The Death of Common Sense: No, Islam is NOT a "Religion of Peace!"

Madrid Train Bombing 2004 - 190 dead, many injured

Must Catholics Believe that Islam is Peaceful

I was disappointed when I read that Msgr. Swetland was promoting the false notion of Islam as a "religion of peace" in a debate with Robert Spencer.  Good grief, any person with eyes to see can tell you it's a religion steeped in violence.

I met Msgr. Swetland once years ago and was impressed with his orthodoxy and his zeal for the pro-life cause, so I was particularly disappointed by his, dare I say silly, statements.


Many today (mostly liberals) say that Islam is a religion of peace -- no, it isn't and devout Muslim leaders testify to that fact. Msgr. Swetland promoting this notion is like an atheist or Protestant telling us what the Catholic faith is. "You know, those Catholics...they worship Mary and pray to statues and don't believe in the scripture. The whore of Babylon in Revelation is the Catholic Church."

Paris theater attack - 2016: at least 129 killed, hundreds hurt.

Who is most able to tell us what Islam is all about? Islamic leaders. Let me share a few of William Kilpatrick's common sense arguments against Msgr. Swetland's opinion that those who disagree are dissenting from the Magisterium. (What a head-shaker!) He first quotes Swetland:

Robert Spencer’s positions seem to be at odds with the magisterial teachings on what authentic Islam is and what Catholics are called to do about it (accept immigrants, avoid hateful generalizations, show esteem and respect, etc.). At least in the area of morals, Robert seems to be a dissenter from the papal magisterium.

Then Kilpatrick replies:

And Fr. Swetland is a dissenter from common sense. The pages of history, the daily news, and Islam’s sacred texts all attest to the fact that Islam is not a religion of peace. Or, to quote the Ayatollah Khomeini, “Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those are witless.” Khomeini was an Ayatollah Usma, a “Grand Sign of God”—an honor bestowed only on the most learned religious leaders. My guess is that the Ayatollah knew a lot more about Islam than Msgr. Swetland does....

2016 Brussels airport attack: at least 34 killed, 200+ wounded

Spencer also observes that what previous popes had to say about Islam contradicts what current popes have said. Which Roman Pontiff must Catholics agree with: “Pope Francis, who declared that ‘authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence,’ or Pope Callixtus III, who in 1455 vowed to ‘exalt the true Faith, and to extirpate the diabolical sect of the reprobate and faithless Mahomet in the East’?”....

The main problem with Msgr. Swetland’s statement, however, is its recklessness. Last week in Crisis I wrote that the Church’s handling of the Islamic challenge may prove to be far more scandalous than its handling of the sex abuse crisis. Church authorities are engaged in what amounts to a cover-up of Islam’s aggressive nature, and Msgr. Swetland is a prime example of this ecclesiastical determination to put a positive spin on everything Islamic. But the stakes involved in doing so are extremely high. As I wrotelast week, “as the gap widens between what Church officials say about Islam and what ordinary Catholics can see with their own eyes, the credibility of the Church may once again come into question as it did during the sex abuse scandals.”

Read the entire article. It's terrific and clear as a bell. Kilpatrick is absolutely correct. As ordinary folk watch the suicide bombers, snipers, truck attacks, etc. with the murderers all shouting "Allahu Akbar"  (Allah is greatest!) we recognize immediately that faith in Islam motivates the attacks. Please stop telling us the grass is blue and the sky is green with orange clouds.

And a final bit for your reflection:

It can be reasonably argued that Church leaders should maintain a prudent silence about Islam’s aggressive nature lest Christians be killed in retaliation. But that is not the same thing as loudly and deceptively proclaiming that Islam is something that it is not—namely, a peaceful religion not unlike Christianity. Monsignor Swetland says Catholics should “show esteem and respect” for Muslims. But where is the respect for Catholics? In asking Catholics to be submissively content with dangerously misleading views on Islam, Swetland betrays a low level of respect for the intelligence of ordinary Catholics.

Unfortunately, lack of "respect for the intelligence of ordinary Catholics" seems to be the default position of many clerics. Which is why articles like this are necessary! Call it the common sense revival. Meanwhile, how many have to die to maintain the fiction of the "religion of peace?" Check out this list of Islamic terrorist attacks in 2016 alone and then ask yourself whether Islam is a "religion of peace" and no more violent than Catholics as Pope Francis alleged recently.