far the more deadly. Both will readily kill the body, and adherence to either one will result in eternal damnation of the soul; but Romanism is counterfeit “Christianity”, and for this reason it is by far the more dangerous of the two. Benedict may have said some true things about Islam; but Christians must never, ever, ever forget who this man is. He is the biblical Antichrist (as each and every pope is), and his religion is just as much a “religion of the sword” as Islam! In fact, Roman Catholicism taught Islam much about violence! Thus the fact that the Roman pope said such things about Islam does not impress us in the least – his words were hypocritical in the extreme. But that does not mean we feel Islam should not be condemned with very strong language. We do! It must! No true Christian should ever apologise for “telling it like it is” when it comes to Islam or any other false religion – including most especially, Roman Catholicism. We reject the pope’s words, not because of their content – for what he said about Islam happened to be true – but because the pope of Rome, the biblical Antichrist, does not have a leg to stand on when it comes to condemning violence, and is nothing but a religious hypocrite, the greatest wolf in sheep’s clothing on the face of the earth.

So: why did Benedict say such things?

Although the Roman Catholic religion is officially engaged in “dialogue” with Islam and other religions, this is all just a front to advance Papal authority across the world. The entire “interfaith movement” is a clever tactic on the part of Rome to eventually subdue, divide, and conquer all other religions on earth. For at heart the Roman Catholic religion believes itself to be the only true faith, and will stop at nothing to conquer the entire earth. For many long centuries, Roman Catholic and Muslim armies have clashed and fought across countries and continents. And although the Papacy wants to dominate the whole world, Europe in particular is seen by her as belonging to her in a very special sense. Until the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century, Europe was an almost entirely Roman Catholic continent, and still today Roman Catholicism is the dominant religion. The headquarters of the Papal religion is in Italy, a European country, and Europe, more than any other continent, has been under the iron heel of the Vatican for centuries. And now, with Roman Catholicism in Europe threatened by both European secularism and Islamic immigration, the Vatican has been increasingly speaking up about the need (from its own perspective) to “preserve Europe’s Roman Catholic roots.” Benedict himself, before he became pope, for example, made it clear that he was very opposed to Turkey, a Muslim country, joining the European Union (which the Vatican wants to control and dominate as a Roman Catholic super-state). And after the September 11 attack in the USA, he said on Vatican Radio that “the history of Islam… contains a tendency to violence.”

So there can be no question whatsoever that the pope knew exactly what he was doing when he made those remarks – and that in all likelihood he hoped for precisely this kind of reaction to them. The Muslim leaders are right – he did not truly apologise. Of course not! Benedict XVI is not sorry for what he said! Not in the least. As I said earlier, a true Christian should never be sorry for telling the truth about false religion. But Benedict is not a true Christian, and his motive for these remarks is sinister. Benedict is a very intelligent man, and a very cunning one. He was the Inquisitor-General before becoming pope, and he did not earn the nickname of “God’s Rottweiler” for nothing. He would shed no tears if indeed a new Roman Catholic crusade against Islam did ever come about.

In fact, Benedict quoted something more from the Byzantine emperor in his speech, that has not often been reported. He said: “the emperor touches on the theme of the jihad (holy war). The emperor must have known that sura 2:256 reads: ‘There is no compulsion in religion.’ It is one of the suras of the early period, when Mohammed was still powerless and under threat.” Thus, quoting the Koran, Benedict stated that this particular passage from the Koran has more authority for Islam, because it is an earlier passage, than later passages which contradict it, and do indeed demand compulsory conversion to Islam. This is shown by his next sentence: “But naturally the emperor also knew the instructions, developed later and recorded in the Koran, concerning holy war.” In effect he was suggesting that these later passages should be less binding on Muslims than the earlier one. Certainly, this is how Roman Catholic author, Robert Moynihan, writing for Inside the Vatican, understood the pope. Benedict, then, was in a clever roundabout way, telling Muslims how to properly interpret their own Koran. He knew exactly what he was doing.

At the end of his speech, he said: “The emperor goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. God is not pleased by blood”. But the Roman Catholic god appears to be very pleased with blood! Roman Catholic history is a history written in blood, as the Bible says: “And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth” (Rev. 18:24). But what was Benedict making these remarks for? It is made clear by the following words from his speech: “‘Not to act reasonably, not to act with logos, is contrary to the nature of God,’ said Manuel II, according to his Christian understanding of God…. It is to this great logos, to this breadth of reason, that we invite our partners in the dialogue of cultures.” What the pope was in effect saying, by quoting this, was that Muslims are unreasonable, their religion is unreasonable, but if they “dialogue” on Rome’s terms, then progress will be made. It was a designed speech, aimed at encouraging conversion to Roman Catholicism by Westerners, Jews and Muslims. In fact, Moynihan in Inside the Vatican writes: “Then, in addition to being a call to the secularized West to return to [Roman Catholic] faith, it [the pope's lecture] is also a call to both Jews and Muslims to come to recognize a Christ whom Benedict presents as the culminating ‘Logos’ (the ‘meaning’ or ‘reason’), not only of the ancient world, but of all history.”

Of course, true Christians know that Islam is unreasonable and intolerant and evil; but so is Romanism! It has used violence to promote itself, and continues to do so wherever it can. Yet the pope was seeking to convey the idea that Roman Catholicism (“Christianity”, according to him) is “reasonable”, and thus, although “dialogue” is called for, it must essentially be towards the goal of making everyone see things Rome‘s way.

Where is all this going? A clash of civilizations is not just coming, it’s already here, but there is a clash on another level: a clash of religions. Two intolerant religions, the largest on earth, are squaring up. Each one has over a billion followers: a third of the world’s population is potentially a part of this clash. And there is nothing in all the world as deadly as religious madness.

Shaun Willcock is a minister of the Gospel, and lives in South Africa. He runs Bible Based Ministries. For other articles (which may be downloaded and printed), as well as details about his books, tapes, pamphlets, etc., please visit the Bible Based Ministries website, or write to the address below. If you would like to be on Bible Based Ministries’ electronic mailing list, to receive all future articles, please send your details.

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