I do not believe that Pope Leo XIV’s peace initiative will be understood by non-Catholics. They believe that what the Pope says is what the Church stands for. It is by no means unifying or inviting, as also with Pope Francis, to take the side of left-liberal ideas. For me as a Catholic, it is alarmingly naïve to believe that there can be a peaceful coexistence between Islam and Christianity. Yes, Pope Leo considers Muslim migration to Europe to be positive. As we see in this country, Islam moves from being a “victim” to making demands that we must adapt once a certain critical mass has been reached.
In the West, there is no hesitation in criticising Jehovah’s Witnesses or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is safe to do so, since none of their members believe in killing their critics. After the Second Vatican Council (Det annet Vatikankonsil), knowledge of Islam has increased significantly. This is partly due to translations of the various editions of the Qur’an and the hadiths. The internet has made it possible for Muslims who previously followed the interpretations of the imams blindly to form their own opinions. Not least, the application of the historical-critical method has led to discussions that were not possible 60 years ago. Islamic scholars find it very difficult to defend Islam, as they are not accustomed to viewing Islam through a Western text-critical perspective in the same way that well-informed Christians are.
Central to Islam is the concept of taqiyya. It is fully acceptable to lie to non-believers. Islam is a “religion of peace”, but its spokesmen in the West always omit to mention that this is subject to sharia law. Most translations of the Qur’an sold in the West are rewritten to make them palatable for diluted Christianity and atheistic humanism. I would recommend the American historian and scholar of Islam Robert Spencer’s The Critical Qur’an: Explained from Key Islamic Commentaries and Contemporary Historical Research (2022). Spencer’s Muhammad: A Critical Biography (2024) and Holy Hell: Islam’s Abuse of Women and the Infidels Who Enable It (2025) are essential reading for those of us who are concerned with Islam.
In Islam, the Qur’an is Allah’s final revelation. The Prophet Muhammad is the perfect model. As, among others, Douglas Murray has pointed out, a society based on Islam, without oil and gas, would not be able to compete materially with Western civilisation. It is therefore tempting to place the blame on Jews and Christians. Among the surahs from what is called the Medinan period, there are very many that concern exhortations to kill Jews and Christians:
And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from where they drove you out, which they have driven you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter. And do not fight them at the sacred mosque until they first attack you there, but if they attack you, then kill them. This is the reward of unbelievers.
(Surah 2:191 The Cow; Robert Spencer, The Critical Qur’an: Explained from Key Islamic Commentaries and Contemporary Historical Research, Bombardier, New York and Nashville, 2022)
Dr Jay Smith is an evangelical apologist and polemicist who focuses on the book, the man and the place. 1) The Qur’an is not an unchangeable revelation, but largely consists of rewritten Jewish and Syriac-Aramaic texts. 2) Muhammad, as he is described according to Islamic tradition, most likely never existed. 3) Mecca did not exist at the time Muhammad is said to have lived.
As a composer, I am interested in the Syriac-Aramaic texts that Günter Lüling has traced back to the original Christian hymns.
Norwegian editors, journalists, theologians and politicians, among others, regard with admiration a religion about which they know nothing, while they look with contempt upon the culture and religion to which they themselves belong. What has hitherto been presented to us regarding Islam by Muslims in the West is what the evolutionary psychologist Gad Saad calls “cafeteria Islam”. They select the few aspects of Islam that are palatable to us. Cf. the concept of taqiyya.
Islam is an ideology disguised as a religion. It recognises no distinction between church and state. Cf. “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God what is God’s!” Here in the West, the culturally relativist left confuses tolerance with acceptance. Raymond Ibrahim describes it as “doormat Christianity”: if you place a lion in an enclosure with zebras, you cannot blame the lion for the zebras being killed.
Michel Houellebecq has written about the Muslim takeover in Europe, inter alia in Submission: A Novel (2016) and Annihilation: A Novel (2024). Ayaan Hirsi Ali points out the same in Prey: Immigration, Islam, and the Erosion of Women’s Rights (2021). The Vice President of the United States, JD Vance, was ridiculed in Europe for his speech in Munich in February last year (2025), in which he said that the greatest threat to Europe comes from within. To quote Ayaan Hirsi Ali: “Muhammad and Mao go hand in hand.”
There have repeatedly been attempts at reformation within Islam, and as with Luther, it concerns sola scriptura. Although Lutheranism was originally strongly pietistic, the Bible functions as a model, as there are many good values in it. Examples of literalist Islam are the mullahs in Iran, Hamas, Wahhabism, the Taliban and ISIS (Daesh). An “Enlightenment” presupposes a Judeo-Christian civilisation. This does not apply to the Qur’an and the hadiths, which are central to Islam. Islam, which means submission, revolves around jihad and sharia. In its purest form, it is an eschatological death cult.
As the critical mass of Muslims increases in the West, as we are now seeing, they move, as stated, from being “victims” to making demands. For example, there are Muslim taxi drivers who refuse to transport guide dogs. “Angels do not enter a house that has either a dog or a picture in it.” (Sahih al-Bukhari 3322) Or sharia courts in the United Kingdom. The orientalist fervour among those who have overindulged in Edward Said and shouted “From the river to the sea” will be in for a surprise. In Iran in 1979, the left were the first to become victims of the revolution they had supported.
The wall around the Vatican was reinforced in the 9th century to protect against the Muslim Saracens. It would be consistent for Pope Leo XIV to demolish the walls around the Vatican and allow all who wish to live there to do so.