Idiotic Clergyman of the Year competition hots up!

As I've said many times before, anyone who attempts to find common ground with Muslims is being idiotic. The common ground is simply not to be found: the Muslims are not here to be friendly, to be good neighbours, or to sit around taking tea with gullible vicars. They are here to conquer, and to dominate. Anyone who seeks to reach an understanding with them will become their dupe.

Not, of course, that this deters Rowan Williams. After the recent displays of idiocy from Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, for the Catholic Church, and Williams' fellow Anglican primate Dr John Sentamu, it appeared that his prospects of winning the coveted Idiotic Clergyman of the Year award for a record sixth time were looking slim. However, his chances have revived after it was revealed that he has been busily grovelling before/extending the hand of friendship to Muslims. Unfortunately, as with the recent attempt of some liberal Norwegian priests to do the same, things didn't go quite according to plan:

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has suffered a serious setback in his attempts to foster Muslim-Christian dialogue after the Malaysian Government banned an interfaith conference he was due to be chairing this week.

Christian and Muslim scholars from around the world had bought air tickets, written papers and begun to pack their bags for the Building Bridges conference, the sixth in a series intended to foster dialogue between the two religions. It was cancelled with just two weeks notice.

The three-day conference was set up in the wake of September 11 and meant to be an annual get-together of Christian and Muslim academics in an attempt to find theological understandings that might help prevent future terrorist attacks.

Theological understandings? Well, I suppose that paying the jizya could be considered a form of theological understanding.

At the first conference, at Lambeth Palace in London six years ago, Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, fêted Tony Blair. In return, the Prime Minister invited the Muslim and Christian scholars to a high-profile reception at Downing Street.

Since then the scholars have met in New York, Qatar and Sarajevo. This year’s seminar in Malaysia was to signal a breakthrough in Muslim-Christian relations in a region where they are particularly delicate.

By which is meant, "where Muslims routinely persecute Christians".

However, it is understood that some influential Muslims believe that Christianity is “not a heavenly religion” and therefore they frown on interreligious dialogue.

Well, fancy that. These Muslims don't like Christians. Rowan Williams appears to be quite astonished by this development, commenting that:

We must keep our bridges in good repair, the bridges for listening and sympathy, hearing the truth from one another, learning what the other’s experience is like.

Which is, like most things he says, essentially meaningless.

The point here is that the Muslims who come out openly and say that they do not like Christianity are the honest ones. They are the ones expressing the views of Muslims in Islamic countries, where Christians are generally subjected to regular violence and discrimination. The ones who come in the guise of "moderates" and profess to be keen on inter-faith harmony, etc, are, to be blunt, usually lying, and we should be especially wary of them.

Blair: The Messiah Years

Yet more evidence emerges of Tony Blair's burgeoning Messiah complex. Not content with having taken Britain to new heights of multicultural glory, he is now planning to single-handedly bring Christians, Jews, and - yes, you guessed it - Muslims together, in a spirit of universal harmony, and brotherly love:

Tony Blair intends to create a global foundation to foster “greater understanding” between the three “Abrahamic faiths” of Christianity, Judaism and Islam after he leaves Downing Street, The Times has learnt.

[...]

Mr Blair, who was enthusiastically reading the Koran even before the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US, said recently: “The tragedy is that as Christians, Jews and Muslims we are all Abrahamic religions. We regard ourselves as children of Abraham but we have fought for so long.”

In a speech in 2006 he referred to a woman protesting about the Pope’s recent visit to Turkey holding a poster which stated that “Jesus was a prophet but not the Son of God”. This, he said, was “elevating the placard to an altogether higher plane of theology”.

He added: “Most Christians are hugely surprised to be told that the Koran reveres Jesus as a prophet. Many Jews, Muslims and Christians are entirely ignorant of the rich Abrahamic heritage we share in common.”

That's what Blair has to say about relations between Muslims on the one hand, and Christians and Jews on the other. Now, what do the Koran and the Hadiths have to say?

O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends one to another. He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them. Lo! Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk.

(Sura 5.51)

Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not that which Allah hath forbidden by His messenger, and follow not the Religion of Truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low.

(Sura 9.29)

And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah, and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah. That is their saying with their mouths. They imitate the saying of those who disbelieved of old. Allah (Himself) fighteth against them. How perverse are they!

(Sura 9.30)

When the last moment of the life of Allah's Apostle came he started putting his 'Khamisa' on his face and when he felt hot and short of breath he took it off his face and said, "May Allah curse the Jews and Christians for they built the places of worship at the graves of their Prophets." The Prophet was warning (Muslims) of what those had done.

(Bukhari 1.8.427)

Allah's Apostle said, "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. "O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him."

(Bukhari, 4.52.177)

"But," the deceitful Muslims and the idiotic dhimmis will say, "such out of context quotations from thousands of years ago tell us nothing about Islam today." So, for them, here are some recent news stories showing just how keen Muslims are on inter-faith understanding:

NAZARETH – Islamic groups held a large militant march down the main streets of Nazareth this weekend, highlighting for some here the plight of Christians in this ancient city where Muslims have become a majority and members of the dwindling Christian population say they suffer regular intimidation.

[...]

"The march is meant to intimidate Christians," said Saleem, a Nazareth Christian resident who asked that his last name be withheld for fear of what he said was "Muslim retaliation" for speaking out.

"It's part of the methods used by the Muslims in very obvious ways to create an atmosphere where the Christians should know the Muslims are the main power and we are not welcome anymore," Saleem said.

Not very friendly now, is it? Perhaps Tony will be able to talk them out of it. And, anyway, these were only a "tiny minority of extremists" (TM). Thank God (or should that be Allah?) for the vast majority of moderate Muslims. Like Yousef al-Qaradawi, described be Ken Livingstone as a "progressive figure" in Islam:

Top Islamist cleric Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi has delivered a speech on Qatari television calling on Muslims to murder Jews in "in the name of Islam." The speech has been translated by the Arabic translation service MEMRI.

On February 25, Qaradawi told viewers: "Everything will be on our side and against Jews on (Judgment Day); at that time, even the stones and the trees will speak, with or without words, and say: 'Oh servant of Allah, oh Muslim, there's a Jew behind me, come and kill him. They will point to the Jews."

Do you know, I think that the Blessed Tony may just have bitten off more than he can chew. Of course, that hasn't stopped him before. And I'm sure that the nice friendly Muslims in suits will play along nicely, sitting and smiling with whatever rabbis and priests are foolish enough to be involved in this, before going back to their Mosques and commanding the followers to wage war against the very people with whom they maintain a pretence of friendship.