Posted on 08/20/2005 11:56:17 PM PDT by nickcarraway
JEDDAH, 21 August 2005 — The funeral of King Fahd, which was conducted in a simple manner in Riyadh earlier this month, has encouraged a well-known Christian priest in Italy to embrace Islam, press reports said.
The priest, who watched the late king’s funeral on satellite television, was impressed by the lack of pomp and pageantry in the royal funeral, Al-Riyadh Arabic daily reported without mentioning his name.
King Fahd was buried in Al-Oud graveyard the next day of his death after a solemn funeral ceremony attended by world leaders.
Islamic preacher Dr. Abdullah Al-Malik said the simple funeral of the king had a dramatic effect on the priest’s mind, which led him to Islam. “Although he had read several Islamic books before, they didn’t have the same impact.”
This is the second high-profile reversion to Islam by an Italian involving Saudi Arabia. Four years ago, Italian Ambassador to Riyadh Torquato Cardilli embraced Islam.
“The priest watched the funeral of King Fahd and another person on television and did not find any difference,” Malik said. “There was only a single funeral prayer for the two and both were buried in similar graves. This great example of equality influenced the priest and prompted him to embrace Islam,” Malik said.
Muslim preachers in Italy had given the priest Islamic books and cassettes in the past 15 years, but what moved him was the simplicity of the royal funeral.
“I had read several Islamic books and heard many Islamic cassettes over the past years, they never moved me. But the simple royal funeral shook me and changed my mind,” Malik quoted the priest as saying.
He said he believed the king’s funeral would change the mind of many others. He urged Muslim media to focus on stories related to Islam’s tolerance and equality in order to attract more people to the religion.
“I will work the rest of my life for the propagation of Islam,” the 62-year-old former priest said.
Badr Al-Olayan, director of the Islamic Education Foundation in Jeddah, said the priest’s reversion to Islam was “very good news.” He narrated the story of another Italian who came to IEF office to embrace Islam after being impressed by the large and orderly congregation of Muslims at the Grand Mosque in Makkah to perform prayers.
“How can you assemble such a large number of people by just making a call. It’s impossible. Only God can do that,” he quoted the Italian as saying.
Olayan urged Muslims to do more in order to take the message of Islam to other people.
Ambassador Cardilli, 60, embraced Islam on Nov. 15, 2001. “I am fully convinced of the truth of Islam through my regular reading of God’s final revelation, the Holy Qur’an,” Cardilli was quoted as saying at the time.
It's hard to put much credence in an Arab media's report of Islamic conversion by an anonymous priest.
Rub a dub dub, so long bud!
Anybody converted?
Pure BS...Or...He's a spy for the Vatican!
No, wait, it's when you convert FROM the religion of tolerance and peace TO Christianity that you get sentenced to death. I just get so confused. It's SO counter-intuitive.
I know there's a mosque in Rome. Off hand can anybody tell me how many Christian churches there are in Mecca? Just asking ...
Exactly!
"Okay, I just want to get the rules and procedures straight here. If you convert to Islam from Christianity are you automatically sentenced to death?"
No! You are only doomed to damnation.
I guess he never saw the Ayatollah Khomeni's funeral
**“I had read several Islamic books and heard many Islamic cassettes over the past years, they never moved me. But the simple royal funeral shook me and changed my mind,” Malik quoted the priest as saying.**
Prayers for the prieist to come to his senses and come back to Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior!
How anyone could view the filth known as islam and be moved by it, is beyond me...
For the truth about islam, visit The Flanstein:
http://flanstein.blogspot.com
That's funny. I can't find any record of him ever being a priest, just a diplomat:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://www.esteri.it/eng/4_29_190_94_142_203.asp&prev=/search%3Fq%3DTorquato%2BCardilli%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rls%3DRNWE,RNWE:2005-01,RNWE:en
Also this:
Rome's Envoy to Saudi Arabia Converts to Islam
By Luke Baker
ROME (Reuters) - Italy's ambassador to Saudi Arabia has converted to Islam, the
second time in seven years that an envoy of Rome to the land of Mecca has
adopted its religion.
Torquato Cardilli, a career diplomat from overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Italy,
revealed his decision to Saudi newspapers Saturday, his 59th birthday. Italian
diplomatic sources confirmed the announcement Monday.
His official conversion was made on the eve of the Islamic holy fasting month
of Ramadan, which began on November 16 in Saudi Arabia. Cardilli himself could
not be reached for comment but an employee at his embassy in Riyadh confirmed
the reports.
The Saudi embassy in Rome said it planned a statement later. An embassy
spokeswoman said there was no record of any Saudi ambassador to Italy ever
converting to Catholicism.
