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The mustard seed in global strategy[Spengler]
Asia Times Onlie ^ | 26 Mar 2008 | Spengler

Posted on 03/25/2008 3:57:47 AM PDT by BGHater

A self-described revolution in world affairs has begun in the heart of one man. He is the Italian journalist and author Magdi Cristiano Allam, whom Pope Benedict XVI baptized during the Easter Vigil at St Peter's. Allam's renunciation of Islam as a religion of violence and his embrace of Christianity denotes the point at which the so-called global "war on terror" becomes a divergence of two irreconcilable modes of life: the Western way of faith supported by reason, against the Muslim world of fatalism and submission.

As Magdi Allam recounted , on his road to conversion the challenge that Pope Benedict XVI offered to Islam in his September 2006 address at Regensburg was "undoubtedly the most extraordinary and important encounter in my decision to convert". Osama bin Laden recently accused Benedict of plotting a new crusade against Islam, and instead finds something far more threatening: faith the size of a mustard seed that can move mountains. Before Benedict's election, I summarized his position as "I have a mustard seed and I'm not afraid to use it." Now the mustard seed has earned pride of place in global affairs.

Magdi Allam tells us that he has found the true God and forsaken an Islam that he regards as inherently violent. Magdi Allam has a powerful voice as deputy editor of Italy's newspaper of record, Corriere della Sera, and a bestselling author. For years he was the exemplar of "moderate Islam" in Europe, and now he has decided that Islam cannot be "moderate".

(Excerpt) Read more at atimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: allam; catholic; faith; islam; magdiallam; pope; spengler
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'What the outcome will be of the evangelization of Muslims lies beyond all speculation: that is a matter of every soul's relationship to God. But the global agenda has changed, not through the machinations of statesmen or the word-mincing of public intellectuals, but through the soul of a single man. Benedict's Regensburg challenge to Islam now demarcates the encounter between the West and the Muslim world, and nothing will be the same.'
1 posted on 03/25/2008 3:57:48 AM PDT by BGHater
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To: Admin Moderator

Typo. Please Correct Source to: Asia Times Online


2 posted on 03/25/2008 3:58:59 AM PDT by BGHater ($2300 is the limit of your Free Speech.)
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To: BGHater

OUTSTANDING article by Spengler. Thanks for posting.


3 posted on 03/25/2008 4:21:19 AM PDT by PGalt
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To: NYer

ping


4 posted on 03/25/2008 4:24:56 AM PDT by kalee (The offenses we give, we write in the dust; Those we take, we write in marble. JHuett)
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To: BGHater

may the lord protect this man of faith and his family.

and may more muslims see the inherent violence in what they preach and do.

God’s will be done.

teeman


5 posted on 03/25/2008 4:32:05 AM PDT by teeman8r
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To: BGHater
"I have a mustard seed and I'm not afraid to use it."
6 posted on 03/25/2008 4:48:02 AM PDT by Oratam
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To: BGHater
If the Catholic youth of Europe are offered a great task - to evangelize the Muslims whose restlessness threatens to push Europe into social chaos - many of them may heed the call. As I wrote in 2005, "Now that everyone is talking about Europe's demographic death, it is time to point out that there exists a way out: convert European Muslims to Christianity." Today's Europeans stem from the melting-pot of the barbarian invasions that replaced the vanishing population of the Roman Empire. The genius of the Catholic Church was to absorb them. If Benedict XVI can convert this new wave of invaders from North Africa and the Middle East, history will place him on a par with his great namesake, the founder of the monastic order the bears his name...

This is probably one of the best and most perceptive articles the ever-perceptive Spengler has written. Every word is worth reading.

Thanks for posting.

7 posted on 03/25/2008 4:54:14 AM PDT by livius
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To: NYer
Muslims suffer from a stultifying spiritual emptiness, depicted most poignantly by the Syrian Arab poet Adonis (see Are the Arabs already extinct?, Asia Times Online, May 8, 2007). Muslim traditional society cannot withstand the depredations of globalized culture, and radical Islam arises from a despairing nostalgia for the disappearing past. Why would Muslims trade the spiritual vacuum of Islam for the spiritual sewer of Dutch hedonism? The souls of Muslims are in agony. The blandishments of the decadent West offer them nothing but shame and deracination. Magdi Allam agrees with his former co-religionists in repudiating the degraded culture of the modern West, and offers them something quite different: a religion founded upon love.

Ping to an important article. Worth clicking through and reading the whole thing.

