Drawing a Very Long Bow

The Caliphate Means Subjugation--Period

It's time the put a "Please explain" request to the Pope.  According to a piece in newscom.au

Pope Francis called on people to “believe in a new humanity” stronger than evil, and cautioned against concluding that one religion is more violent than others, Associated Press reported.  Speaking at World Youth Day near Krakow in Poland he prayed that God would protect the world from the “devastating wave” of terrorism.

When asked by reporters why he has never used the word Islam when denouncing terrorist attacks he said it wasn’t “right to identify Islam with violence”.  He also took a swipe at IS saying it “presents itself with its violent identity card, but it’s not Islam”.  

We sort of understand what Francis is trying to get at.  Some years ago an Australian attempted to blow up part the Islamic mosque upon the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  He believed that Jesus would not return until the Third Temple was built upon that site, so he wanted to hasten the rebuilding, thereby hasten His coming.  It is a very, very long stretch, however, to identify this man's peculiar doctrinal commitment with the the Christian Church and the Scripture's teaching.

It seems as though Pope Francis is taking the same view of Islam--arguing that ISIS does not faithfully or truthfully represent the Islamic religion.
 Violence, apparently, is not an intrinsic part of the religion of Islam.

We happily grant that there are many Muslims who are ashamed and appalled by the acts of murder and terrorism committed by Muslims in the name of Muhammad and, therefore, Allah.  But that does not explain why all through its long history Islam has been a religion of force and of the sword.  The long, chequered history of the Caliphate and the doctrines surrounding the Caliphate testify to another reality than that implied by the Pope.  The doctrines surround "the Caliph", of course, have to do with Muhammad's legitimate successor on earth.

Secondly, most Islamic violence--and there has been and is plenty of it--is between competing sects and doctrines within Islam itself.  The violent antipathy between Sunni and Shi'ite is a consistent, eloquent testimony to the strong historical and current connection between Islam, Islamic theology, and violence force.  This is not a recent phenomenon.  It was part of Islam's praxis from the beginning in the late seventh century.  It has continued until the present.

We grant that ISIS does not correspond to Islam in any exclusive sense.  It is one sect amongst many.  It  believes we are all living in the End Times of the Prophet.  An eschatological holy war is breaking out between the true believers of Islam and all infidels and false believers within Islam.  The faithful must be purified.  Purification of the ummah (the Islamic community) comes by killing all those who disagree or oppose.

ISIS, then, is a similar phenomenon to the Australian attempting to blow up the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  Extreme.  Violent, Looking for the cataclysm and attempting to bring in the end of the world.  Clearly, this is a minority view in the present panoply that is Islam.  But that does not justify Pope Francis's denial that violence and Islam are intrinsically related.

If you believe, as Islam teaches, that there is only one God, Allah; and if you believe that he will reign over the entire earth in the future, as all Islamic believers do, then it is wilful ignorance not to acknowledge that historically Islam has pursued that eschatological hope by forceful subjugation.  The doctrines and theology surrounding the Caliph and the Caliphate make that abundantly clear.