Even crazy Benito Mussolini reacted like a normal human being when a group of Arab ambassadors informed him of their desire to build a mosque in Rome . “There will be a mosque in Rome ,” the Fascist ruler said, “only when a Roman Catholic Church is permitted in Mecca .”

In the city of St Peter , off the foot of Monte Antenne, now stood an edifice that has been called the largest mosque in Europe . Its main hall can take two thousand worshipers. Its significance did not escape Abdul Qayuum Khan, the Pakistani Director of the Islamic Cultural Center in Rome given the right to build the mosque. He told the New York Times that, “Even if it is not the largest … it is the most important mosque in Europe . The simple fact that it is the only one located in the heart of Christianity, in the Mecca of Catholicism, you might say.”

The Catholic Church initial objection to building a mosque in Rome was dropped after the Second Vatican Council in 1965. Thereafter, permission to build was granted by the Italian government to the Islamic Center and a 7-5 acre undeveloped lot was donated. The $40 million building was financed by Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia .

“For centuries, Islam and Christianity were in conflict,” said Paolo Portoghesi, the Chief Architect of the project to the Times. “This is an expression of the opening of dialogue among the different religions.”

This dialogue recently reached its zenith when King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia visited Pope Benedict XV1 at the Vatican . It was the first of such visits ever.

I feel it is a perfect time to discuss Islam and the rest of us. I am psyched that maybe this time, the discussion will be fruitful. As against the discussion we usually have after some Muslims massacre Christians on their streets, burn up churches, hotels and stone foreign embassies because either the moon woke up on the wrong side of the sky or a cartoonist in a frozen room in Sweden drew Prophet Mohammed without putting in parenthesis, sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam, Peace Be Upon Him.

Interestingly, King Abdullah can wake up, hop into his private jet and visit the Pope in Vatican but the Pope cannot visit King Abdullah in Mecca . In fact, non-Muslims are not allowed to visit Mecca . King Abdullah can worship in a mosque in Rome but the Pope cannot worship in a church in all of Saudi Arabia . In fact, there is no church in all of Saudi Arabia .

In an article published in the October 18, 2003 edition of La Civilta Cattolica, a journal edited by a group of Jesuits in Rome , the situation of Christians in Muslim countries were described as one burdened by discrimination and often bloody persecution. The article described Islam in all of its history as being in perpetual warlike poise pushing to conquer all it ever came in contact with.

If history can be our guide, the journal tells us that Libya , Tunisia , Algeria , Morocco and Egypt once had vibrant Christian communities from which emerged several important personalities of the early church. These North African countries produced church heavy weights theologians and philosophers like Saint Cyprian, Saint Augustine , Saint Fulgentius, Bishops of Carthage, Hippo and Ruspe respectively. With the conquest of Islam came the total annihilation of Christians in these North African countries, except for Egypt where a tiny Coptic Orthodox Christian community still exist.

The same happened in the Middle Eastern countries of Lebanon , Syria , Jordan , Palestine and Mesopotamia, modern day Iran and Iraq . Aside from Lebanon where there is still a significant population of Christians constantly under threat, the rest of the countries successfully vanquished the once thriving Christian communities.

This disappearance of Christians is achieved by religious persecution. It may be violent or non-violent. In each instance, Muslims invoked the Islamic law that divides the world into three distinguished camps – dar al-harb, dar al-islam and dar al-‘ahd, the house of war, the house of Islam and the house of accord respectively. Those countries in the house of war category, like infidels in non-Muslim countries, must be subjected to the offensive and external Jihad, holy war.

Those in the house of accord category, like Christians and Jews (often called people of the Book) Hindus, non-Muslims in Muslim countries, for over 1000 years were subjected to dhimma, an inferior social order that forbid display or expression of their religion. Under dhimma, for instance, ringing of church bell was prohibited, so were solemn funerals, procession of the cross, selling of church objects like the Bible. Building of places of worship was banned because the lands acquired through Muslim conquest were all considered sacred to Allah. Even at that, one could lose his dhimma status by refusing to pay taxes, offending the prophet Mohammed and the Islamic religion, converting a Muslims to another religion, taking up arms against Muslims etc. Such acts received punishments as severe as death penalty.

