Pope Francis Condemns Europe’s Ancient Walls against Islam
Safely ensconced behind the Vatican’s walls, he calls on others to “tear down their walls.”
February 24, 2017
Raymond Ibrahim
Pope Francis continues to argue for two interrelated points that, while seemingly humane, compromise Western nations and expose their citizens to danger.
He reiterated his first point earlier this month when he
said, “I appeal not to create walls but to build bridges.” Francis has made this appeal frequently, both figuratively (when imploring Western nations not to close their doors against more incoming Muslim migrants), and literally—including by characterizing Donald Trump’s proposal to build a U.S.-Mexico wall as “
not Christian.”
Francis reiterated his second point a few days ago when he
said, “Muslim terrorism does not exist.” His logic is that, because there are Christians who engage in criminal and violent activities—and yet no one blames Christianity for their behavior—so too should Islam not be blamed when Muslims engage in criminal and violent activities.
In this, the Catholic pope appears
unable or unwilling to make the pivotal distinction between violence committed
in accordance with religious teachings (Islam) and violence committed
in contradiction of religious teachings (Christianity).
But there’s another relevant and often overlooked irony: every morning Francis wakes up in the Vatican and looks out his window, he sees a very large and visible reminder that gives the lie to both his argument against walls and his argument in defense of Islam. I speak of the great walls surrounding Vatican City, more specifically the Leonine Walls.
...
Today, many Muslims, not just of the ISIS-variety,
continue to
boast that Islam will
conquer Rome, the only of five apostolic sees—the other four being Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Constantinople—never to have been subjugated by jihad. Similarly, Muslims all throughout Europe continue exhibiting the same hostility and contempt for all things and persons non-Islamic, whether by going on church vandalizing sprees and
breaking crosses, or by treating “infidel” women as
theirs by right for sex and rape.
In short, Pope Leo’s walls prove Pope Francis wrong on both counts: yes, walls are sometimes necessary to preserve civilization; and yes, Islam does promote violence and intolerance for the other—far more than any other religion. This fact is easily discerned by examining the past and present words and deeds of Muslims, all of which evince a remarkable and unwavering continuity of violence for “infidels.”
More ironically, had it not been for Pope Leo’s walls—and so many other Christian walls, such as Constantinople’s, which kept Islam out of Europe for centuries, and Vienna’s, which stopped a full-blown jihad as recent as 1683—there might not be a pope today to pontificate about how terrible walls are and how misunderstood Islam is. And when Francis accuses those who want to protect their people by building walls of not being Christian, as he did of Trump, he essentially accuses his betters—men like Pope Leo IV, who did so much to protect and preserve Christendom at a time when Islam seemed to be swallowing up the world—of being no Christians at all.
Pope Francis Condemns Europe’s Ancient Walls against Islam
Well said, Lucifer.
