Card. McCarrick “embraces” Islam?

The Daily Caller has this:

Catholic Cardinal McCarrick Embraces Islam

Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick offered Islamic religious phrases and insisted that Islam shares foundational rules with Christianity, during a Sept. 10 press conference in D.C.

“In the name of God, the Merciful and Compassionate,” McCarrick said as he introduced himself to the audience at a meeting arranged by the Muslim Public Affairs Council. That praise of the Islamic deity is an important phrase in Islam, is found more than 100 times in the Koran, and is akin to the Catholic prayer, ”In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.[?!?]

McCarrick next claimed that “Catholic social teaching is based on the dignity of the human person… [and] as you study the holy Koran, as you study Islam, basically, this is what Muhammad the prophet, peace be upon him, has been teaching.”

McCarrick was 71 when 19 Muslims brought Islam to the public eye by murdering 3,000 Americans on 9/11. He is one of the 213 Cardinals of the Catholic church, but is too old to vote in church debates.

Either the cardinal has studied the whole thing and does not know what he’s talking about, or he is making a somewhat misleading statement,” said Michael Meunier, head of the U.S. Copts Association. “The practice of the Muslim majority people that adhere to the Koran… have proven that [claim of equivalence] is not correct,” he told The Daily Caller during a Sept. 11 trip to Jordan.

Has Cardinal McCarrick converted to Islam?” asked a scornful critic, Robert Spencer, the best-selling author of many books on Islam.

“‘Peace be upon him’ is a phrase Muslims utter after they say the name of [their reputed] prophet… [so] probably he is unaware of the unintended Islamic confession of faith he has just made,”said Spencer, who runs the Jihadwatch.org website.

McCarrick is wrong to say “that Islam teaches the dignity of every human person,“ Spencer said. “Actually it teaches a sharp dichotomy between the Muslims, [who are called] ‘the best of people’ and the unbelievers [are called] ‘the most vile of created beings,’” Spencer told TheDC.

“The Koran also says: ‘Muhammad is the apostle of Allah. Those who follow him are merciful to one another, harsh to the unbelievers,’” Spencer said.

The same warning came from Archbishop Amel Nona, who was head of Chaldean Catholic Archeparch of Mosul in Iraq. In a August comment made to Europeans, he said that “You think all men are equal, but that is not true: Islam does not say that all men are equal [and] your values are not their values.”

“If you do not understand this soon enough, you will become the victims of the [immigrant] enemy you have welcomed in your home,” said Nona, who is now exiled — along with surviving Chaldean Catholics — in the Kurdish city of Erbil.

[…]

Read a lot more of the devastating account over there.

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21 Comments

  1. djc says:

    Does anyone really wonder why the church has suffered such an incredible decline when Cardinals, who essentially run the church, utter such statements?

    Amazing, just amazing.

  2. TomG says:

    Whatever difficulties we might think we have with some of Cardinal Wuerl’s actions (or inactions), I think we should be thankful :)!

  3. Suburbanbanshee says:

    As long as he hasn’t said the Shahada (the “there is only one God and Mohammed is his prophet” line, which denies the Trinity and signs onto Islam in one fell swoop), he hasn’t embraced Islam.

    OTOH, it’s true that “peace be upon him” isn’t the same as saying “rest in peace.”

    And despite how amusing it is to watch Muslim women make men squirm with the letter of the Quran in chronologically early parts, the entire interpretation structure of the Quran and the ahadith traditions is toward giving more freedom early on, to attract support, and then removing them once people had bought into Islam. Very typical of a lot of cults, actually.

    I find it disturbing that the Cardinal doesn’t have a heart for the suffering of Islamic women, or is willing to cover it up for the sake of “peace.”

    There is tyranny even in little things. Islam denies the adoption of children in any form that gives them the rights and protections of sons and daughters. Why? Because Mohammed had an adopted son who married a pretty girl, and obviously it wouldn’t have been right to steal the wife of a _real_ son. So obviously Allah would tell his prophet that adoption is wrong, and that therefore forcing some random guy (whom you used to treat as family) to give over his wife is okey-dokey!

  4. Charlie Cahill says:

    I am aware of an Archbishop in Canada,who in a talk to his priests, referred to Mohammed as a real and true prophet like the prophets of the O.T.
    Having reached the canonical age he has been retired for some years.
    His words at that time continue to live on in the minds of some of his priests.

  5. YoungLatinMassGuy says:

    I don’t understand certain parts of Christendom…

    It’s not like any of this is a secret. It’s not like there aren’t many translations of the qur’an to read out there for little to no cost. It’s not like the qur’an is this mighty tome that weights 50 pounds, it can be read. It’s not like the foundation of islam is a complete secret that costs millions of dollars to access. It’s not like the history of islam is a complete secret, known only to a select few. It’s not like the history of muhammed is a total mystery, (We know which side of the road he spit on f’rcryin’outloud!)

    I don’t get why there are people out there who want to make islam into something that it is not.

    Things are going to (have to actually) get worse before they get better I’m sad to say.

    Our Blessed Mother, Pray For Us.

  6. anilwang says:

    I think part of the problem comes from Vatican II and the Catechism’s description of Islam. Both say the Muslims claim to believe the same God and are included in God’s plan for salvation.

    It really means what one means by “the same God”. If you mean a single God who created all things including time, space, and the universe, and is omniscient, omnipotent, and has mercy on his creation, then yes Muslims believe in the same God. If you look at other religions, only the Abrahamic faiths actually believe this. All others believe that God is either the universe itself, or a superior being within the universe, or a superior being within a universe that created our universe.