The Koran stated in Sura 9:29 that the people of the Book must be made to pay double taxes. Under dhimma, non-Muslims were subjected to other restrictions: they were not allowed to bear arms, bear witness in trials of Muslims, ride a horse, take as wife daughters of Muslims, inherit from Muslims or act as a government official etc. They must also dress in a special way. The only way for those consigned to this low social status to escape these restrictions was to emigrate or to convert to Islam in order to partake in a meaningful life. It was therefore no surprise that after 1000 years of dhimma, Muslim landscapes successfully eradicated its Christian population.

… to be continued

*************************************************************************************************

Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo will be signing copies of his book, Children of a Retired God at the 100 Cummings Center, suite 221 E, Beverley, Massachusetts on Sat. June 14^th at 5pm; at Igwebuke Hall in Hapeville, near Atlanta International Airport , Georgia on Sat. June 28^th at 8.pm and at the People’s Club Hall in Boston on Saturday, August 23^rd, 2008 at 8.00pm. For more information, contact Ehimen Edokpa at Integrity Business Group, 129 Union Street , Lynn, Phone: 978-335-4451. More dates and venues will be announced as soon as they become available. His latest books, How I Helped to Elect Obama President & Africa: The Shit that Happened will be out soon.

Robot  Villager

# 1 Even crazy Benito Mussolini reacted like a normal human being when a group of Arab...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 10.06.2008 10:49

Ebe2  Villager

# 2 Rudolf: You bring up an important issue. I hope it will be discussed and debated without rancor. I have always wondered why Islam, or the dominant strain of it, appears to be afraid of allowing Christians to build churches and worship God in places where Islam dominate. The West is not perfect, but Muslims can build mosques wherever they live in Euro-America. The seeming insecurity of Islam (or the dominant strain of it) is underscored not just by the refusal to allow Christians to build a place of worship or to even openly worship God in some Islamic countries; it is also butressed by the provision in Islam authorizing the killing of Muslims who convert to other religions. How can you hold a religion together through fear (of being killed for apostacy) and seclusion from the influences and doctrines of other religions? Religion, I have always thought, should be a matter of free choice, exercised in an atmosphere of unfettered access to all kinds of religious information and places of worship. Why would the Saudi authorities prevent Christians from openly worshipping God and from building churches or propagating and expressing their faith unless they were afraid that Saudis would be drawn to the message and convert? Is this not a contradiction of the axiom of religion being a matter of personal conviction and not systematic compulsion? In this respect African Islam is actually a model for the Middle Eastern one. Apart from Northern Nigeria and a few other spots where radical Islam has penetrated somewhat, many Islam-dominated countries in Africa are very open and religiously tolerant. Posted by Ebe2| 10.06.2008 11:15

AISAGBON OMOGIADE  Villager

# 3 A very nice piece.To put some points straight,there are still christians in both Iran and Iraq and infact Tariq Azziz who held various high positions under Saddam in Iraq is a christian.There are still churches in Iraq only that they have come under senseless attacks in recent times The history of religions is a complex one.The catholics at a time had wiped out those who refused to get converted to the faith.Pope John Paul 11 had apologised for those acts. As a member of the catholic charismatic renewal,I have tried till date to discourage extremism which is very prominent amongst the members.If teachers of Islam do same, the world we be in peace and both christians and muslims will co-exist peacefully. Posted by AISAGBON OMOGIADE| 10.06.2008 12:23

