Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Pope Francis Again Maligns Israel for What He Calls Its ‘Cruelty’

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Pope Francis has repeatedly defended Islam, claiming that “Islam is a religion of peace.” He has called on Muslims to proselytize for what he has described as the “peaceful religion of Islam,” and in his 2023 book Non Sei Solo: Sfide, Risposte, Speranze (“You Are Not Alone: Challenges, Answers, Hopes”), Francis asks Europeans to be more open to Muslim migrants, insisting that “radical Islam is a problem and represents a perversion of religiosity because Islam, in truth, is a religion of peace and the majority of its members are peaceful…. As they say, either you are a terrorist or you are a Muslim. Then, by the way, we find fundamentalism in all religions. Radical Islam is a perversion because it [Islam] is a religion that talks about peace.”

I don’t think Pope Francis could possibly have read the Qur’an with understanding. He has decided, despite all the evidence to the contrary, including 46,000 terror attacks carried out by Muslims since 9/11/2001, that Islam is a “religion of peace” and that any Muslims who engage in violence and terrorism do so despite the teachings of the religion. Francis simply ignores the dozens of Qur’anic passages that explicitly call for waging war on non-Muslims, who are described in the Qur’an as “the most vile of created beings.” Shouldn’t the pope read, and study, the Qur’an before making pronouncements urbi et orbi about what “the real Islam” is all about? Nor does the pope appear familiar with the recorded acts and sayings of Muhammad known as the hadith. For if he did he would have come cross one of the most famous of the hadith, the one where Muhammad boasts that “I have been made victorious through terror.”

Now the pope has, for the second time in recent days, accused the IDF of “cruelty” in its treatment of Gazans, despite everything the Israelis do to minimize civilian casualties, and everything Hamas does to maximize them. More on his anti-Israel animus can be found here: “Pope Doubles Down on Criticism of Israel,” JNS, December 22, 2024:

Pope Francis stepped up his criticism of Israeli counter-terrorism raids in Gaza on Sunday, decrying what he described as “cruelty” for the second time in as many days after Jerusalem accused him of singling out the Jewish state.

“And with pain, I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty, of the children being machine-gunned, of the bombings of schools and hospitals. What cruelty,” the pontiff said after a prayer service.

On Saturday, Francis drew a rebuke from the Israeli government after he accused the Israel Defense Forces of attacking babies in Gaza. “This is cruelty,” the head of the Catholic Church said. “This is not war.”

There are civilian casualties in Gaza. Some of them are children. But their deaths are the responsibility of Hamas, that embeds its men and weapons among civilians. The IDF makes tremendous efforts to avoid such casualties. Surely the pope knows about the elaborate system the IDF has developed to warn civilians away from areas, and buildings, that are soon to be targeted. Already by March, the IDF had dropped nine million leaflets in Gaza,, sent fifteen million text messages, and made sixteen million robocalls, all to warn civilians to get out of the way of targeted sites. Or has no one told the pope? It is this massive system of warning that led British Colonel Richard Kemp, a veteran of many military campaigns and the commander of British troops in Afghanistan, to call the IDF as “the most moral army in the world.” And John Spencer, a West Point Professor of Urban Warfare, has concluded that Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history — above and beyond what international law requires.”

Pope Francis said in 2017 that “Christian terrorism does not exist, Jewish terrorism does not exist, and Muslim terrorism does not exist. They do not exist.” The antisemitic Ahmed al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Cairo’s al-Azhar, sent a note to the Pope expressing gratitude for his “defense of Islam against the accusation of violence and terrorism.”

The pope is more worried about non-Muslims talking about jihad than he is about jihad itself — which he denies is part of Islam. If Muslims were not criticized by non-Muslims, the former would have no reason to react violently against the later. It’s up to non-Muslims to stop with their “intolerant generalizations.”

Comments

  1. The Pope is the best friend Hamas has in Italy. And perhaps even among the entire Western European nation states which is really saying something with the astonishing high number of anti-Semites and Israel haters from Ireland to Sweden to Belarus.

    • He is not a friend of Hamas. He is merely calling out the atrocities that Israel is committing against the Palestinians. There is a fine lune between defending oneself and genocide.

      • and Israel is not committing any genocide. the pope is a friend and ally of mozlums everywhere. Too many times he’s been seen making kissy face, hugging, and praising mozlums as well as telling Christians that they are not doing right by rejecting the, so-called, migrants.

