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The
Terrorist Attacks of September 11th
We present here the essential passages of Fr.
Jacques Emily’s letter to the faithful in England, October 2001.
The events that struck
the United States on Monday, September 11th, shocked the world
both by the sheer violence as well as by the cool and calculated determination
with which the emblems of the “invincible American power” have been hit.
It is not our intention to propose a political analysis of these events,
since it has been done already by more qualified and authorized persons.
It is our duty rather as Catholics, to analyse these events in the light
of our faith and to draw conclusions for our Christian life. Indeed,
if the September 11th is an open declaration of war against the western
world, it is obvious that all of us should be concerned by what will happen
in the near future and we must prepare ourselves for this new situation.
Actually an event such as the one on the September 11th, was
not a random event; it simply marks a new step in the escalation of a
war with the intended conquest of the western countries by the Islamic
world. This attack against the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, should
exemplify for many, the striking opposition which exists between two civilizations,
two cultures, two different worlds; the Islamic one and the one we simply
call, Judeo-Christian Democracy (although we know these terms to be so
alien to one another!). Many have refused to admit this opposition, others
have simply ignored it and a large number have never realized the inherent
intensity. After September 11th, it is no longer possible to be oblivious
to such a reality.
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The standard
of the Prophet
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That is why it is
very important for us as Catholics to understand the implications of this
battle, since, for various reasons, the actual political and religious
stakes are deliberately concealed by our leaders. Indeed, the leader
of the interfaith dialogue in the United States, Bishop Brown, just signed
a joint declaration with the Muslim religious leaders, which states: “We
believe that the One God has called us to be men of peace. There is nothing
which is Christian or Muslim, that could justify the terrorist actions”.
At the same time and in the same vein, the European bishops strongly
condemned this unprecedented attack on the American people, saying: “There
is no justification for violence and destruction; there is no theological
foundation for terrorism - not in the Christian, Jewish or Muslim faith”.
Mr. Tony Blair holds exactly the same discourse and declares with a learned
assurance: “ . . . such acts of infamy and cruelty are wholly contrary
to the Islamic faith.”
Since we still want
to believe that these leaders are sufficiently educated and cultured to
know the true nature of Islam, we are obliged, unfortunately, to say that
they are simply and boldly lying. They deceive themselves and they try
to deceive others either to maintain their position to fit the ‘politically
correct’ agenda; or because they fear the consequences of denouncing
the true enemy, by whom, through irresponsible and short-sighted immigration
policies, westerners have effectively surrounded themselves. When
the coward fears the battle, he says to his enemy: “we are friends.”
“Yes, we are”, the enemy answers, ”that is why, if you do not
want me to continue to destroy your cities and your countries, you just
have to surrender!” So, whatever may be the reasons that motivate
our political and religious leaders to vindicate Islam of their
capacity for terrorism, they simply continue to lie and to refuse to address
the true source of this problem. That is why the Islamization of our
western countries will continue to spread, until the Blessed Virgin Mary
intercedes to save what remains of Christian civilization.
Allow me to present
a few quotations from the Koran (alternate spelling: Qur’an, which is
the religious charter of Islam from which the Moslems draw all their moral
and political tenets). These quotes should suffice to convince us of the
real threat that Islam represents for the Church and Christian Civilization.
