Monday, February 4, 2019

Vatican's New Document on "Human Fraternity" Co-signed by Imam Who Believes in Death For Christian Converts

Francis and Sheik Ahmed Al-Tayyeb

The Vatican just issued a "Document" to mark the current "Apostolic Journey of His Holiness Pope Francis to the United Arab Emirates".

It's called "A Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together" and it's jointly signed by "His Holiness Pope Francis" and "The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed Al-Tayyeb."

As the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Sheik Al-Tayyeb is arguably the world's pre-eminent Muslim scholar.

He also is clearly on record (see below) as endorsing the punishment of death for apostates from Islam.

Notably, the current Document includes these lines:
Freedom is a right of every person: each individual enjoys the freedom of belief, thought, expression and action. The pluralism and the diversity of religions, colour, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings. This divine wisdom is the source from which the right to freedom of belief and the freedom to be different derives. Therefore, the fact that people are forced to adhere to a certain religion or culture must be rejected, as too the imposition of a cultural way of life that others do not accept;
Has Al-Tayyeb changed his mind? Does he now not believe in death to apostates, though he publicly reaffirmed that at least as recently as three years ago?

Are flying pigs halal?

Mahound's Paradise wrote on this issue in 2016, during some of the Vatican's initial dalliances with the wily Al-Tayyeb. We reprint that post in full, here:

Top Muslim Ally of Pope Francis Reaffirms that Muslim Converts to Christianity Should be Killed

Cheek to Sheik

Two months ago, Pope Francis welcomed Sheik Ahmed el-Tayeb, - the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, and the highest scholarly authority in Sunni Islam - to the Vatican.

And a week ago, the Pope sent a representative to Al-Azhar as a follow-up and to "relaunch dialogue."

The original meeting, which included discussions between larger delegations from Al-Azhar and the Vatican, was characterized as extremely friendly - a sort of "re-set" of Catholic-Muslim relations after the iciness allegedly set off by Pope Benedict's Regensburg remarks in 2006.

According to Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi, in their conversation
they had focused mainly on the theme of the common commitment of the authorities and faithful of the great religions for peace in the world, the rejection of violence and terrorism, the situation of Christians in the context of the conflicts and the tensions in the Middle East and their protection.
The Pope gave Sheik el-Tayeb a number of gifts including a copy of Laudato si.

Then they spontaneously embraced.

Sheik el-Tayeb is often described as a "moderate." He looks rational and reasonable, without the crazy smile of the fanatic. He supported el-Sisi against the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt and has made a number of public statements against violent extremism and in favor of human rights in general.

A few months before meeting the Pope he declared in front of the German Parliament that the Koran guaranteed religious freedom.

However, as the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies recently pointed out (as highlighted by Raymond Ibrahim in a recent essay), el-Tayeb has a history of saying one thing to Western audiences and another to Arabic or Muslim ones.

For example, during this past Ramadan, el-Tayeb reaffirmed on his television show that Islam mandates death for apostates:
Contemporary apostasy presents itself in the guise of crimes, assaults, and grand treason, so we deal with it now as a crime that must be opposed and punished…. Those learned in Islam [al-fuqaha] and the imams of the four schools of jurisprudence consider apostasy a crime and agree that the apostate must either renounce his apostasy or else be killed.
The plucky Institute made a public statement calling on him to renounce this position, also making the general observation that
Al Azhar adopts two contradictory speeches: one is open and directed externally, while the other supports violent extremism, and is directed internally.
Interestingly, it appears that the statement was not released in English or referenced on the English version of the site.

What are we to make of this?

Is Pope Francis aware that his new Muslim friend appears to believe that apostates from Islam should be killed? How does this comport with the "protection" of Christians in the region? Or perhaps the Pope, in his rejection of "proselytism," does not believe that Christian converts are worthy of protection, or should not be placed in the category of "Christians." Maybe it's more of an ethnic category.

Also, converts do tend to be a bit conservative, after all.