truthsayer33  Villager

# 4 If you keep retreating bullies don't stop attacking you. Read this extract from Time Out Nigeria: 'Elsewhere in the Central Business District other sites include the National Mosque on Independence Ave, its fine golden dome attractively lit at night. Non-Muslims are not allowed in..........' This in 2008 in the capital of Nigeria Abuja. Posted by truthsayer33| 10.06.2008 12:28

akar ninzo  Villager

# 5 Oga Rudolf, i surely await the part 2 of your article. Having witnessed virtually all the ethno-religious riots in the North, from the Kafanchan riots in march 1987, its anniversary riots in 1988, the Zangon Kataf riots in september, 1992 and the most recent, the kaduna riots in february, 2000. You have raised some questions that are begging for answers. I keep hearing of a recurring decimal, this is a religion of peace, but the actions from it are in complete opposite of what i have witness thus far. I await the part two then we will talk. Posted by akar ninzo| 10.06.2008 13:02

NWANZA  Villager

# 6 =akar ninzo;4295053549>Oga Rudolf, i surely await the part 2 of your article. Having witnessed virtually all the ethno-religious riots in the North, from the Kafanchan riots in march 1987, its anniversary riots in 1988, the Zangon Kataf riots in september, 1992 and the most recent, the kaduna riots in february, 2000. You have raised some questions that are begging for answers. I keep hearing of a recurring decimal, this is a religion of peace, but the actions from it are in complete opposite of what i have witness thus far. I await the part two then we will talk. These riots have ethnic connotations to it, thus used as a disguise to express jealousy and hate. I am waiting for them to behead members like Babangida, Buhari, and the other thieves who constantly shame their religion. Islam is the most hypocritical religion on the face of the earth. Posted by NWANZA| 10.06.2008 13:30

akar ninzo  Villager

# 7 @Nwanza, Agreed, they have ethno-religious colouration but were used by some greedy, zealots who lost out in the game in plundering the nations' resources to inflict casaulties on mostly people from different sect than theirs Another observation is that those who were converts and not from the same stock as themselves were often regarded as inpure and can suffer the same faith as people from other faith. Posted by akar ninzo| 10.06.2008 15:14

Ochi Dabari  Villager

# 8 So, where is the dialogue that the building of a mosque in Rome was supposed to produce? It is still a monologue, of christians trying to talk to moslems, and the latter not ready to listen b/c there can be no other religion but islam. Europe should stop creating traps for itself; allowing moslems to build mosques all over the place will not induce dialogue and peaceful co-existence with moslems. I feel sad when I see the number of refugees that America, Europe and Australians are taking in from Iraq and Afghanistan. The children of such migrants are already causing problems in those places, and so it shall be forever. In fact, the problems will increase. I know how much revisionism moslems do; they do it on a constant basis in Nigeria - the whole middlebelt was Hausaland, Abacha never stole any money but was properous and opened bank accounts all over the world, yada yada yada. Moslems will simply take over Europe, and it is worse as they breed without restraint, like all peoples of the third world. All over Europe, white population is stagnant as they breed with restraint - not so our people, moslems inclusive. Look at France and the recent riots there; migrants from islamic north Africa have taken over the whole country; the French national team is all black, and enclaves of intolerance are being created all over the place. The French are hitting their heads for running a colonial policy of assimilation. Even the English that wisely ran a policy of association are regretting the taking in of Paks booted out by Idi Amin. These are the people who today do nothing but plan to bomb everyone in Europe. Some times, I wonder if the whiteman has a complete sense of reasoning; the type you would find in a "stupid" African of the same age. ochi Rudolf Okonkwo wrote: I feel it is a perfect time to discuss Islam and the rest of us. I am psyched that maybe this time, the discussion will be fruitful. As against the discussion we usually have after some Muslims massacre Christians on their streets, burn up churches, hotels and stone foreign embassies because either the moon woke up on the wrong side of the sky or a cartoonist in a frozen room in Sweden drew Prophet Mohammed without putting in parenthesis, sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam, Peace Be Upon Him. Interestingly, King Abdullah can wake up, hop into his private jet and visit the Pope in Vatican but the Pope cannot visit King Abdullah in Mecca . In fact, non-Muslims are not allowed to visit Mecca . King Abdullah can worship in a mosque in Rome but the Pope cannot worship in a church in all of Saudi Arabia . In fact, there is no church in all of Saudi Arabia . Posted by Ochi Dabari| 11.06.2008 02:06