Let us first quote Mr. Patrick Sookhdeo, director of the Institute for
the Study of Islam and Christianity, speaking of the extremist, violent
nature of Islam:
“ ‘. . . then fight
and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them,
and lie in wait for them, in every stratagem (of war).’ (Surah 9,
verse 5) The note that accompanies this verse in the respected translation
by Abdullah Yusuf Ali states that, ‘when war becomes inevitable it
must be pursued with vigour . . . The fighting may take the form of slaughter,
or capture, or siege, or ambush and other stratagems.’ The World
Trade Centre attack cannot be dismissed as merely the work of a small
group of extremists. The Muslims celebrating the tragedy in America are
doubtless recalling the words of the Koran, urging Muslims to ‘fight
a mighty nation, fight them until they embrace Islam’.” (The Daily
Telegraph, 17 September 2001)
Ultimately, the aim
of Islam is the Islamization of the world as God revealed it to His Prophet:
“He has sent his apostles with the rule of the true religion to make
it triumph over all other religions.” (48, 28) “Fight in God’s
way until all cults will be the one of the unique God”. God then,
sends his believers for the conquest of the world in His name: it is the
Holy War, the well-known Islamic Jihad that commands: “to fight
until they embrace Islam.” “The enemy combatants will, as well, be conquered:
they will be captured and killed according to the custom that God held
previously toward their precursors, for you will not find any change in
God’s custom.”(33, 61) “Believers, fight the unbelievers who are
in your neighbourhood and may they find you harsh.” (9, 123) But the
god of Islam promises reward for his combatants: “God bought for the
believers their persons and their wealth to give them paradise in exchange.
They kill or they are killed. Promise of God in the Thora, in the Gospel
and in the Koran.” (9, 111) Finally, let us quote these last verses
of the Koran, which will give us much to ponder following the events of
September 11th and for those to come? “But, how man cities
did we destroy, which were living in luxury? . . . your Lord would not
have destroyed these cities without having sent in their metropolis, an
apostle to recite our verses” (28, 58-59) “They did not believe
. . . God grab them . . . and they were severely chastised . . . they
were proud . . . They lost” (40, 20-83). “We are going to destroy
the guilty and to install you at their place on this earth.” (14,
14)
The above noted quotations
are sufficiently relevant to show that Islam cannot be considered to be
a normal ‘pacific’ religion. This is a mistake made by many Christians
of the Western nations through naivety and a mind-set moulded by the pervasive
influences to ‘think in a politically correct manner’. Indeed, the actual
leaders of the Islamic countries do not leave us any doubt as to how to
interpret these verses of the Koran. Mr. Alija Izetbegovic, the President
of Bosnia, published an Islamic Declaration wherein he wrote:
“ . . . there is an incompatibility
between Islam and the non-Islamic systems; there is no peace nor coexistence
between the ‘Islamic faith’ and the social and political institutions
which are non-Islamic . . . The Islamic renewal cannot begin without
the religious revolution, but it cannot go ahead and succeed without
the political revolution. Our way does not begin with the conquest
of the political power, but with the conquest of the people. . . Thus,
we must be, first of all, preachers and then soldiers ... The Islamic
movement must and can take power as soon as it will be naturally and
numerically strong enough for not only to destroy the existing power,
but also to build the new Islamic power . . .”
Upon reading the above
passage, the inevitable question remains: How can any religious or political
leader, after such a declaration and an honest consideration of these
quotations from the Koran, dare to proclaim “there is nothing in Islam
which can justify these actions”, when the propagation of Islam, through
subversion and violence, remains the ultimate objective in all their efforts.
The specialists of Islam acknowledge the expansionist propensity and blatant
aggression with which Islam has proceeded to engulf the West since the
time of its foundation to the present day. History itself provides the
testimony for this assertion. The leaders of the Western nations are so
blinded by the rhetoric of their own democratic principles, they refuse
to identify the enemies of the people whom they were elected to govern.
This blindness and cowardice, on the part of the leaders, leave, wide
open, the way for Islam, which, in turn, takes advantage of this weakness
to make (through terrorism, for example) a revolution to overthrow the
West. It is then just one step in a premeditated revolutionary
process, a part of which the world witnessed on September 11th,
and yet, the Western nations do not appear to see or, at least, do not
want to see!
A few years ago, Father
Vincent Serralda, a French priest who lived for fifty years in North Africa
and who can be considered to be an expert on the Islamic World, prepared
a study to analyse the Koran and to warn French families of the danger
of Islam. He wrote, in the preface of his study, the following:
“Islam is always at war,
even when it tries smiling. His war is the extinction of Christianity.
