Pope Francis, terminally naïve about Islam, believes he has a true understanding of the faith based partly on the reassurances given him by his new friend, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb. “War is deceit,” says Muhammad in a famous hadith, and Al-Tayeb has been cheerfully deceiving the Pope every chance he gets. Pope Francis has learned a lot from Al-Tayeb. He insists in his new book, Non Sei Solo: Sfide, Risposte, Speranze (You Are Not Alone: Challenges, Answers, Hopes), that “either you are a terrorist or you are a Muslim.” A “true” Muslim, he thinks, cannot be a terrorist. No one has pointed out to the Pope that Muhammad himself says in another hadith that “I have been made victorious through terror.” (Bukhari 4:52.220) And Muhammad is the Perfect Man and the Model of Conduct, whose behavior is to be emulated by Muslims.
Islam talks about peace, all right — the peace that will prevail once Islam everywhere dominates, and Muslims rule, everywhere. Until then war must be made on the Infidels, who when conquered must be either killed, or made to convert to Islam, or to accept the inferior status of dhimmis, enduring a host of social, political, and economic disabilities, including payment of the extortionate jizyah tax. In his infinite wisdom, the Pope has declared on many occasions, and in his latest book, too, that “Islam, in truth, is a religion of peace and the majority of its members are peaceful.” He’s wrong, of course. He need only look around the world at the Muslim terror groups that have been waging war against Infidels, and even against less fanatical Muslims, in recent years: the Islamic State, Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Sipah-e-Sahaba, Boko Haram, Al-Shebaab, and so many more. Muslims have committed more than 44,000 terror attacks around the world since 9/11. The Qur’an is filled with verses about violence and waging war on Infidels. The Believers are instructed to “kill them [the Infidels] wherever you find them” (Qur’an 2:191, 4:89, cf. 9:5). But one has the distinct impression that the Pope has never read the Qur’an. Why should he bother to do so, when such authoritative experts on Islam like Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb assure him that Islam is all about peace?
Given the Pope’s affection for Islam, it is not surprising that he has been circumspect in his remarks on the atrocities carried out by Hamas on October 7. More on his failure to forthrightly condemn those attacks, which is risking the Vatican’s relations with the Jewish world, can be found here: “The Vatican is risking its relationship with the Jewish world,” by Vittorio Mascarini, JNS, November 16, 2023:
Relations between Israel and the Vatican have become tense in recent weeks.
In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem, an ecumenical group of Christian leaders that includes the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, issued a joint statement in which they made no explicit mention of the Hamas atrocities. They included only a vague condemnation of any act that targets civilians.
The Israeli embassy to the Holy See criticized the statement’s “immoral linguistic ambiguity,” which failed to be clear about “what happened, who were the aggressors and who the victims. … It is especially unbelievable that such a sterile document was signed by people of faith.”
This controversy is only the latest in the fraught history of Israel-Vatican relations, which were officially established in Dec. 1993. Besides the Catholic Church’s historical antisemitism, the Vatican was long reluctant to formally recognize Israel for several reasons: Israel did not have internationally recognized borders, the status of Jerusalem and access to its holy sites had not been internationally guaranteed, and Catholics and their institutions were, the Church claimed, not adequately protected under Israeli law.
In addition, the Vatican had concerns about the treatment of Palestinians in the disputed territories and feared that relations with Israel could have negative repercussions for Catholics in Islamic countries.
This may explain why, to date, Pope Francis has not labelled Hamas a terrorist organization and has not met with families of Israeli hostages. The latter has not gone unnoticed, especially because the families were received by many leading national figures, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
According to the Catholic news site Cruxnow, the pontiff’s behavior can be explained as “positioning the Vatican potentially to play a mediating and peace-making role.” In addition, “The bulk of the Christian population in the Holy Land is Arab and Palestinian, so Middle Eastern bishops and clergy tend to be strong supporters of the Palestinian cause.”
Given the deplorable treatment of Israel by the Vatican — of which the failure to condemn Hamas is just the latest example, it is doubtful that Jerusalem would accept the Vatican as a mediator between the Jewish state and those who would destroy it.
Moreover, Cruxnow sees a historic shift underway in terms of the Vatican’s interfaith priorities: “Since the Second Vatican Council in the mid-1960s, Judaism has been the Church’s primordial relationship, unquestionably the highest priority in inter-religious dialogue. Under history’s first pope from the developing world, that’s no longer necessarily the case, as other relationships, especially the dialogue with Islam, have become at least an equally compelling perceived priority.”
Given this, it is not surprising that, since war broke out, Pope Francis has spoken with numerous world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, but there are no reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been among them.
