Official Church position on Islam

I dont know about the Catholics, but I know Christian's that say that Islam,or Muslim or whatever, is an evil wicked religion. You should avoid them but if you cant, then let them know you are Christian.

My experience of Muslims I know personally is that they are exceptionally kind and generous people and they have been very faithful to me as friends. I work in the nursing profession where some of my colleagues who are Muslim have humbled me by their high standards of compassion and care towards the sick, injured and vulnerable.
Whether or not we agree with the teachings of a faith different to our own, I think it is important to remember that most people in this world who follow a particular religion are doing so because they are striving to become better, kinder and more compassionate people. It is right to highlight the problems caused by extremist groups, but I feel it is wrong for any church to tarnish people of goodwill whose only intention is to go about their life peacefully. One of our ten commandments tells us not to bear false witness and Romans 13:10 states that love does no harm to its neighbour. I feel our churches are often guilty of doing this when they use propaganda against innocent people for their own advantage.

KisKatte said:

Halo,

I am not catholic. I am more some kind of christian orthodox. But I was curious about the topic, is there a official church position towards Islam in the catholic church? Is it true that the church helps the Muslim Groups to receive aknowledgment in the countries they live? Hamed Abdel Samad cirticizes Islam as a faschistic ideology with a lot of dangers, and says catholic church would support Islam as a group of believers to gain aknowledgment in the countries they live in, to gain money from the state and so on... to be accepted as a religion. And he is against it.

Christians all over the world seem to suffer from muslims, according news.....

Does Church not better distance themselves from such aggressive religions? Does somebody know about catholic politics and life in such countries?

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There is not a lot of official teaching of the Catholic Church about Islam. What little that does exist officially is in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. See paragraph 841. Here is an article explaining that:
The Catechism of the Catholic Church on Islam

Pope Francis claims Islam is a religion of peace. But I'm not sure he knows from which he speaks when he says that. There are many peaceful Muslims, but Islam is a religion of Jihad. For more information on that I refer you to Father James Schall's book 'On Islam: A Chronological Record 2002-2018'. Islam is not overall peaceful even though most Muslims I have known have been good people.

Pope Benedict said Muslims should act peacefully if they say they are a religion of peace. He said this at a speech in Regensburg ten or so years ago. Muslims rioted and killed people in anger over what pope Benedict said, because they wanted to emphasize that Islam was a religion of peace. http://sumtercatholic.homestead.com/files/Pages/Forms-n-Information/20060912-Benedict-Regensburg.pdf

JeraldPullen said:

I dont know about the Catholics, but I know Christian's that say that Islam,or Muslim or whatever, is an evil wicked religion. You should avoid them but if you cant, then let them know you are Christian.

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Well, this is the Catholic forum and she did ask specifically for Catholic teaching on the subject.

Sure is a religion of peace until they decide to kill you.
It's a good idea to leave these people alone.

KisKatte said:

Than it would be difficult for the church to discuss this matter officialy.

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Well, you do have people out there who would kill you if you said Islam is not a religion of peace. Defending how peaceful Islam actually is with ... violence.

But as I said, the official teaching about Islam is rather short, and in paragraph 841 of the Catechism. The rest is rather unofficial.

I believe that islam is indeed a harmful religion, one might say ideology. It was established in a violent fashion, expanded in the same manner, and often seek violence even today.

To many scholars seem to focus to much on two things. The first is the Qur'an. They tend to ignore or bypass the importance of the hadiths. One doesnt have to spend much time reading the hadiths before one acknowledges its extreme content.

Its very antichristian in so many ways. Its violent, and its highly carnal. Its resentment towards more or less, all of the christian moral codex is remarkable.

The second mistake modern scholars tends to commit, is to read all islamic violemce and intolerance into a sociopolitical, and socioeconomic framework.
The reason muslims are angry and resentful, and highly aggressive is due to western suppression, they claim.

Theyre acting out due to being marginalized. It has nothing to do with islam they continue.

This argument is plain stupid. Its ridiculous to reduce the violent complexity of islam to such factors alone.

I mean, there has always been powerty in marginalized christian and jewish groups, and fact is that we've never acted out as they do.
Like a group theyre far more agressive, and violent than we are.

As for interreligious conversations i tend to believe in our shared human core. They have to have some sort of reason hidden under layers, of layers of islamist ideology.