That is what a careful reading of the Koran revealed to me. It is this
combat to death that I am proposing to unveil to the French families
who have not yet suffered the Moslem hostility and who cannot suspect
the pretension of their Imams for a world imperialism”.
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What then, can we
do to save the Church, to save what remains of our Christian Civilization,
from such a peril? Humanly speaking, the battle appears to have been
lost. It should be obvious that it is not a war in Afghanistan that will
solve the problem since Islam has spread worldwide and has been welcomed
in all the Western countries in the name of Democracy. The democratic
system is, indeed, so absurd that in the name of its principles, acquired
through the French Revolution, the democratic countries grant to their
enemies protection and liberty to establish and to develop within their
own nations. Ironically, what kind of hospitality would these same democratic
leaders receive if they would attempt to institute a western democracy
within an Islamic country, for instance Saudi Arabia or North Sudan, and
build there, according to their religion, a Catholic church, a Protestant
Temple or a Synagogue? We know obviously that this inane hospitality of
our present Western world would certainly not be reciprocated.
Oh, the madness of
the modern-democratic man; he is now imprisoned, blinded, tied by the
system that he invented in 1789, a system ‘to make him free’! To free
himself from the sweet yoke of God, man replaced the Rights of God with
the so-called ‘rights of man’, and he is now the chained slave ensnared
by his proud and deceptive motto: Liberty-Equality-Fraternity.
Islam has exploited to the fullest extent this non-sense and weakness
of this system and, like a worm, has devoured the fruit from the inside.
In fact, it is very convenient for Islam that the political and the religious
leaders in the democratic nations dissociate it from these acts of terrorism.
Thus, the day approaches, when powerful enough, Islam will assume control
within the various Western nations through any means conducive to its
thirst for conquest. Until that dreadful time, it continues its clandestine
conquest unimpeded. Interestingly enough, even the literature of the
Sikhs contain references to forewarn the sleeping democratic countries:
“ . . . they aim to make France an Islamic Republic by the year 2015,
and Britain by 2025, through conversions, immigration and high Muslim
birth rates.” The former President of Algeria adds strength to this
statement when he said during a UN tribune: “We will overcome you by
the wombs of our women!” They have the boldness to publicly
announce their intention and our leaders remain complacent, having lost
completely any sense of honour and patriotism; they even work to vindicate
Islam!
Christian civilization,
caught between a dying democracy and a vigorous Islam, appears to be condemned
to imminent death. Islam, like a cancer growing faster and more efficiently
on a weak and sick body, develops and grows on the ruins of Democracy
and Christianity. Democracy and Christianity, having nothing left to oppose
Islam, like the fatally wounded man, imploring the mercy of his torturer,
tries in desperation to avoid the deathblow, offers him . . . dialogue!
It is pitiful, but it is the discourse, unfortunately, that we hear everywhere:
“Let us fight against terrorism. Islam has nothing to do with it,
and thus, let us dialogue with Islam for peace in the world!” The
discourse of the Pope, the recent visit of President Bush to the Islamic
Centre of America, the declaration of Mr. Kissinger, the joint declaration
of the Christian-Islamic Committee; they are all uniting their voices
in this foolish concert, the purpose of which, serves only to give a good,
but none-the-less false, conscience to those who join this tiresome chorus.
Yet, my dear Faithful,
let us not become discouraged and let us, more than ever, have confidence
in the might of Our Queen of Heaven, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and in the
efficacy of her powerful weapon, the Holy Rosary. If humanly speaking,
the situation for the Church and the remnants of a Christian Civilization
appear to be desperate, we know, then, that our hope and our strength
cannot rely on human power, but only on a divine protection. “The
gates of hell will not prevail” and “in the end Her Immaculate
Heart will triumph”. Our combat for the reign of Christ the King in
our society is the true and just cause; this cause will lead us infallibly
to victory.