Wouldn’t you think that after the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust, the Pope would have wanted to speak with the leader of the Jewish state, if only to express his solidarity and understanding? But though the Pope has spoken with many world leaders about the ongoing war in Gaza, he has apparently snubbed the Israeli President. How does he hope to ever be a mediator if he will not talk to the Israeli prime minister?
The larger Catholic world has shown equal ambivalence towards the war. Among Eastern Catholic leaders, the Latin Catholic and Eastern churches in communion with Rome have issued what Israel deems a lukewarm and insufficient condemnations of Hamas. Their first communiqué, issued on Oct. 8, contained a generic statement “against any acts that target civilians, regardless of their nationality.” The next, on Oct. 13, decried the humanitarian situation in Gaza and called for de-escalation. It singled out only Israel in connection with humanitarian issues….
Instead of deploring the Hamas atrocities, the Eastern Catholic leaders uttered a generic condemnation “against any acts that target civilians.” They were afraid of the Muslim reaction if they singled out Hamas — as they should have — which would, however, make the lives of Catholics in the Arab countries more difficult. And just like Pope Francis, they did not mention the 240 hostages held by Hamas, or call for their release.
The Pope has to understand that the Jews of Israel now deserve his unambiguous support as they fight to destroy a murderous enemy that has pledged not only to destroy the single Jewish state and replace it with a twenty-third Arab one, but to kill Jews everywhere. No moral equivalency should be allowed. And he must also denounce, as he has not yet done so, the tidal wave of antisemitism, prompted in part by the war in Gaza, that threatens to engulf much of the world. He needs first to unambiguously denounce Hamas and all those who support the terror group. But will he? The signs from this Pope, who believes “Islam is all about peace,” are not good.
So far, Pope Francis has been weighed and found wanting.
Dear Useful Idiots: Hamas Nazis and Other Jihadists are Using You
And coming for you.
by Christine Williams 17 Comments
The impact of the terror attacks in Israel on October 7 has been so severe that there are now “before October 7” and “after October 7” eras. The world is not the same. The issue of jihad war, and the evidence of 1,400 years of expansionary jihad violence, is in focus. What Hamas did on October 7 may be new to the West, but it has many historic antecedents. It is part of what jihad is. In the recent past, we saw it with the Islamic State; even now, Christians in Africa are experiencing a genocide at the hands of brutal jihadists. But now jihad has, once again, struck Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East.
And please, we need to stop the nonsensical view, advanced by many, about the West caring about Israel only because it’s made up of “white people.” If you go to Israel, you will see Mizrahi Jews, Ethiopian Jews, B’nei Menashe (Indian) Jews, Kaifeng Jews (Chinese), and among them all, multitudes of Arabs living their daily lives in Israel in peace. I have personally had Arab cab drivers tell me that they hate the Palestinian Authority and love living in Israel, where they can work and are treated better by the Israeli government. Israel is one of the most diverse countries in the world, and its varied citizens live together in peace, except, of course, for the Palestinian “resistance.” The lies about Israel being an “apartheid state” are grossly off-base, and anyone peddling them doesn’t deserve to be trusted as a source of information.
Before October 7, Jihad Watch, the David Horowitz Freedom Center team, along with many other organizations in the counter-jihad movement, understood what jihad is about. Hamas’ modus operandi on October 7 was not a surprise to anyone who has been following jihadist activities.
Jihad can be unspeakably brutal. It also encompasses the patient insidiousness and deceit of stealth jihad, which endeavors to fool gullible Western countries into becoming useful idiots. For instance, the West accepted the “Islamophobia” subterfuge based on claims of victimhood and charges of racism and bigotry. The term was heavily promulgated by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in order to shut down criticism of Islam and to bring Sharia blasphemy laws forbidding criticism of Islam to the West. Charges of “Islamophobia” became a tool of subjugation. With October 7, the discussion of the full ugliness of what jihad is is back on the table.
Westerners first flung open their doors to unvetted immigration of mostly Muslim migrants on a massive scale during the Syrian war. This mass migration continued for years, and has largely been comprised of illegal, unvetted economic migrants. That stream broadened to include African Muslim illegals. Now, open doors is a globalist norm. In the globalist view, anyone can enter Western countries and people are welcome to come in any quantity, unvetted. This created conditions that were ripe for jihad by immigration, aka the hijrah. It is already a success. Given low Western birthrates and high Muslim birthrates, Western countries will be dominated by vast Sharia-believing populations in the decades to come. History teaches that when Muslim migration and influence increase, so does violence against non-Muslims. Yet in the West, very little attention was devoted to monitoring the hate coming out of mosques.
