In April of 2015 BBC reported on Pope Francis and
his stand against persecution of Christians. It seems right and fitting for him
to speak sharply and clearly on this issue.
“Pope
Francis has condemned the "complicit silence" about the killing of
Christians during a Good Friday service in Rome.
Tens
of thousands of pilgrims joined him for the Way of the Cross ceremony,
recalling Jesus' crucifixion.
Among
the cross bearers were Syrian and Iraqi refugees, and Nigerians who had escaped
Boko Haram persecution.
The
service came a day after almost 150 people were killed in an al-Shabab attack
on a Kenyan university.
"We
still see today our persecuted brothers, decapitated and crucified for their
faith in you [Jesus], before our eyes and often with our complicit
silence," Pope Francis said, presiding over the ceremony at the Colosseum.
Earlier,
he condemned the attack in Kenya, where Christians were singled out and shot,
as an act of "senseless brutality".
In
another Good Friday ceremony, Pope Francis listened as the Vatican's official
preacher Raniero Cantalamessa denounced the "disturbing indifference of
world institutions in the face of all this killing of Christians".
 |
| Pope Francis |
He
too mentioned the Kenya attack, as well as the beheading of 22 Egyptian Coptic
Christians by Islamic State (IS) militants in Libya in February.
Pope
Francis has spoken out against the persecution of Christians before, saying
that the world would be justified using military force to combat the
"unjust aggression" by IS.”
It does not take much background knowledge to see
that these instances of brutal persecution are carried out by Muslim groups.
Further, it does not take much knowledge to understand that Islam is a separate
religion from Christianity. It denies the fundamental teachings of the
Christian church, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who died for our sins
and who is risen from the dead and sits by the right hand of God today. Islam
is fundamentally different in spirit, in spirituality, in spiritual force.
The Muslim may be my neighbour, colleague, friend,
fellow human being - but he is not my kin. He is not my brother, nor she my
sister – in the sense of Christian fellowship. There is a deep spiritual abyss
between us. In the same way as it is untrue to speak of ‘our humanist sisters
and brothers’ is it meaningless to speak of the Muslim as a spiritual kin.
In a recent public reaction to a
stampede in Mecca during hajj, the Pope blurred this divide by addressing
Muslims as ‘brothers and sisters’. I understand that he intends to show
sympathy on a human level, and we are all of the human race. But for a major
church leader to deliberately choose to signal spiritual kinship by using the
phrase “brothers and sisters,” is ugly as sin.
I have read most of the Qur’an, and I have
read the Hadith. I have numerous books on Islam, some by Muslim writers, some
by western Orientalists. I read occasional websites on special issues relating
to the Hajj, or women in Islam, or on more enjoyable subjects, like Mosque
architecture. As I read, I detect the suppressive and obsessive hold in the texts, as well as the stamp of supremacy.
How can anyone, I wonder, anyone who
has the Spirit of God in him, not realize the spirit of deception and destruction
in the sources of Islam? And further: how can anyone who has come close to this
not cry out to God for them and plead with Him that He open their eyes to the
truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
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