EXAMINER.COM: Even crazy Benito Mussolini reacted like a normal human being when a group of Arab ambassadors informed him of their desire to build a mosque in Rome . “There will be a mosque in Rome ,” the Fascist ruler said, “only when a Roman Catholic Church is permitted in Mecca .”
In the city of St Peter , off the foot of Monte Antenne, now stood an edifice that has been called the largest mosque in Europe . Its main hall can take two thousand worshipers. Its significance did not escape Abdul Qayuum Khan, the Pakistani Director of the Islamic Cultural Center in Rome given the right to build the mosque. He told the New York Times that, “Even if it is not the largest … it is the most important mosque in Europe . The simple fact that it is the only one located in the heart of Christianity, in the Mecca of Catholicism, you might say.”
The Catholic Church initial objection to building a mosque in Rome was dropped after the Second Vatican Council in 1965. Thereafter, permission to build was granted by the Italian government to the Islamic Center and a 7-5 acre undeveloped lot was donated. The $40 million building was financed by Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia.
“For centuries, Islam and Christianity were in conflict,” said Paolo Portoghesi, the Chief Architect of the project to the Times. “This is an expression of the opening of dialogue among the different religions.”
This dialogue recently reached its zenith when King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia visited Pope Benedict XV1 at the Vatican . It was the first of such visits ever. And to top it up, President Obama visited Cairo, Egypt and gave a speech aimed at beginning a new conversation with Muslims across the world.
I feel it is a perfect time to discuss Islam and the rest of us. I am psyched that maybe this time, the discussion will be fruitful. As against the discussion we usually have after some Muslims massacre Christians on their streets, burn up churches, hotels and stone foreign embassies because either the moon woke up on the wrong side of the sky or a cartoonist in a cold room in Sweden drew Prophet Mohammed without putting in parenthesis, sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam, Peace Be Upon Him.
Interestingly, King Abdullah can wake up, hop into his private jet and visit the Pope in Vatican but the Pope cannot visit King Abdullah in Mecca . In fact, non-Muslims are not allowed to visit Mecca . King Abdullah can worship in a mosque in Rome but the Pope cannot worship in a church in all of Saudi Arabia . In fact, there is no church in all of Saudi Arabia .
In an article published in the October 18, 2003 edition of La Civilta Cattolica, a journal edited by a group of Jesuits in Rome , the situation of Christians in Muslim countries were described as one burdened by discrimination and often bloody persecution. The article described Islam in all of its history as being in perpetual warlike poise pushing to conquer all it ever came in contact with.
If history can be our guide, the journal tells us that Libya , Tunisia , Algeria , Morocco and Egypt once had vibrant Christian communities from which emerged several important personalities of the early church. These North African countries produced church heavy weights theologians and philosophers like Saint Cyprian, Saint Augustine, Saint Fulgentius, Bishops of Carthage, Hippo and Ruspe respectively. With the conquest of Islam came the total annihilation of Christians in these North African countries, except for Egypt where a tiny Coptic Orthodox Christian community still exist. >>> Rudolf Okonkwo | Wednesday, June 01, 2009
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