Actually, I suspect the Pope has no idea what el-Tayeb really believes or more to the point, doesn't really care. But he does seem to care very much about publicizing how dialogue with his quasi-peer distinguishes him from his predecessor:

In fairness to el-Tayeb, as the highest Sunni Muslim scholarly authority in the world it would be difficult if not impossible for him to declare to a Muslim audience that apostates shouldn't be put to death, as this is clearly stated in the Koran, the Hadith and Islamic history and tradition. In that context, advocating the death penalty for apostates is not an unusual or extreme position at all. Indeed, polls show that most Muslims in Egypt support it. Though, again, there is a tradition of not, as it were, making a big deal of this to Western audiences.

It may even be that el-Tayeb himself doesn't himself particularly want to execute apostates.

The problem with Islam is not that all Muslims are evil. It's that all Muslims are to one degree or another beholden to an evil ideology. Many Muslims (including most women) are enslaved to it.

So, why don't they just leave?

See above.

Who speaks for them?

Not Pope Francis, obviously.

8 comments:

  1. Twitter is evidently on the war path over this agreement, since they banned our Association from Twitter for 12 hours while we were tweeting about it.

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  2. Psalm 13 from NRSVACE
    Prayer for Deliverance from Enemies To the leader.
    A Psalm of David.

    1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me for ever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
    2 How long must I bear pain [a] in my soul,
    and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
    How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
    3 Consider and answer me, O Lordmy God!
    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,
    4 and my enemy will say, ‘I have prevailed’;
    my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.
    5 But I trusted in your steadfast love;
    my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
    6 I will sing to the Lord,
    because he has dealt bountifully with me.

    Footnotes:Psalm 13:2 Syr: Heb hold counsels

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  3. "The pluralism and the diversity of religions, colour, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings."
    Recognising the article majors on the religious diversity aspect, but diversity of sexes should also be of concern to Catholics and other Christians of good will to Catholics, implying as it does more than a binary, mutually exclusive option: male or female; such as a range or spectrum of sexes.

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    Replies
    1. Excellent point, Paul. I had completely missed this sneaky wording when I read the document. But I suspect that the very learned Imam and his fellow Muslims will not be keen on the multiple variations of LGBTQ/etc. This garbage is strictly for Western consumption and the likes of Father Jimmy Martin.

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  4. While Mortalium Animos was backburned under the JPII admin, certainly can we not say it has clearly been abrogated by Francis?

    Can anyone in any coherent way possibly reconcile his statements to, about and even on behalf of other religions to clear Church teaching on other religions?

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  5. Worthless Fr Z sputters ~ "We must seek a way to understand this without it sounding like heresy"

    Aaaand with that castrated spin Zuhlsdorf has officially gone from cowardly eunuch to culpable cleric in Bergoglio's heresies.

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    Replies
    1. A famous American author, Upton Sinclair, a man not a friend of the Church by any means, made a germane comment when he quipped, "It is difficult to make a man understand something when his salary is dependent on him not understanding it." (Sinclair, "I, Candidate for Governor: and How I Got Licked," 1935)

      If there is one thing the Modernists have done in the last fifty years, they have made it very clear that the gainful exercise of ministry for clergy is dependent on not understanding a great many things from the Indissolubility of Marriage to that now never to sufficiently maligned dogma "Extra Eccelsia Nulla Salus." Even for an "ossified Latinist," there are things that priests and bishops are not allowed to say or think and expect to keep a paycheck...and that, sadly, is more important for most than their salvation.


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  6. 1: I can not believe anyone can call this Frank Catholic or the Pope.
    2: Saying that God wills the diversity of religions is just like calling God stupid.
    3: Instead of kissing the Koran and making this ridiculous statements, he should be caring about the victims of his depraved clergy. Islam and the novus ordo sect have similar values, isn´t it?.
    For Greater Glory of God,
    Long Life Christ the King and Our Lady of Guadalupe.

    ReplyDelete