At the opposite, the
war of the western-democratic nations against terrorism is a useless and
false battle, because, it only considers the consequences of the problem
and not the cause of it. For it to be a useful battle, the centre and
cause of the problem must be attacked. While the West may address to
some extent an aspect of the problem it leaves, in the name and for the
sake of Democracy, the source of the problem untouched. They are hitting
the nail, but not on the head. Thus Islam, methodically perseveres with
the Holy War, to render western civilization impotent, to subject it,
and annihilate it, for the triumph of its false god.
Thus, on a natural
level, the fate of democratic nations is inevitable. These nations, having
betrayed their Christian heritage in 1789, will pay under the Islamic
yoke for their perversities and revolt against the One, True God. Let
us not forget the still very relevant warning of Our Lady at Fatima: “Wars
are God’s chastisement because of sin”. Who would deny that the Western
nations have to pay for their grossly unjust laws of abortion, divorce,
contraception, homosexuality and their licentiousness and immoral behaviour
against Christian modesty? This immorality, which has spread everywhere
like a filthy wind, by sexual education in the schools, television, movies,
books, magazines, immoral dress, etc., is leading so many souls to hell.
Alas, we know that this corruption has been propagated by the enemies
of the Church to de-Christianise our countries and to annihilate Christian
Civilization, and all under the banner of ‘liberty and democracy’.
Thus, we are, in fact,
witnessing two forces radically opposed to each other: on one side, democracy,
which is working to provide people with a corrupt and luxurious materialistic
paradise on earth; on the other side, Islam, which is working to provide
its believers with the same, but as an idyllic paradise in the new garden
of Eden (Surah 9, 44;52;55;78). A confrontation is inevitable and it is
not dialogue that will prevent it, but it is only the conversion of both
parties to the true God and to His Church, which will save the world from
disaster.
In order to have this
conversion occur (and it will occur when Russia is consecrated to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary), this blatant revolt against God and His Christ
will have to be eradicated from the surface of the earth. Unfortunately,
a lot of blood may be shed, as the Blessed Virgin Mary warned us:
“France, Italy, Spain and
England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. Frenchman will
fight Frenchman, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow
which will be appalling. For a time, God will cease to remember France
and Italy because the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been forgotten. The
wicked will make use of all their evil ways. Men will kill each other,
massacre each other even in their homes.” (Our Lady, at La Salette,
1846)
Did the events of
September 11th mark a signal for the beginning of civil wars
in the western nations that our Lady spoke of? God knows! but what we
do know, is that this persecution of Christianity by Islam has been raging
for years in the Third World, to the complete indifference of the western
nations. The following is a list of the slaughters, perpetuated in the
name of Islam; though not exhaustive, it is sufficiently alarming and
speaks for itself:
-Egypt, 1999: At, Al-kosseh,
police arrest all the Christians after the murder of a Muslim. They
were dragged outside the town, beaten and tortured with electricity,
the women and girls were raped and finally several men were crucified.
-Nigeria, 1999: Charia
(Islamic law as the constitution of the country) was proclaimed in June
in the State of Zamfara. Five hundred Christians were killed in one
month. The Governors granted three days to the Christians to demolish
all the churches. Stoning of people and amputation of hands are multifold.
Christians are burnt alive in their houses. In Kaduna alone, Moslems
killed between 400 – 1000 Christians. In the south where Muslims are
the minority, they practise terrorism: on the eve of Christmas, 4 churches
were burnt and 1000 – 2000 Christians slaughtered.
-Senegal, 1999: Interdiction
to build any Christian schools and the transformation of churches into
mosques.
-Indonesia, 2000: In Ambon,
800 Christians were killed and more than 20 churches destroyed. In Jabok,
government troops massacred 22 faithful refugees in a church. Four hundred
and seventy thousand refugees have been obliged to flee from the Muslim
militia to arrive at Ujung Prabang, an island of the Archipelago. The
village of Waai, one of the last Christian villages of Moluccas, was
completely burnt. At Christmas, in Jakarta and its suburbs, 18 bomb
attacks on churches killing 14 people and wounding 119.
