On September 12 2006, Pope Benedict XVI closed a door on improving relations with many Muslims when he quoted a phrase from 14th century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos during his Regensburg lecture. The quote said:Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached (Pope Benedict XVI quoting a medieval emperor)Pope Benedict later…stated that he disagreed with the quote’s negative depiction of Islam, acknowledging Islam as a great religion and the Quran as a holy book. On the other hand, the Pope went on in the same Regensburg lecture to say that the Quranic verse:There is no compulsion in religion (Quran, 2:256)was abrogated, or made redundant, by other Quranic verses regarding “holy war”. There are two schools of thought in Islam regarding abrogation: one believes in it, the other does not. It is tough to know, with particular reference to this verse, which school is dominant and which one is on the rise or decline…
The Batman 
One of the authors at www.newreligion.eu yesterday published a refutation of the Islamophobic comments by Pope Benedict XVI which have been presented above. The entire post is worth a read, but the paragraphs reproduced above really struck us as they perfectly highlighted some of the problems the Muslim world faces. For example, there is the issue of abrogation which means the anullment of various Quranic verses by other verses. This is an extremely controversial issue and its very difficult to find any consensus among Muslim scholars as to which verses have been abrogated.
Categories: ISLAM
Did Promised Messiah(a.s.)made a prophecy that a certain Pope will resign?
How does this becomes a proof?
Please,will somebody explain this?
Dear Mr. Anwar: There is no specific prophecy about a certain pope resigning. If you read carefully books written by Promised Messiah he mentions clearly the institutional erosion of Catholic Church and Christianity as a whole within a couple of hundred of years. As you know the resignation of Pope is only a manifestation of serious problems within the Catholic Church which have to do with child abuse, peadophilia, a powerful gay lobby and financial corruption, all signs of a decaying institution.Thanks
Well i cant see that erosion of the church. The child abuse cases by some catholic priests in earlier times were just hidden. That does not mean they did not happen. Moreover it is still more likely as a child to be abused by another institution than the church but then the media, who in europe are very hostile towards the catholic church, wont report in this. This way the impression appears that all the priests are pedophiles and child molesters. There were also cases of imams who have beaten and abused children. They were only reported in small newspapers and not for weeks throughout the country. Is now islam because of that decaying? I dont think so. Catholicism is still growing but even more protestant denominations. If at all you could say Catholicism is losing members to protestant denominations especially in southern america. But they are also christian. So the decay of christianity I cant see personally. Just a shift to smaller units, the house churches, the especially exist in muslim or communist countrys where christianity or apostasie is not allowed. Just like in the early beginnings of christianity in the roman empire. There was no institution like the catholic church or the pope. Just these house churches.
Dear Tarkan: I reproduce below an extract from the article that you comment on. May be good to take a look again and read carefully.
“Europe has traditionally been the home of Christianty, but as the Guardian and others have noted, the religion is dying. Churches continue to close and although people may continue to nominally belong to the Catholic church or some other church, in reality barely any of them practice or even so much as believe in God. Eurobarometer took a poll in 2005 asking how many people still believed in God and the results can be seen in the graphic to the left. In many, or perhaps most, traditionally Christian countries the results are astonishing and the people no longer believe in God. Even a few decades ago, almost the whole of Europe was Christian. Now there is virtually no part of the continent where the majority of the people are practicing Christianity and instead we see Islam spreading rapidly and there are now almost 50 million Muslims in Europe. Christianity has never been so weak since it became the continent’s religion well over a thousand years ago. This an incredible fulfillment of The Holy Prophet s.a.w’s prophecy:
Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah’s Apostle said: “The Hour will not be established until the son of Mary descends amongst you as a just ruler, he will break the cross..” (Bukhari)The Holy Prophet s.a.w prophecised that the coming messiah would break the power of the Christian church, which is universally symbolised by a cross. This prophecy can only be interpreted as referring to Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, as Christianity has had its power broken in front of our eyes so much so that the Pope himself openly admits it. The prophecy also states that the messiah will come in the latter days and he will be a just ruler (meaning he will clearify issues of controversy such as abrogation and jihad by ruling justly on them) and that he will set about a series of events which will destroy the power of Christianity, something that has happened in exactly the century after Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Nobody can claim the messiah is yet to come, because what The Holy Prophet s.a.w said would be his job has already been achieved by Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and obviously the cross cannot be broken a second time.”
The Pope said in his final address that sometimes he felt as if God is sleeping. What a statement to make. If after reading this you really think that Christian and Muslim peoples and thier institutions, whether churches or mosques, are not decaying after seeing what is happening around you than it is really hard to get into a discussion. kind regards
I agree with the part concering europe. The number of muslims in europe is just rising because of immigration. If you would ask the muslims in europe similar values would come out. They nominally say they are muslims but often have never read the quoran, dont go to mosques or pray 5 times a day. You cant count any person that comes of muslim country as a muslim. Just because people cant leave islam as you can with the church it does not mean they are still muslim. Also when we just look to europe i think the issue would be narrowed. In africa and asia christianity is strongly growing. There have never been so many converts to christianity than nowadays. Look at iran, the young and educated people there dont go to the mosques any more. Some are converting to christianity despite death penalty. The birthrate is 1.7 it wont last long then they will have to close the mosques too even if the theocratic regime wont do that. When the muslim countrys get more wealth and fewer children you will see just the same as what is happening in europe. The mosques will be empty, the people just will be cultural muslims. And if then even liberalism comes into play, which means that people are free to leave religion or convert as in europe, im sure that also the muslim world will be much less muslim than it appears now. But as long as poverty, no education and to many young men exist the people will need religion as their own savior. Moreover you cannot measure a religion alone by its numbers. Whats with the hundreds of thousand muslims in pakistan the demonstrated for the blasphemic laws. You would probably say that they are not true muslims. The same could be applied to christianity that it is becoming purer even if having less adherents.
