Islam's Response to Pope's visit to EP in Constantinople

[Mattheos]

And Islam is supposed to be a Religion of Peace??


http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20846363-38201,00.html

Pope 'wants to pull Turkey from Islam'
From correspondents in Dubai
November 30, 2006 04:45am

IRAQ'S al-Qaeda wing today condemned Pope Benedict's visit to Turkey as part of a crusade against Islam aimed at pulling Turkey away from the Muslim world.

"The visit of the Pope in reality is meant to add momentum to the crusader campaign on the land of Islam after the failures of crusader leaders," the al-Qaeda-led "Islamic State in Iraq" said in a statement posted on the Internet.

It said his visit to the predominantly Muslim country was "an attempt to extinguish the flame of Islam among our Muslim brothers in Turkey and to wipe out their Islamic heritage... and to guarantee that they stay in the quagmire of secularism established by ... (Kemal) Ataturk".

Ataturk is revered in Turkey as the founder of modern secular Turkey who ended the tradition of Islamic rule of the Ottoman Empire.

During his visit, the Pope voiced support for Turkey's bid to join the European Union, according to Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

"We have a date with victory and martyrdom and an (Islamic) state that rules under the commands of God the almighty, and then we shall break the cross and spill the wine," the statement said.

Its authenticity could not be verified.

[Pravoslavbob]

I am not a fan of Islam, but you are misrepresenting the facts.  What is described here is al-Qaeda's response to the visit, and not anything approaching an authoritative muslim response.  Al-Qaeda is an extremist militant group; would you really have expected them to say anything different?   

[lubeltri]

It goes to show that to jihadists who claim the mantel of Al-Qaida, it matters nothing if a Westerner supports peace in Palestine or opposes the war in Iraq---Benedict, to them, is no different than George Bush. That is a lesson to those on the secular left who think that appeasing jihadism will stop terrorism.

[Fr. George]

I find the statement interesting, since it seems to imply a few things:

1. That the flame of Islam can be extinguished amongst their brethren in Turkey.  They would never claim this to be possible in Iraq or Iran or Saudi - it seems to be an indication that they already consider the Turks second-class and weak in their faith for accepting the secularism.

2. Referring to the "crusader campaign" makes it sound like they're interpreting the overtures of the EU to be really a campaign to keep Turkey from ever becoming a Moslem state again.  It would be very interesting to privately hear the comments of prominent European politicians to this charge - I bet they may agree to a point.  (Leave discussion of this to the private forum).

3. The statement implies that they are specifically targeting Christians, rather than a political entity part of the "evil west."  Breaking the Cross and spilling the wine - interesting statements that do not bode well for the Patriarchate.

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