TradCatKnight: AP: Praying the Rosary is “Islamophobic”

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

AP: Praying the Rosary is “Islamophobic”

AP: Praying the Rosary is “Islamophobic”

This morning Christine Douglass-Williams brought you a report here at Jihad Watch on this Roman Catholic “Rosary to the Borders” event in Poland. Noteworthy also is how the Associated Press covered the event: “some felt,” the AP intoned, that the event “had anti-Muslim overtones.” Why? Because “the event also commemorated the huge 16th-century naval battle of Lepanto, when a Christian alliance acting on the wishes of the pope defeated Ottoman Empire forces on the Ionian Sea, ‘thus saving Europe from Islamization.’”

That is a historical fact, but as far as the AP is concerned, noting it is “Islamophobic.” Europeans, in AP’s world, are always predators and perpetrators of evil. Muslims are always victims. So it doesn’t matter if the Battle of Lepanto and the Ottoman jihad against Europe really happened. Poles are wrong to be grateful for this victory. They should be lamenting it as a triumph of “white supremacism” over “diversity.” To wish to defend one’s religion, people and culture against hostile invaders, why, that’s way beyond the bounds of acceptable discourse today — unless one is “Palestinian” or a Rohingya Muslim (in which cases the “hostile invasion” aspect is trumped-up anyway).
“She said she was also praying for the survival of Christianity in Poland and Europe against what she sees as an Islamic threat facing the West.”
Only racist, bigoted “Islamophobes” could think there is an Islamic threat facing the West, right? Meanwhile, there has been a 64% increase in violent jihadis in Germany in one year, and now there over 1,800 there.

“Poles pray en masse at border; Some see anti-Muslim agenda,” by Vanessa Gera and Karel Janicek, Associated Press, October 8, 2017:

GDANSK, Poland (AP) — Polish Catholics held rosaries and prayed together Saturday along the country’s 3,500-kilometer (2,000-mile) border, appealing to the Virgin Mary and God for salvation for Poland and the world in a national event that some felt had anti-Muslim overtones.
The unusual “Rosary to the Borders” event was organized by lay Catholics but was also endorsed by Polish church authorities, with 320 churches from 22 dioceses taking part. The prayers took place from the Baltic Sea coast in the north to the mountains along Poland’s southern borders with the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and all along the border of this country of 38 million where more than 90 percent declare themselves Roman Catholics….
But the event also commemorated the huge 16th-century naval battle of Lepanto, when a Christian alliance acting on the wishes of the pope defeated Ottoman Empire forces on the Ionian Sea, “thus saving Europe from Islamization,” as organizers put it….
While organizers insisted the prayers Saturday were not directed against any group, some participants cited fears of Islam among their reasons for praying at the border….
She said she was also praying for the survival of Christianity in Poland and Europe against what she sees as an Islamic threat facing the West.
“Islam wants to destroy Europe,” she said. “They want to turn us away from Christianity.”…
A leading Polish expert on xenophobia and extremism, Rafal Pankowski, saw the prayers Saturday as a problematic expression of Islamophobia coming at a time of rising anti-Muslim sentiment in Poland, a phenomenon occurring even though the country’s Muslim population is tiny….
In the northern city of Gdansk, people prayed on a beach lapped by waves as seagulls flew above. Krzysztof Januszewski, 45, said that he worries Christian Europe is being threatened by Islamic extremists and by a loss of faith in Christian societies.
“In the past, there were raids by sultans and Turks and people of other faiths against us Christians,” said Januszewski, a mechanic who traveled 350 kilometers (220 miles) to Gdansk from Czerwinsk nad Wisla.
“Today Islam is flooding us and we are afraid of this too,” he added. “We are afraid of terrorist threats and we are afraid of people departing from the faith.”