overdryv  Villager

# 9 When one take a look at religious trends, you are forced to accept that there is a prophecy which is gradually coming to fruition. The world is indeed being prepared for an islamic onslaught. Its part of a relay between the two great evil religions, christianity and islam. The former has had their time and islam is about taking over. To say that christianity is on the decline is just putting it mildly. In europe, churches are being sold either because attendance has dwindled to a point where tithes or offerings from members could no longer be sufficient for the upkeep of the churches or there is lack of continuity because young people are not willing to enter the priesthood. In such a case, muslims could offer anything to buy a church. In one instance, some christians have ruled that churches would not be sold to muslims. In America, the present religion which is a great departure of traditional christianity is sustained by the Nigerian version of "prosperity" type. The more seed you sow, the more you are blessed. The import of this article is that one fails to see how islam could be said to be a religion of peace and tolerance. I wonder what people like Tanibaba have to say. It could be argued that there are churches in Iran and Iraq but that could be discounted since the "capital" of islam, Saudi Arabia does not allow churches. It is like in Nigeria where Yoruba muslims are rated second class and are not allowed to lead prayers by northern muslims. One thing though which I envy about muslims is their unlimited capacity for borerdom. I cant bring myself to always mention PBUH either written or spoken, each I must mention Mohammed. They also have a similar appendage for Allah. Posted by overdryv| 11.06.2008 03:47

tanibaba  Villager

# 10 @Rudolf Thank you for this piece. I am also waiting for the part two. So far the case is yet to be made to conclude that Islam is insecure; thoug some muslims may be insecure. You may also wish to research into why the Christian community did not push for the establishment of a church in Mecca as demanded by one of the personalities that you qouted in the opening paragraph of your esssay. @Aisagbon A very nice piece.To put some points straight,there are still christians in both Iran and Iraq and infact Tariq Azziz who held various high positions under Saddam in Iraq is a christian.There are still churches in Iraq only that they have come under senseless attacks in recent times The history of religions is a complex one.The catholics at a time had wiped out those who refused to get converted to the faith.Pope John Paul 11 had apologised for those acts. As a member of the catholic charismatic renewal,I have tried till date to discourage extremism which is very prominent amongst the members.If teachers of Islam do same, the world we be in peace and both christians and muslims will co-exist peacefully. Thank you for this intelligent and beautiful response. It summarises so many things and also gives us an insight into the other side of the coin which has for a long time been buried and which some people still make efforts to bury further into the ground. @truthsayer If you keep retreating bullies don't stop attacking you. Read this extract from Time Out Nigeria: 'Elsewhere in the Central Business District other sites include the National Mosque on Independence Ave, its fine golden dome attractively lit at night. Non-Muslims are not allowed in..........' This in 2008 in the capital of Nigeria Abuja. What in the world will a christian be looking for in a mosque and if they are not allowed into the mosque is that an offence? Let us be serious please. And the Abuja being the capital of Nigeria angle, i dont know what you want to achieve but on the same street is the central mosque and the cathedral. So capital of Nigeria has nothing to do with the faith that each Nigerian professes. Anyway Rudolf thank you but i think it is safer to wait for the concluding part so that all the issues can be addressed. Also the chapter of the Quran that you quoted will be explained, indeed you can get an explanation in the Yusuf Ali's translation of the Quran. Thank you taslim Posted by tanibaba| 11.06.2008 04:07

---

The conversation continues in our forum. Click here to read all comments

---