8 posted on 03/25/2008 4:57:28 AM PDT by livius
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To: BGHater; Salvation; narses; SMEDLEYBUTLER; redhead; Notwithstanding; nickcarraway; Romulus; ...
Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list


9 posted on 03/25/2008 5:45:44 AM PDT by NYer ("Where the bishop is present, there is the Catholic Church" - Ignatius of Antioch)
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To: BGHater; Salvation; narses; SMEDLEYBUTLER; redhead; Notwithstanding; nickcarraway; Romulus; ...
Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list


10 posted on 03/25/2008 5:46:46 AM PDT by NYer ("Where the bishop is present, there is the Catholic Church" - Ignatius of Antioch)
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To: livius
Magdi Allam agrees with his former co-religionists in repudiating the degraded culture of the modern West, and offers them something quite different: a religion founded upon love.

And forgivness.

The difference between Islam and Christianity is clear. Christians will forgive. Muslims will kill. Killing is the nature of their religion.

The example of Mohamed on forgivness Sahih Muslim, Book 17: 4206

There came to him (the Holy Prophet) a woman from Ghamid and said: Allah's Messenger, I have committed adultery, so purify me. He (the Holy Prophet) turned her away. On the following day she said: Allah's Messenger, Why do you turn me away? Perhaps, you turn me away as you turned away Ma'iz. By Allah, I have become pregnant. He said: Well, if you insist upon it, then go away until you give birth to (the child). When she was delivered she came with the child (wrapped) in a rag and said: Here is the child whom I have given birth to. He said: Go away and suckle him until you wean him. When she had weaned him, she came to him (the Holy Prophet) with the child who was holding a piece of bread in his hand. She said: Allah's Apostle, here is he as I have weaned him and he eats food. He (the Holy Prophet) entrusted the child to one of the Muslims and then pronounced punishment. And she was put in a ditch up to her chest and he commanded people and they stoned her. Khalid b Walid came forward with a stone which he flung at her head and there spurted blood on the face of Khalid and so he abused her. Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) heard his (Khalid's) curse that he had huried upon her. Thereupon he (the Holy Prophet) said: Khalid, be gentle. By Him in Whose Hand is my life, she has made such a repentance that even if a wrongful tax-collector were to repent, he would have been forgiven. Then giving command regarding her, he prayed over her and she was buried.

The example of Jesus on forgivness (John 8:1-11)

But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. "Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?" They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. Straightening up, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more."

11 posted on 03/25/2008 5:57:48 AM PDT by FatherofFive (Islam is an EVIL like no other, and must be ERADICATED)
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To: NYer

A fascinating and important article that everyone should read. Thanks for the ping!


12 posted on 03/25/2008 6:02:03 AM PDT by Miss Marple
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To: BGHater

” thus my mind has been released from the obscurantism of an ideology which legitimates lying and dissimulation, the violent death that leads to homicide and suicide, blind submission and tyranny........

I have discovered for the first time the true and only God, which is the God of Faith and Reason ...”

What a wonderful article. Thank you for posting.


13 posted on 03/25/2008 6:23:23 AM PDT by Varda
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To: livius
Magdi Allam agrees with his former co-religionists in repudiating the degraded culture of the modern West, and offers them something quite different: a religion founded upon love.

Catholicism--the true "Third Way".
14 posted on 03/25/2008 7:10:50 AM PDT by Antoninus (Tell us how you came to Barack?)
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To: BGHater

Outstanding article. If C+L joins in the evangelization, I will (God strengthening me, a sinner) join C+L.


15 posted on 03/25/2008 7:17:07 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Justice and judgment are the foundation of His throne.)
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To: teeman8r; BGHater; PGalt; kalee
Get a load of this on another thread: a list of Benedict XVI's bold list of evangelization initiatives in the Muslim world.

I'm getting excited.

16 posted on 03/25/2008 7:38:46 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (He's XVI ~~ He's beautiful ~~ And he's mine.)
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To: BGHater

Excellent article.


17 posted on 03/25/2008 8:28:04 AM PDT by Biggirl (A biggirl with a big heart for God's animal creation, with 4 cats in my life as proof. =^..^=)
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To: FatherofFive

I wonder if Mohammed would have done it differently had the child been a girl and not a boy.


18 posted on 03/25/2008 3:12:02 PM PDT by BaBaStooey ("Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light." Ephesians 5:14)
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To: BGHater

Maybe so. We’ll see.


19 posted on 03/25/2008 3:13:49 PM PDT by RightWhale (Clam down! avoid ataque de nervosa)
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To: BGHater

Mustard-seed Bump.


20 posted on 03/25/2008 5:02:01 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand (Free New York)
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