-Saudi-Arabia, 2000: 10
Christians, including 5 children, were imprisoned for meeting in a private
place to pray.
-Sudan, 2000: With an
estimated 2 million deaths, the civil war in Sudan is by far the bloodiest
in Africa's recent history. In spite of repeated condemnations by other
nations and human rights groups, the Islamic government in Khartoum
shows no sign of lessening its brutal conduct. The Arab-dominated Islamic
fundamentalist government in Sudan's north has declared a jihad against
the south, which is dominated by animists and Christians. In one day,
122 women and children were deported to the North, all the men having
been killed and their villages razed to the ground. Yei, the most important
city in the South was bombed: 14 dead and 50 wounded. A Christian school
was bombed: 20 children were killed with their teachers.
-Philippines, 2000: The
Muslim group, Abu Sayyaf, abducted 22 children and 8 Christian adults.
The body of Father Gallardo was found with traces of torture. Twenty
one Christians were kidnapped by the Muslim group of Milf, led to a
mosque, tortured and killed. Sept 19, 2001 - Fear of Muslim
guerrillas has compelled a community of Carmelite nuns in Marawi, southern
Philippines, to abandon their convent. The Carmelite nuns arrived in
the area in 1981. In 1986, some of them were kidnapped by Muslim extremists.
Last month, a Columbian missionary from Ireland was killed in Marawi.
-Algeria, 1996-2001: Police
in Algeria recently arrested 16 young people for possessing Bibles and
other Christian documents. Proselytism by Christians is considered a
crime in predominantly Muslim Algeria. Muslims who convert to another
religion risk a death sentence. In May 1996, an armed Islamic group
murdered seven Trappist monks at the monastery in Thibirine. The following
August the same group used a bomb to kill Bishop Pierre Claverie of
Oran.
If we are horrified
by this worldwide Islamic persecution against Christianity, we should
be even more scandalized by the fact that for years, our western nations
did absolutely nothing to protect all these poor people from the slaughter.
So, as a logical consequence, the list is now extended:
-U.S.A., September 11th,
2001: More than 5000 people dead, including thousands whose bodies
are still not found, in the attack against the World Trade Centre and
the Pentagon, with high jacked planes used as suicide bombs.
This tragedy had to
happen to move the western nations to react against such an attack. But,
what sensible person would believe, considering the texts of the Koran
and the list of the world Islamization quoted above, that Islam would
stop its Holy War, because a few bombs will be dropped in the mountains
of Afghanistan? On the contrary, we must fear then that the spiral of
evil will escalate and that our list of horrors will continue to grow.
The western political leaders are perfectly aware of the inevitable issue
of this process, otherwise they would not put all their police and armies
on maximum alert. Still, they will make a war that will not hit the heart
of the problem. Honestly, it is really difficult to imagine more cowardice,
more blindness and, more hypocrisy, in so many people, and all at the
same time! Such are the fruits of liberal democracy!
What can we do then,
in such a desperate situation for the Church and Christian civilization,
which seem to be like defenceless victims waiting for the lion (democratic
West) or the tiger (Islam) to devour them? It is very important, my dear
friends, not to have a defeatist mentality, since, as we said above, we
are going to win this battle. We might have to give our life for it, but
what is life compared to the reward to come, as St. Paul says. If Muslims
are able to sacrifice their lives, hoping, to get a paradise of
carnal pleasures, how much more should Catholics be ready to sacrifice
their lives to surely obtain the paradise of eternal and infinite
spiritual joys!
That is why, in this
gigantic battle that Lucifer wages against everything bearing the name
of Christian, I urge you, once more, to take up with faith, courage and
strength the weapons of the spiritual combat. This spiritual fight is
the first and strongest way to really repel the evil forces. This is not
the first battle that the Church has had against the enemies of God and
Jesus Christ, and in each battle the Church has won resounding victories
when Her ministers and faithful fervently took the spiritual weapons of
prayer and penance.