What happened on October 7 shifted the jihadist scheme to the next level, and this is still largely unrecognized. It is also causing upheaval within both the Right and Left camps. Take, for instance, the recent FrontPage Magazine article, “Goodbye Candace: A statement by the David Horowitz Freedom Center.” It has gotten plenty of attention. See HERE, HERE, HERE, and there’s more, including vibrant discussions on social media. The key point of the article was that commentator Candace Owens, an icon among many on the Right, was reckless in her seeming condemnation of Israel’s war on Hamas, and in what appeared to be her sympathies for certain pro-Hamas talking points. She also gave airtime to the infamous Norman Finkelstein, who falsely claims that Israel is an apartheid state, and to Andrew Tate, a convert to Islam who proudly promotes the idea that “ISIS are the real Muslims.”
Owens’ seeming pro-Palestinian views do not make sense for an individual who advocates for black dignity. Palestinian racism is, after all, a stain on Palestinian society. And, in fact, to this day, Arab anti-black racism is a serious problem – with Muslims still holding black slaves in Mauritania, Nigeria, Algeria, Sudan and Libya.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators in the West are not merely exercising their freedom of expression, and they certainly are not peaceful. They are the next step in the jihad war against the West, with the jihad against Israel serving only as a springboard. But this fact is not recognized by many supporters of the Palestinians, including Amnesty International:
Amnesty Intl. is wrong, because pro-Palestinian protests in the West are indeed a “security issue.” They are an expansion of the jihad “resistance” and an encouragement to target Jews with violence. Such protests manipulate Western freedoms. Islamic supremacists are working to shut down the freedom of speech at any hint of criticism of Islam, but they cry foul in fighting for their free speech rights when advocating for violence against Israel and fomenting hatred of Jews and widespread anarchy in their cause of jihad.
The pro-Palestinian protests are the next stage. They are promoting revolution. The chant “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” is an open call to obliterate Israel from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. It is a call to violence and murder — as was demonstrated on October 7. Every Sharia-believing Muslim knows and understands that. Mosab Hassan Yousef, a.k.a. Son of Hamas, revealed the bare truth about Hamas at the United Nations, exposing the destructiveness of Westerners who are calling for a ceasefire from Israel. He is candid about his love for his people, but he is also clear about the threat of Hamas and why it is imperative that Israel wins in the Gaza war. No Westerner can identify with what Yousef has experienced. He was raised by Hamas. He begins:
And he finishes with this warning:
Watch Yousef discuss the inside story of Hamas, the reasons for October 7, and why Israel MUST win:
This is why Candace Owens is gravely flawed in her disposition on this issue. She and others like her claim to represent America First, but they do not understand that fighting Hamas, as Israel is doing, is putting America first. The ideology behind Hamas is that of the Muslim Brotherhood, which seeks global conquest. The Brotherhood’s motto is “jihad is the way.” What’s more, the Muslim Brotherhood is Sunni. While Hamas is the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza, Hamas also serves as a uniting force between the Sunni and Shia jihadist ambitions of establishing a global caliphate, as Shiite Iran finances and supports Hamas. Iran calls Israel the “little Satan” and America the “Great Satan.” This war concerns America and the West as much as it concerns Israel. [See Robert Spencer’s video on this issue HERE.]
The jihadist aspiration is so widely held among Muslims worldwide that the hopes that many people had that Saudi Arabia would normalize relations with Israel came to nothing in the face of jihad. Those hopes dissipated as the Saudis published a map on which Israel didn’t exist, but had been replaced with “Palestine,” and the Saudis didn’t waste any time in condemning the “occupation” soon after the Hamas atrocities of October 7. Five months before that, Saudi Arabia had released Hamas prisoners after meeting with top level Hamas operatives. No one asked why, and few even noticed.
Some governments are beginning to wake up. Germany has criminalized the chant “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free,” because the chant is indeed criminal. The Czech Republic is poised to follow suit.
“Jihad is the way” is unwelcome on Western soil for those who see the threat clearly. They gauge that pro-Palestinian activists are planting the seeds of division and ultimate jihad conquest. The willfully blind on both sides of the political spectrum are a threat to the continuing freedom of Western societies. Those on the Right who have opposed reckless immigration policies and yet have suddenly demonstrated a blind spot over Israel are disappointing, and their position raises the question: how much of their pro-Palestinian stance reflects a hitherto hidden anti-Semitism?
Christine Williams
Christine Douglass-Williams is Associate Editor of Frontpage, regular writer for Jihad Watch, a nine-time award-winning journalist, past Canadian government appointee to the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and the Office of Religious Freedom; author of "The Challenge of Modernizing Islam" and "Fired by the Canadian Government for Criticizing Islam".
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