Threat of Islamization

The West, specifically the secular West, was issued a warning recently and from what many might consider an unlikely source. The Archbishop of Kirkuk in Iraq, Louis Sako, in an interview with SIR, the Italian bishops' news agency, stated that the West, blinded by its secular perspective, is incapable of understanding the threat posed by the growing Islamization of the Middle East, an area he labels a "scary volcano."

According to the archbishop, the "reawakening of Islam" has generated "forces and movements that wish to change the Middle East, creating Islamic States, caliphates, in which Shariah (law) rules.” He then stated that “The western mentality does not allow it to fully comprehend this risk." He went on to describe the "void" between the West, and its privatization of religion, and the Middle East where politics and religion cannot be separated and where "religion pervades all." He believes that the international community will be unable to react appropriately to this growing movement simply because it does not understand the reality of Islamization and fails to appreciate the seriousness of the threat.

Archbishop Sako, like most Iraqi Christians, is not at all optimistic about the long-term future of Egypt. He has seen in his own country what religious and ethnic divisions can lead to and expects the same to occur in Egypt. (Nine members of Kirkuk's Christian community have been murdered and over 100 injured as a result of extremist violence.) Just as his own flock has suffered, the Christians of Egypt will likely have to carry the burden of similar sufferings.

I must say, I tend to agree with the archbishop. Most of the people I have talked to about the events in Egypt are enthusiastic about that nation's future because the "revolution" was seemingly led by people with secular rather than religious aims. But what we forget is that for Muslims, particularly those in the Middle East, there are no completely secular aims. As the archbishop said, Islam "pervades all" and, ultimately, the extremists will move into positions of power.

Read the full story here: Iraqi Archbishop Warns the West