July 06, 2006

Pipes : The Vatican Confronts Islam

As we all know, the Islamic jihadis have an endless list of manufactured grievances. No sooner does the West address one grievance than another is put forth to take its place. One false grievance after another after another after another. The Palestinian question. . . Western troops in Riyadh. . . the treatment of Muslims in this country or that. . . the Mohammed Cartoons. . . the lack of Sharia law in the West. On and on and on.

In the meanwhile, legitimate Western grievances against Muslim nations are endlessly put off, with the acquiescence of our weak Western leaders. Watching the news day after day, one might be tempted to lose hope that our Western leaders will ever come to their senses. And yet, once in a while, we see evidence that there may yet be reason to hope. There may yet be a spark of life in that old, creaking shell of once-mighty Europe. There may yet be a little spirit left somewhere within the bowels of Western Christendom.

Daniel Pipes has the latest on a resurgence of a long-dormant survival instinct within the Vatican:

"Enough now with this turning the other cheek! It's our duty to protect ourselves." Thus spoke Monsignor Velasio De Paolis, secretary of the Vatican's supreme court, referring to Muslims. Explaining his apparent rejection of Jesus' admonition to his followers to "turn the other cheek," De Paolis noted that "The West has had relations with the Arab countries for half a century … and has not been able to get the slightest concession on human rights."

De Paolis is hardly alone in his thinking; indeed, the Catholic Church is undergoing a dramatic shift from a decades-old policy to protect Catholics living under Muslim rule. The old methods of quiet diplomacy and muted appeasement have clearly failed. The estimated 40 million Christians in Dar al-Islam, notes the Barnabas Fund's Patrick Sookhdeo, increasingly find themselves an embattled minority facing economic decline, dwindling rights, and physical jeopardy. Most of them, he goes on, are despised and distrusted second-class citizens, facing discrimination in education, jobs, and the courts.