For Catholics and other Christians in the Middle East, the atrocity at Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray is far from unimaginable
An 84-year-old priest has had his throat cut by an Islamic fanatic while saying Mass in a church in Normandy. For people in the West, this is a scene of almost unimaginable horror. Catholics in particular will be revolted and profoundly disturbed by a bloody killing perpetrated during the act of holy sacrifice around which our faith is built.
Catholics in the West, that is. For Catholics and other Christians in the Middle East, the atrocity at Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray is far from unimaginable. They have been living with this sort of terror for years, while Western politicians and the liberal commentariat looked away.
If I were to mention the Baghdad church massacre of October 31, 2010, how many of them would know what I was talking about? Come to that, how many Catholics are familiar with the details?
On that Sunday evening, Mass in the Syrian Catholic church of Our Lady of Salvation was cut short by Islamist gunmen who took the congregation hostage, screaming: “All of you are infidels… we will go to paradise if we kill you and you will go to hell.”
One priest, Fr Thaer Abdal, was shot dead at the altar. In total, 58 innocent people were murdered. Their killers were members of an Iraqi faction of Al-Qaeda that had declared war on churches, “dirty dens of idolatry”, and in particular “the hallucinating tyrant of the Vatican”.
The Baghdad massacre was one of countless atrocities that have reduced ancient Christian communities in the Middle East to shrivelled and terrified ghettoes or underground churches.
They know – even if Western public opinion does not – that Christianity in itself is among the most hated of all the targets of Islamic terrorist groups. For jihadis, the Christian belief in the divinity of Jesus is an affront that justifies the brutality of the Dark Ages.
The slitting of a priest’s throat in the sanctuary of a church – how hollow that word “sanctuary” now sounds in the context – brings those Dark Ages to rural France.
According to the Archbishop of Rouen the dead priest was 84 years old. This is not as surprising as it sounds, given the decayed state of the Church in France, which forces many clergy to extend their ministry into their ninth decade.
The poor priest had spent a very long life serving his Lord; now it has ended in death for Him. This may seem an inappropriate thing to say, but I wonder if the blood of a martyr spilt on an altar so close to home will finally awake Christendom from its torpor.
ISIS Supporters’ Cry ‘Allahu Akbar’ at Memorial To Munich Shooting Victims, Shouted Down By Locals
Video footage has emerged of confrontations between individuals claimed to be supporters of Islamic State and mourning Germans at a shrine to victims of Friday’s shooting in Munich, while police stand by and explain they are powerless to get involved.
While videos showing the exchanges between “Allahu Akbar” shouting men and angered locals who had come to pay respects to the dead have received almost no attention in German media, Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano reports on the arguments showing the raw passions and anger unearthed by the killings.
In the short video, a well-built German male can be seen shouting down what is described by the Italian paper as “a group of young Muslim boys” who, railing against an “unjust world”, begin to chant in unison “Allahu Akbar”. The phrase is the same Islamic salutation said to have been cried by the killer as he started his rampage. UnderTirol reports the Muslim men are “alleged Islamic State sympathisers”.
The German male can be heard castigating police for standing back and taking no action, and then direct his anger at the Muslim males. He shouts: “Shut up with that Allahu Akbar s**t, f**k you motherf***er… Shut your mouth. Piss off. F***ing bulls**t”. Although in times past such comments towards the minority in Germany would have provoked a shocked or even angry reaction from bystanders, instead it earned applause from fellow mourners.
Again appealing to the police officers standing by, another member of the public joins in and points out the behaviour of the Muslim men, shouting to the officers: “They are doing Islamic State hand signs!”. Turning his attention back to the Muslim males, he continues by directing his insults at them: “You pigs. You b******s. They are doing it on purpose. You pigs!”
A final appeal to police elicits a response, when one of the crowd asks one of them to “do something about it for f***ks sake”, the officer simply responds “I can’t do anything about it”. Later, to prevent a confrontation developing, officers place themselves between the two sides but no arrests are made.
The short video presents a different view on the fraying tensions in Germany, which still officially supports a policy of near unlimited mass migration and open borders. While Chancellor Angela Merkel continues to steer the nation in the same direction, beneath the surface discontent bubbles. Breitbart London reported in May on a poll that showed the majority of Germans rejected the notion of Islam having a place in their nation.
Another poll showed the majority of Germans found themselves “scared” of so-called refugees. The research also found more thought that there were fewer positives to immigration than negatives.
Just UNBELIEVABLE! – May all these anti-Christian mutants burn in hell!
Exiled Archbishop of Mosul: ‘I Have Lost My Diocese to Islam; You in the West Will Also Become Victims of Muslims’
In 2014, the exiled Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul, Iraq, warned westerners about welcoming an increasing number of Muslims into their countries, naively believing that they too believe in democratic principles.
“Your liberal and democratic principles are worth nothing here. You must consider again our reality in the Middle East, because you are welcoming in your countries an ever growing number of Muslims. Also you are in danger. You must take strong and courageous decisions, even at the cost of contradicting your principles. You think all men are equal,” Archbishop Amel Nona continues, “but that is not true: Islam does not say that all men are equal. Your values are not their values. If you do not understand this soon enough, you will become the victims of the enemy you have welcomed in your home.“
The archbishop’s interview was reported by the blog Rorate Caeli.
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