Italy's Foreign Ministry had no comment.
The conversion of Cardilli -- who is married with two children -- follows the
move to Islam made by Mario Scialoja, Italian ambassador to the Arab kingdom in
1994-95, who has since left the foreign service and is head of Italy's Muslim
League.
Scialoja's decision came as a shock, made while he was Rome's permanent
representative to the United Nations (news - web sites) in New York and long
before he was posted to Riyadh.
Cardilli's change of faith follows years of study of Islam. A graduate in
oriental culture and languages from the University of Naples, Cardilli has
spent much of his 33-year diplomatic career in the Muslim world.
Following postings in Sudan, Syria, Iraq and Libya, he took over the embassy in
Riyadh in October last year. Cardilli has also served as ambassador to Albania
and Tanzania.
His personal move comes at a sensitive time, with Italy a member of the U.S.-
led coalition fighting the hardline Islamic Taliban movement in Afghanistan
(news - web sites) and barely two months after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
offended the Muslim world by saying Western Christian civilization was
superior .
Corriere della Sera newspaper said Cardilli had been recalled to Rome ``for
consultations.'' Some 3,000 to 5,000 Italians have converted to Islam from
Catholicism in recent years, according to figures from the Union of Islamic
Organizations and Communities. A spokesman for the Italy-based group said it
welcomed Cardilli's entry into the Muslim community, saying of his conversion:
``The ways of the Lord are infinite.''
Source: http://www.cafearabica.com/wwwboard/social/messages/5264.html
Maybe he was a priest a long time ago, I can't find any record though... and I have a directory.
If you find it, ping me.
No, they are saying Ambassador Cardilli converted separeately from the alleged priest who converted. They never actually name the priest. This is an Arab Publication, so I would like to see more confirmation.
I'd be a little suspicious of this "converted priest" story, too. However, Islam has always had a peculiar attraction for a certain type of man - one of them being its strange attitude toward sex. For one thing, it regards pederasty as perfectly okay, and sees teenage boys as the chosen sex object of adult men. This was one of its attractions for the 19th and early 20th century Etonian types who converted or at least went to live in Muslim countries.
It is basically a fine religion if you're a man and the most important thing in your life is what's between your legs. Remember that one of the late unlamented Ayatollah Khomenei's first published works was a treatise defending the legitimacy in Islam of men having - er, a roll in the hay - with chickens.
Women come after teenage boys and chickens, and I seriously think that is one of its attractions for some of our loopier and more amoral Westerners. I wonder if it might not be one of the attractions of Islam in prisons, too - it makes these men feel that they're all powerful, they have a right to lord it over people, simply by being Muslim and by being male, and by being prone to violence (which is the other major component of Islam).
Maybe they understand even laymen are part of the universal priesthood and they are referencing that. Who knows? But, if the gentleman was an ordained minister/ a real priest then his conversion will only strenthen the Body of Christ by the removal of such a spiritual pathogen
I think some of the attraction to Islam is the indifferentism that has infiltrated Christianity in the West. Many Muslims still have a complete devotion to faith, as opposed to the Christians they see watering down their faith. I think the Muslim conversions in prisons are often because of the vacuum left by poor evangelism by Christians in prison.
Quite serious. It was one of his first published works of "Islamic scholarship."
Personally, I think the attraction of Islam is that it is a very authoritarian, legalistic cult, and therefore the commandments are fairly easy to keep. Fulfill the ritual prescriptions, obey the mullahs, and this qualifies you as perfect and justifies anything else you do. Islam doesn't really have a "moral code" in the sense that Christianity does, and therefore it's a lot easier to follow. Also, the fact that non-Muslims are not really considered full human beings makes life even easier, since Muslims are not even bound by the legal system of Islam in dealing with non-Muslims. This is perfect for the prison crowd, which never thought itself bound by any moral code except its own benefit in dealing with others; Islam just ratifies this in some ways. And thugs have never been famed for their great treatment of women, so the low status of women in Islam is also right up their alley.
I agree, however, that there is a void and that Christians largely abandoned their truth claim in the latter part of the 20th century. And, sadly, the ethical part of Christianity was often dumped - hence you can "pro-abortion Catholics" and such bizarre goings on as 2 elderly Anglican (male) divines prancing down the aisle with laurel wreaths in their hair to "wed." It's not too late to turn it around, though, and I really think we're going to see BXVI focusing a lot on this.
Obviously his faith was not strong if he could ditch his for such a superficial reason...
Uh, you're a moron, aren't you?
Back to Chicken Deflowerers Underground with you.
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