As a part of the human species, i believe in dialouge with them.
There has to be some room for some peace and some coexistence. This has to be reached. A highly differentiated consensus should be possible.

That being said islam is of the devil. If one follows it faithfully as a good muslim, then its bound to be linked with violence.
Dialouge however has to be established and upheld for the sake of our persecuted brethren.

If we're able to reduce the violence just one tiny bit, its all worth it.

Stabat said:

I believe that islam is indeed a harmful religion, one might say ideology. It was established in a violent fashion, expanded in the same manner, and often seek violence even today.

To many scholars seem to focus to much on two things. The first is the Qur'an. They tend to ignore or bypass the importance of the hadiths. One doesnt have to spend much time reading the hadiths before one acknowledges its extreme content.

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I fully agree with you about the Hadiths.

Anthony2019 said:

My experience of Muslims I know personally is that they are exceptionally kind and generous people and they have been very faithful to me as friends. I work in the nursing profession where some of my colleagues who are Muslim have humbled me by their high standards of compassion and care towards the sick, injured and vulnerable.
Whether or not we agree with the teachings of a faith different to our own, I think it is important to remember that most people in this world who follow a particular religion are doing so because they are striving to become better, kinder and more compassionate people. It is right to highlight the problems caused by extremist groups, but I feel it is wrong for any church to tarnish people of goodwill whose only intention is to go about their life peacefully. One of our ten commandments tells us not to bear false witness and Romans 13:10 states that love does no harm to its neighbour. I feel our churches are often guilty of doing this when they use propaganda against innocent people for their own advantage.

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An official teaching of Islam is that every Jew has to be killed before any Muslim can be resurrected on the last day. It is also a fact of history that when the prophet Muhammed died, the bulk of Arabians rejected Islam because they thought that with his death they would be free of it. But his successor gave the Arabians a choice - return to Islam or die. As a result multitudes of Arabians were mercilessly killed because they refused. It is also a fact of history that every country that was taken over by Islam was taken over by the sword. The Koran itself is clear in that it teaches that every "infidel" (those who refuse to embrace Islam) are to die. In fact in every Middle Eastern country that has adopted Sharia Law, Jews and Christians have been executed.

What is really scary is that Islam is having an increasing influence in England. It may be not if but when that parts of England will adopt Sharia Law as Muslim gain power, and then we will see Jews and Christians persecuted. Already, many Christians have been punished by the "hate" law because they have spoken out against the increasing influence of Islam in their city.

So, if you think Islam is a religion of peace and the people in it are kind and tolerant people, watch and see what happens when Sharia Law becomes law in your city. You never know, they might come for you!

The Church acknowledges Muslims as believers in one god. But to be saved, monotheism is not enough.

Pope John Paul II extended some gracious words towards Muslims and acknowledged their very real piety and faith, while pointing them towards Christ, crucified.

Even to this day, Catholic Christians are martyred by Muslims for their refusal to embrace Islam, and deny their Catholic Christian faith. Many other Christians are martyred, too.

Islam is not a religion that practices tolerance towards others; it is always striving for the "top dog" position, and once they reach it, it's their way or no way----you can convert, or die. I am also not an admirer of the way the Muslim culture treats women; females in Islam are treated as chattel slaves at best, worse than dogs at least. It is not a faith that I bear any positive feelings towards. Perhaps that makes me wrong. I don't know. But in my view, Islam is simply another totalitarian system, just like Fascism and Communism: intolerant of any other belief, and utterly incapable of assimilating within any other culture but its own.

Wolseley said:

Islam is not a religion that practices tolerance towards others; it is always striving for the "top dog" position, and once they reach it, it's their way or no way----you can convert, or die. I am also not an admirer of the way the Muslim culture treats women; females in Islam are treated as chattel slaves at best, worse than dogs at least. It is not a faith that I bear any positive feelings towards. Perhaps that makes me wrong. I don't know. But in my view, Islam is simply another totalitarian system, just like Fascism and Communism: intolerant of any other belief, and utterly incapable of assimilating within any other culture but its own.

