Matt C. Abbott
Robert Spencer on Pope Francis' view of Islam
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By Matt C. Abbott
August 1, 2016

From Crux (July 31):
    Pope Francis on Sunday defended his avoidance of the term 'Islamic violence' by suggesting the potential for violence lies in every religion, including Catholicism.

    'I don't like to talk about Islamic violence, because every day, when I read the newspaper, I see violence,' Francis said, when asked about why he never speaks of Islamic terrorism or fundamentalism when condemning attacks such as the murder of a French priest last week, who had his throat slit by an Islamic terrorist as he was celebrating Mass....

    'I believe that it's not fair to identify Islam with violence. It's not fair and it's not true,' he continued, adding that he's had a long conversation with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, the Cairo-based Islamic university often described as the Vatican of the Sunni world.
I'm no expert on Islam, but Catholic author Robert Spencer is.

I asked Spencer, who has written 15 books and numerous articles on various aspects of Islam, to comment on the pope's aforementioned remarks.

Spencer responded as follows:
    The pope is once again ignoring a simple distinction: while people of all faiths and backgrounds commit acts of violence, Islam is unique among world religions in having a developed doctrine, theology and legal system mandating warfare against unbelievers. Unless and until that is confronted, Muslims will continue to commit acts of violence against non-Muslims, including Christians.

    The pope is doing the Christians of the Middle East and the world a grave disservice by obfuscating about the motivating ideology of attacks upon them, instead of confronting it and calling upon Muslims to renounce and reform Islam's doctrines of violence.
Click here to visit Spencer's website Jihad Watch.



Click here to read a related past column of mine about William Kilpatrick's timely book Christianity, Islam, and Atheism: The Struggle for the Soul of the West, published by Ignatius Press.

© Matt C. Abbott

 

The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
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Matt C. Abbott

Matt C. Abbott is a Catholic commentator with a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication, media, and theatre from Northeastern Illinois University. He also has an Associate in Applied Science degree in business management from Triton College. Abbott has been interviewed on HLN, MSNBC, Bill Martinez Live, WOSU Radio in Ohio, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's 2019 ‘Unsolved’ podcast about the unsolved murder of Father Alfred Kunz, Alex Shuman's 'Smoke Screen: Fake Priest' podcast, WLS-TV (ABC) in Chicago, WMTV (NBC) and WISC-TV (CBS) in Madison, Wisconsin. He’s been quoted in The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune and other media outlets. He’s mentioned in the 2020 Report on the Holy See's Institutional Knowledge and Decision-Making Related to Former Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick (1930 to 2017), which can be found on the Vatican's website. He can be reached at mattcabbott@gmail.com.

(Note: I welcome and appreciate thoughtful feedback. Insults will be ignored. Only in very select cases will I honor a request to have a telephone conversation about a topic in my column. Email is much preferred. God bless you and please keep me in your prayers!)

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