Three Things About Islam That Should Concern You and One Thing That Will Encourage You

As I have mentioned on several occasions, Islam is quickly moving towards becoming the dominant faith and political force in Europe. Three things that should give all non-Muslims a reason to worry and then one positive thing to ponder:

1. Father Joseph Fessio, Catholic Priest and founder of Ignatius Press, was interviewed on Hugh Hewitt's radio show yesterday. The interview was important in the insights it gives to Pope Benedict XVI's view of the rise of Islam in the West. One simple point, however, stood out as worthy or repeating here:

" I think there are 98 Islamic countries in the world, and 97 of them do not have religious freedom . . . And that's what's going to happen to Europe. Once there's an Islamic majority, it is . . . going to eliminate religious freedom . . . and therefore, Western civilization as we know it."

(Read the whole interview here and Hugh's excerpts and comments here).

2. Part of that lack of religious freedom includes the fundamental tenet of faith that, once a person has become a Muslim, they are never allowed to renounce it apart from being under a sentence of death. A corollary to this is that the freedom to practice other religious beliefs in Muslim countries is either restricted or forbidden. (Read more about this here)

3. Some radical Muslim gang members in England have apparently carried this concept even further, telling another youth, in June 2004, that if he did not convert to the Muslim faith by the following Wednesday they would kill him. On Wednesday the boy's mother heard gunshots coming from a nearby park and wondered if it might have been her son. It turned out it was. He had been shot to death in the head. This sort of threat has few historical precedents in Islam. But it does show the level of radical insanity that is accompanying this new, intolerant and lethal strain of grassroots Islamisicism around the world.

The bright spot?

Father Fessio passed on to Hugh Hewitt one other, more hopeful, thought:

". . . (I)n the United States, we also are not having children. There's abortion. There's contraception. There's the ideal of a one or two child family. But where is our immigration coming from? From Ecuador, from Mexico, from Cuba, from Guatemala. And these people are Christians. And so, I believe without being...you know, having hubris as an American, I believe that Christians in the United States are the ones who will be able to save not just Christianity, but Western civilization, if we maintain our fidelity to the scriptures, our fidelity to Christ, our fidelity to family life, and our fidelity to fertility and fruitfulness in marriage. So I believe we are in a world historical century, which is going to depend upon the strength of Christianity in these United States."

Is it possible that, within the next two generations or less, it could come to this?

It is possible. It is likely. Yes.