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My experience was from two years embedded with a Muslim family in an almost exclusively Muslim town in a majority Muslim country. They were Sunni of the Maliki school which was heavily influenced by the Sufis. As such, they were not likely to slit anyone's throats. I had pleasant conversations with the local Imam, who issued no fatwas against me. He was actually a bit curious. Of course our discussions were in the Mandinka language so I'm not totally sure what he or I were really saying. This was at the time the US hostages in Iran. These people kept apologizing TO ME for what those Muslims were doing.

There are two points I want to make. Not all Muslims are equal. And individually most Muslims will be decent people. Islam grew by the sword, and it has a violent core to it, even while many Muslims are not violent. That's different than Christianity, which at it's core is peaceful even if there are some violent Christians. We have to meet Muslims as they are, and we should be offering them what we know about the salvation that comes from Jesus Christ. They need it.

The 2nd Vatican Council documents say that "the plan of salvation includes the Muslims", but I do not believe that any of us know exactly what that phrase means.

chevyontheriver said:

My experience was from two years embedded with a Muslim family in an almost exclusively Muslim town in a majority Muslim country. They were Sunni of the Maliki school which was heavily influenced by the Sufis. As such, they were not likely to slit anyone's throats. I had pleasant conversations with the local Imam, who issued no fatwas against me. He was actually a bit curious. Of course our discussions were in the Mandinka language so I'm not totally sure what he or I were really saying. This was at the time the US hostages in Iran. These people kept apologizing TO ME for what those Muslims were doing.

There are two points I want to make. Not all Muslims are equal. And individually most Muslims will be decent people. Islam grew by the sword, and it has a violent core to it, even while many Muslims are not violent. That's different than Christianity, which at it's core is peaceful even if there are some violent Christians. We have to meet Muslims as they are, and we should be offering them what we know about the salvation that comes from Jesus Christ. They need it.

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I disagree with the Islamic theological tradition, but who decides the "true" Islamic teaching if there is a more violent and a more peaceful interpretation? How could there be a legitimate authority to decide such a matter in a false religion?

As regards Muslims, I believe they ought to be treated as individuals like anyone else, and judged according to their own character. And I also believe we ought to behave ourselves charitably toward our neighbors.

I start to see the contour of a consensus here. Islam is evil, and false, but muslims has to be treated with the same amout of respect individually as the rest of us, capiche?

That makes perfect sense to me. As a group however we should treat them with caution imo.
They represent a certain set of values that are rather far from that of the jedo-christian tradition.

But let me once again stress the openness we should meat individuals with. I believe it's important to keep two thoughts in mind at the same time.
Islam, and their respective groups are a danger, and a possible danger, in that order.

That being said ive yet to meat two christians who are the same, and should expect the same divesity in muslims as with us.
Essentialism is a dangerous ideology that we are to avoid.

Ideology, as islam is dangerous, but people varies...

Basil the Great said:

The 2nd Vatican Council documents say that "the plan of salvation includes the Muslims", but I do not believe that any of us know exactly what that phrase means.

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Jimmy Akin gave it a good and even compelling explanation here: The Catechism of the Catholic Church on Islam

everbecoming2007 said:

I disagree with the Islamic theological tradition, but who decides the "true" Islamic teaching if there is a more violent and a more peaceful interpretation? How could there be a legitimate authority to decide such a matter in a false religion?

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When you read the Quran, there is a peaceful and a violent thread. The peaceful thread is from the days Mohammad did not have political or military power and had to rely on the mercy of others. The violent thread is from after he had political and military power, which he learned well how to use. Which is the real Islam? The latter I would argue.

The Hadiths are important in figuring out Islam. They confirm the violent thread of the Quran. Mohammad ended up a violent man, founded a violent movement, and the violence of Islam is true to it's founder.

Perhaps Islam can have a reformation. It would need the excision of the later Mohammed from the texts of Islam. I'm not sure that has much of a chance, and yet the Sufi's have become more or less peaceful. I don't know the history as to how they did it though. Whether or not Islam in general has a reformation, at present the fundamental Islam is a violent religion. The truest Islam is a violent Islam. Not that every Muslim is violent, for most are not. But at it's core of cores Islam is violent.

It's up to individual Muslims to make a stand. The best stand they could take, in my opinion, is to become Catholic and give up on Mohammad. He's a prophet of violence, in a religion violent to it's core. The 'dialogue' we should be having with Muslims is one where Jesus the sacrificial lamb is compared to Mohammad the sword wielder.