    If however, you mean that God is a Father that make covenants with his people, then no. Such an idea is extremely offensive to Muslims. In the view of Muslims God is Master not Father and we are less than pond scum compared to God, and to even think that God would bind himself to any promise with pond scum, or for pond scum to approach God as father would be the worst form of arrogant blasphemy one could believe and the Our Father is blasphemy.

    In contrast, Jews firmly believe in God’s covenant and have no problem uttering the Our Father so long as they make clear that they make clear that they are praying to the God of Shema Yisrael (which Catholics can also affirm), not the Trinity (which Jews see as blasphemy but Catholics also affirm).

    I really wish a clarification was made for both Vatican II and the Catechism on this and other points, but I don’t see that happening any time soon.

  7. TWF says:

    First we are told that ISIS is “not about religion”…and now this. The Liberal Elite continue to preach their gospel: Islam is a religion of peace. We were told time and time again that only a tiny, almost imperceptible percentage of Muslims support terrorism. If this were true, ISIS would not have the power it has. We will continue to be in jeopardy until we confront the issue: there is a strong, terrifying strain of violence within Islam. School teachers are forbidden from uttering the word “Christmas” during the “Winter Break” (as schools in Canada now refer to what used to be Christmas holidays) – as there is now no higher law in the land than this: Do not offend Muslims (or gays, or..[insert minority of the week]. Meanwhile, I noticed last fall that the Old City Hall in Toronto had put up (or allowed someone to put up) a large billboard, right on the front lawn, wishing the whole city a “blessed Ramadan”.

    I’ve had Muslim friends. There are millions of good and decent Muslim people…but I will not close my eyes to the very real danger and the double standards.

  8. xavier217 says:

    On some Islamist website, this is tagged “Brick by Brick”.

  9. PA mom says:

    The remainder of this article struck me as a very good presentation of the theological problems within Islam. It contains precisely the kinds of line by line inquiry that I think should be discussed within journalism at large and answered by the Muslim community on behalf of all of those being hurt by the application of these lines.
    I have started to read some of the Qu’an. It is online. I am struck by the negative tone of it, with lots of condemnation and even suspicion of those who say they believe but don’t in their hearts. Christianity certainly contains some of the same admonitions against superficial faith, but I guess that since it is not calling for Christians to physically punish other Christians whom they perceive to be in a less than ideal state, then it certainly seems less decisive. The physical part of the punishments raises the stakes of it, keeping it at a feverish pitch.

    It is overall an informative article. Too bad it begins with a Cardinal having problems in the execution of the theology of Catholicism.

  10. HeatherPA says:

    Reminds me of the 78 year old guest priest that read the Koran from the pulpit and said Muslims are just as holy as Catholics.
    When will this generation just be a bad memory?

  11. I hope we get over this idea that Islam is a religion of peace. I don’t recall that it was spread any other way than covert or die.Its’ a shame the Crusades didn’t eradicate it.
    Ok. There’s good Muslim people. It’s still an aberrant religion or whatever you want to call it. IMHO it’s a death cult and the good Muslim people would be better off leaving the so called religion of peace.

  12. Wow. Just plain wow.

    It’s no wonder the Church is in the state it’s in.

  13. Juergensen says:

    “as you study the holy Koran”

    Is Cardinal McCarrick saying the Koran is the Word of God? Wow.

  14. Long-Skirts says:

    In 1990, Lefebvre was convicted in a French court and sentenced to pay a fine of 5,000 francs when he stated that, as a result of Muslim immigration into Europe, “it is your wives, your daughters, your children who will be kidnapped and dragged off to a certain kind of places as they exist in Casablanca”.

    “And he said: Amen I say to you, that no prophet is accepted in his own country.” Luke 4:24 (Douay-Rheims Bible)

  15. Fr. Erik Richtsteig says:

    Senility is a sad thing. Of course, it is even more sad if this is not due to senility.

  16. EoinOBolguidhir says:

    Today the well known site Pewsitter linked to this video of a man who really understands Islam and who really understands Catholicism and who bears true witness to the Church.

    http://abyssum.org/2014/09/09/this-is-the-most-compelling-catholic-testimony-you-may-ever-hear/

  17. Tom says:

    Well, he’s not exactly a recent “convert” to Islam. He said something roughly the same thing in 2005 while still Ordinary in D.C.

  18. Charles E Flynn says:

    From Islam, Violence, and the Nature of God: Where and why Catholics agree—and disagree—with Muslims, by Dr. R. Jared Staudt, for the Catholic World Report:

    Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God? A number of prominent Catholic apologists and bloggers have addressed this question recently. This essay will briefly summarize and comment on each of their arguments. It will then present some further thoughts arguing that the question requires assistance from philosophy: how do we know God correctly, or more precisely, how do we get knowledge of God wrong?

  19. AvantiBev says:

    I have admired Robert Spencer – a Melkite Rite Catholic I believe – for the past 13 years. He has been vigilant, courageous and unflagging in his devotion to the truth. For this he has suffered a kind of bloodless martyrdom denigrated even by many of our bishops – weenies that they are. God bless Mr. Spencer and keep his whereabouts unknown and he and his family safe!!!!

  20. I have been scanning the comment queue and I see no reason to keep the combox open. Enough has been said about this…. event.

  21. Pingback: When The Catholic Press Fail the Church - BigPulpit.com

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