The story of Judith,
which we have just read in the Breviary, is quite informative and a relevant
example for our time. I strongly encourage you to read and to meditate
on this wonderful story, which shows how God delivered His people from
a situation no less desperate than the one in which we find ourselves.
God listened to the prayers and penance of the priests and people, and
sent Judith, (image of the Blessed Virgin Mary) to cut off the head of
Holofernes (image of the devil). Her Immaculate Heart will triumph, she
will crush the head of the serpent.
“And all the people
cried to the Lord with great earnestness, and they humbled their souls
in fasting and prayers, both they and their wives…And they cried to the
Lord the God of Israel with one accord, that their children might not
be made a prey, and their wives carried off, and their cities destroyed,
and their holy things profaned, and that they might not be made a reproach
to the Gentiles. Then Eliachim the high priest of the Lord went about
all Israel and spoke to them, saying: Know ye that the Lord will hear
your prayers, if you continue with perseverance in fasting and prayers
in the sight of the Lord. Remember Moses the servant of the Lord, who
overcame Amalec that trusted in his own strength, and in his power, and
in his army, and in his shields, and in his chariots, and his horsemen,
not by fighting with the sword, but by holy prayers”. (Judith, 4:
7-12)
What a similitude
between the situation of the Israelites, in Judith’s time, and ours today,
and what a consoling promise from God through his high priest Eliachim!
To the same causes, the same effects. I assure you that we will win this
battle, if, like the Israelites, we have recourse to prayer and penance.
God will then send us the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Judith of the New Testament,
who, by Her prayers and Her intercession, will deliver us from the infernal
enemy. Our Lady is as powerful as an army arrayed in battle and she will
lead the combat for us against the enemies of the Church and Christian
Civilization.
Let us not forget,
that when Europe was threaten by the Islamic invasions, the popes organized
Rosary Crusades, urging the faithful to have recourse to Mary. When the
people began to pray the Rosary to plead for mercy through Our Lady, Europe
was saved and Islam invariably defeated by the intercession of Mary.
She, to Whom nothing can be denied, is so willing to deliver our petitions
to the foot of the Divine Throne when we do as she asks: “pray the
daily Rosary” and “penance, penance, penance”!
In 1571, Pope St.
Pius V organized a great Rosary Crusade throughout all of Christendom.
The graces obtained through this Rosary Crusade enabled the famous victory
of the battle of Lepanto against the Turks. This great victory,
attributed to the intercession of Our Lady, is commemorated on the Feast
of the Most Holy Rosary, on the 7th of October. It is because
of this victory against Islam that St. Pius V gave to Our Lady the glorious
title of Our Lady of Victory.
A century later, the
Turks threatened again to invade Europe. This time it was Pope Innocent
XI who organized another great Rosary Crusade. The victory of Vienna
was the fruit of this Rosary Crusade, we celebrate it on the Feast of
the Holy Name of Mary, the 12th of September.
Again, a century later,
Islam, like an aggressive ram, was pounding on the doors of Europe. Pope
Clement XI in 1717, faithful to the example of his predecessors, organized
another great Rosary Crusade for all Christians and obtained yet another
great victory over Islam. The pope decided, in gratitude to the Blessed
Virgin Mary, to extend the feast of October 7th to the Universal
Church, and to change its name to the feast of the Holy Rosary in order
to remind mankind that it was truly thanks to this powerful prayer that
victory was won.
The commemoration
of these victories of Mary through Her Holy Rosary, enable the Church
to teach her faithful, each and every year, an important lesson on the
power of the Rosary in the History of the Church, thus encouraging us
to follow the example of our Fathers in the Faith. This is why, following
the example of these great Popes (Saint Pius V, Innocent XI, and Clement
XI), who saved Christendom from the peril of Islam by organizing the Rosary
Crusade, we must as well, since the peril of Islam is more imminent than
ever, continue to preach and to spread the Rosary with all our strength.
The Rosary won battles in the past, it is as powerful as ever and, it
will win the present battle, if only we want to make the effort “to
say it well”, as St. Francis of Sales says.
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