“… the Islamization of the West is neither a phantasm nor merely something feared: it is an intention and a fact that emerges from an objective examination of the evidence. Moderate Islam, properly so called, does not exist because there is no institutional and moderate form of Islamic theology. There are moderate Muslims, and some of them see things with a clear and long-term perspective. But Islam itself, or rather the institutional religious culture of the Muslims, has reacted in its encounter with modernity by entrenching itself in fundamentalist positions….
“There is, therefore, an objective convergence between the trend in Islamic theology and the ideology of the terrorists…. This is why it would not only be prudent, as cardinal Giacomo Biffi has suggested, to discourage Islamic immigration in Europe, it would be masochistic to encourage it without demanding reciprocation in terms of integration. Islam is not compatible with liberal democracies…. Unfortunately, open and liberal society becomes paralyzed when it encounters a closed and incompatible civilization…. in Islam, there is no foundation for tolerance in the broad sense that characterizes our secular societies.”
Two Jesuits assess Islam in a recent issue of the Italian Catholic journal Studium. Sandro Magister suggests that this is part of a shift (see for example here) towards a more aggressive approach to Islam on the part of the Vatican under Pope Benedict XVI.
Robert Spencer applauds this indication of “anti-dhimmitude and clear-eyed realism at the Vatican”.
Italian bishops gave warning yesterday against Catholics marrying Muslims, citing cultural differences and fears that children born to mixed marriages would shun Christianity. Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the president of the Italian Bishops Conference, said: “In addition to the problems that any couple encounters when forming a family, Catholics and Muslims have to reckon with the difficulties that inevitably arise from deep cultural differences.”