Allam and Benedict: two mustard seeds

Rod, this is great stuff. Thanks. Only discovered "Spenger" thanks to your blog and have started reading him. Some of the Catholic blogs are talking about the Magdi Allam conversion this past Saturday evening at the Vatican. But not the way Spengler has.

One question: who is "Spengler" ? This must be the biggest journalistic riddle since Deep Throat of Watergate fame. Any ideas? Is it you ?

This is one of Spengler's most straightforward essays, and yet it may also be one of his most important.

To paraphrase the pseudonymous writer, Christianity tends to defeat Islam when the war is waged on spiritual grounds.

And to echo Spengler's call: Where are all the Christian missionaries (North American, Latin American, African, Asian and otherwise) who will evangelize the Muslim populations of Europe?

I'm reminded of Matthew chapter 9:35 - chapter 10.

Somethin's a-brewin' abroad...

I am much less sanguine than Spengler is regarding the ability to convert any large number of Muslim's to Christianity. Please keep in mind that Mr. Allam has a professional security detail. Your average Moroccan or Algerian convert in the banlieues of Paris won't have that luxury, and Islam will deal with apostasy in the same way it has always dealt with such matters.

Here is Spengler's take on exactly this scenario:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FK16Aa02.html

"Radical Islam stems from despair in the face of cultural death; precisely for that reason it bespeaks a ghastly indifference toward individual death, analogous to the Mut der Verzweiflung, or courage borne of desperation, that impels the soldiers of a defeated army toward a final charge at the enemy cannon. Absolute certainty informs the faith of the assassin Mohammed B, but it is the certainty of cultural extinction that makes the death of the individual the supreme test of faith."

Mr. Allam's conversion is simply more evidence of this cultural death, not a harbinger of a more hopeful future. When tribal/prmitive culture meets Western globalization and modernity, the tribe opts for or suicide, taking as many with it as possible.

"Me and my brother against my cousin, me and my cousin against the world." Mr. Allam has just joined "the world." God may bless him, but Mr. Allam needs to watch his back.

The Battle of Lepanto was waged on spiritual grounds? I thought it was fought on water.

That the persecutors' motivation differs qualitatively matters little when one is on the rack for his Faith. I suspect the Fruit may be very similar, both in quality and quantity.

Having said that, you are correct in identifying the crucial role of the tribe in Islamic cultures around the world, including in European suburbs, and the differing motivation for persecution in China.

Clearly there is a difference between China, where upwards of 100 million people have become Christians during the past decade, and Muslim communities in Europe. Communism first rooted out traditional society, and then ceased to represent itself as a secular religion, leaving a vacuum. Muslims brought tribal society to Europe with them, although its influence is much attenuated. The Chinese miracle won't be repeated in Europe, to be sure. But it's impossible to know how Muslims will respond to evangelization until it has been tried. European racism is worse than American racism, and youth unemployment in Europe is much worse. European society has left young Muslims on the dung-heap. I don't mean to excuse their violent behavior, but it will be interesting to see what happens if the Church reaches out to them, both through missionary work and Catholic social policy. Most European Muslim youth never speak to Christians. What happens if the kids from Communione e Liberazione seek them out and say, "We love you, and want you to join us"? Muslims don't read the Bible. If they start comparing it to the Koran, something will change. As I wrote, the souls of Muslims are in agony. No one has addressed their spiritual distress. What will occur when it is addressed is not up to us, but I cannot believe that the effort would be fruitless.

Because he is in the communion of saints, able to intercede for us in heaven. That's what the doctrine of the communion of saints, believed in by the Orthodox, the Catholics and some Protestants, means. The saints are as alive as we are.

Jesus fed thousands of people, He was greeted by crowds entering Jerusalem. He was left with John and a few women at the Cross. There are enough "Christians" in Europe in 2008. The Church is not a building. Benedict is just, and only, a Christian. He is acting like it as well.

what happened to the man from K street's posting?

Chuck Colson had a column on Monday that spoke of Muslims converting to Christianity.

http://tinyurl.com/3y6p75

Did anyone else see the so-called moderate Muslim reaction to the conversion?

The head of the Muslim group which is entering into dialouge had several interesting things to say the other day. Below are my paraphrases.

1) Allam is a hater ie Why should any Muslim be upset about this hater converting to Christianity.

2) Allam's mind was probably corrupted at a young age because he was sent to Catholic schools ie there is no threat here to Islam. Only crazy or hateful or corrupted people would ever leave Islam.

3) Benedict has worked to deliberately provoke Muslims and to wreck interfaith dialouge ie His actions contradict his words. He is not trustworthy. He is a big two-faced liar.

4) But Muslims are much bigger people than Benedict. They will continue in the dialouge in spite of his worst behavior like the saintly, spiritually mature, heroically long-suffering types that they are ie we will teach this lying childish person how to act by our better example. We will teach Benedict how to act like a grownup.

Its was really quite a performance. I saw that the story originated from Al-Reuters.

While I would love to think of many following in Allam's footsteps, I'm afraid many more will never even investigate Christianity because of the kind of Muslim spin control just described. Unfortunately, their leaders don't have to go on a rampage. All they have to do is tag Muslim converts as either bad or crazy people. That is enough for most people to not give it a second thought.

Remember the Afghani convert? Abdul Rahman? His sentence was commuted due to his being diagnosed, by Muslim doctors, as mentally insane solely because he had converted. In other words conversion from Islam is a sign itself of mental illness. Then he was spirited out of the country to prevent further contagion.

In other words, we still have a long way to go.

Hey Thomas -

The struggle against violent Islam is quite winnable. Depends on how you define winning.

The goal is not to destroy Islam, but to defang it. There are major forces at work in the world doing just that. Thousands of Muslims are converting to Christianity every day in Africa.

The modern world is leaving the Muslim religion behind. And soon, papers will be uncovered showing that the Koran has been altered and modified by different men, and it is not the eternal word and living embodiment of Allah. Just a book, written by men.

Winning against Islam is happening already. This is their last fight, and they know it.

interesting, i'll be back later