The story with Jesus coming to earth and breaking the cross i find always funny. Once telling this story when i was still muslim my girlfriend was kidding me by asking if at some point in in this story also Micky Mouse comes into play? Jesus also said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” so why should he want to abolish christianity?
Well Tarkan. Debates are a matter of perception anyway. What is critical is what works for you. If your current state of personal belief provides you with peace of mind and satisfies all of your curiosity, I guess we cannot add much to your state of bliss. If you still worry about the spritiual crisis in the world, wars and conflicts, and it leaves a hole in your soul to inquire for and to feel a passion of more heart warming truth, and you are one of those who constantly strive for searching for perfect beauty, then, some of our concepts will perhaps appeal to you. I would, in particular, point to this link, which you may wish to explore in your spare time. Obviously you are still confused between who we call Jesus and who we call Promised Messiah and what does it really mean when we talk about “breaking the cross”. Kind regards
http://www.alislam.org/topics/jesus/
Thanks Abdul for your answers.
My curiosity is never satisfied, thats also the reason why i am here. I am just not a fan of these endtime scenarios. Each generation for some reasion thinks that it will be the last for almost the same reason. And this for centurys.
I will give you some examples where in my opinion christianity was much more in decline in the past:
1. During the muslim expansion about half of the christian world was conquered and subjugated.
2. During the Thirty Year’s War in 1618 to 1648 in which more than 1/3 of the european population died and the whole continent was devastated and destroyed.
3. World War II in which the Nazis in the west and the communists in the east forbid christianity and tried to wipe it out. Millions have died.
4. The pest in the 12./13. century in which again 1/3 of the european population died.
What I want to say is that one should just be careful in thinking that this time is so bad especially when you compare it to the past. The people there also thought now the last time has begun and the Messiah will come again. I think they had better reasons to believe so than we have facing the enormous effects of the mentioned catastrophes for the continent and christianity.
Yes it seems im still a little bit confused about whom you refer to be the Promised Messiah and who Jesus.
hello Tarkan: If interested in removing some confusion visit alislam.org- Best wishes
Actually the Imam Mahdi (pbuh) has already arrived, but he has not yet declared himself openly. Each person needs to recognize the Mahdi for himself. This may not be that easy, since he will appear as an ordinary man, still incognito, until most people acknowledge him. The way to recognize him is thru his words or the message that he brings – the message of peace, brotherhood and justice. See http://imam-mahdi.org/
David: Please compare your website with http://www.alislam.org (and of course The Muslim Times).
Tarkan!
Christianity or more precisely Paulism will be extinct in coming decades.
Just wait and see!
Ahmed!
Islam or more precisely Shiism will be extinct in coming decades.
Just wait and see!
Come on, give me arguements why you think so. I gave arguments of the past of christianity in which i explained why i think it was much worse off in the past than it is today. Just claiming something does not convince me.
Here is an example of South Korea:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Korea#Growth_of_Christianity
In some places christianity is declining is some it is growing. Thats how it has always been.
Tarkan,
The problem is you are referencing the past and rationalizing trends.
God says when the people won’t listen, he will let them go on on their own discord, for a while, then he will seize them!. When Lot was told that God would destroy the land, Lot asked that if he could find 5 god fearing men in the land and God would save the land. Instead people approached Lot and his visitors of Gods message with lewd gestures and immoral talk. We are seeing all societies, in all the world, times that contain sin from all of the past not just the sims of Lots time.
God also says that in the latter days, the Muslims will also be like the others as they will have lost the true meaning.
So when these things happen, as proven in history, the quran and the bible itself, God will cleanse the earth. There is no refuting this fact.
Which religion is worthy of carrying mankind to Gods true and natural message after that? Surely there is a plan!
For me the promised messiah brought an understanding to the verses in the Quran, the human condition and life and the universe. It’s logical for me.
I hope you continue to ask questions on all aspects on all topics, as God says in the Quran himself to ask and to try to understand. May God shine his light on everyone.
Ahmed, Christians will remain until the day of judgement I am afraid. This is according to Hadhrat Maseeh e Mauood alaihisalaam. Huzoor (KM5 ATBA) mentioned this and presented quotes in this regard in a Ramadan Dars two or three years ago.
Sorry, may previous comment mentioned Lot when the reference should have been towards Abraham.
@Tarkan
Almost all Christians do what Paul had ordained and there is no significant dispute over it among all major Christian denominations.
But what Shis muslims do it is highly disputed and only 15 to 20 percent Muslims are shia Muslims.
How can you then compare Paulism/Christianity with Shiaism? You are one of typical Christians I have several times met………..just think selves on right track without no knowledge …………no reflection…………..just uttering words….
There are no doubt strong reasons for you people to dwell in this fictitious world……..a very long political, economical dominance……..
There is no future for Christianity anymore as a dominant or even one of dominant religions …..this is sure….and why I think so because ……………logically or rationally its is undefended……even hilarious……..secondly God has promised that if they don’t listen to promised messiah……an unprecedented painful punishment (of fire)will be their fate.
One thing I missed….you have mentioned Korea………..WOW have you ever visited Korea? Have you ever met Korean Christians?………….Its a big business there………….
Christians what we see these days………..I am sorry to say ……you cannot even find a single Christian who can prove claim he/she has relation with God…………….but you will find hundred of thousands Ahmadi Muslim can prove it blatantly. Alhamdulillah.