        The “fine” line is discernable….Israel could have just strafed gaza a year ago, not giving any warning, and with the intent to kill all of the people living there. (that is the meaning of genocide…the deliberate killing of a certain group)
        But, they did not do that. No genocide.

        • Killing over 40,000 unarmed civilians is not genocide? How can that be? They re bombing churches, hospitals, schools, etc. How is that not evil and genocidal?

        • which “news” org do you listen to for the facts; al jezeera? speaking for hamas, is your comment.

          Most of the people killed in gaza, have been the victims of hamas. and only hamas is the originator of the numbers, which other groups have acknowledged as fabricated by the terrorists to make Israel look bad.
          Israel began warning the people to leave an area, then another area, as they went after the terrorists ****hiding*** in tunnels, schools, hospitals, children’s bedrooms, etc. And in those places are where they also took the hostages they were torturing and abusing.

          It’s a good idea to try to find the Truth instead of accepting what the terrorists want you to believe.
          After a year, plus, if Israel had wanted to commit genocide, they could have done so. They have not tried to do that, however much al jezeera, msnbc, or other ‘news’ outlets have claimed.

        • I see that Tony here is demanding that we take terrorist group Hamas claims as gospel. Grotesque.

        • Tony,

          You are grossly misinformed.

          Do you actually read the feature articles in Jihad Watch?

        • I view them but I do not read them exclusively. I read other stories as well in order to get the full picture of what’s going on.

      • There has been no genocide by Israel. None. And the statistics clearly demonstrate this. The slaughters by Hamas and by ordiinary Gazans who were invited to participate in the oct 7 slaughers, the rapes, mutilations, burnings, kidnappings, the bragging about doing all that by Hamas demonstrates just what their teachings and ordinary islamic propaganda have produced. The hamas charter clearly enunciates the call to erase Israel and kill all the Jews. The military experts who shown just how careful Israel has been in preventing civilians deaths are ignored and pretended away. The Pope is complicit in these Hamas murders just as he is by fiat complicit in the starvation of a million Sudeanese who he has spoken almost nothing about because the hundred thousands killed there are not Jews but other arabs.

        • I’m not saying what Hamas has done was right. It wasn’t and it is a terrorist organization but I also cannot condone the actions of Israel. There is a point of defending oneself and then there is genocide.

        • Yes–these are two separate things. Israel is not doing the latter by defending her people.

        • And the historical reason why the Vatican is a walled city (except for St. Peter’s “square”)? Because the Vatican itself was attacked by Muslim pirates raiding up the Tiber. Bergoglio seems himself to be an example of “invincible ignorance!”

        • Please note that this Tony is *not* the same poster whitewashing Hamas and slandering Israel, above.

      • No, Israel not wanting her people raped and murdered by Hamas is not “genocide”.

        There is not a fine “lune” (sic) between Israel defending hersel and genocide. There are more Palestinian Muslims now than when modern Israel was founded–how is that genicide? Then, Israel goes out of her way to protect civilians–not so Hamas, which targets them, including children.

        • Do you think that the Palestinians want to be bombed into non-existence? I’m not condoning what Hamas has done but we also have to condemn atrocities on all sides.

      • You mean like the way Turkey is “defending itself” against Syrian Kurds?

  2. He’s nothing but a globalist puppet, totally manipulated by Muslims worldwide

      • He’s not an anti-Christ. He does not deny the Lord Jesus as the Christ or the Messiah as the nation state of Israel does. The nation state of Israel is an anti-Christ.

        • Uh-oh, Tony. You have missed it again. One can be an anti-Christ without “denying” Christ. All one has to do to be a part of the antichrist, is to ****lie***** about Jesus.
          And the ‘pope’ said some time back that Jesus was wrong. The liar said that ‘Jesus failed on the cross.’
          the pope has also **used**Jesus to further his agenda of getting Christians to welcome those who will rape and murder them.
          And putting the terrorist scarf on the manger scene with the doll representing Jesus at the time of His birth….that is anti-Christ, too.

          Yep, the pope is an antichrist.
          A “nation” is not anything of the sort. Some of the people may be, but not the “nation.”
          You want the Truth you claim. Open your eyes because it is right in front of you.

        • Tony,

          The post by somehistory is accurate.

          Please do your homework before you post.

          Lots of informed people here who will call you out.

        • The Pope is not the anti-Christ. Why?
          Let’s look at Scripture and see how Scripture defines the Antichrist:
          1 John 2:22
          Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.

          1 John 4:3
          and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

          2 John 1:7
          For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.
          We notice 3 things here:
          1. The Antichrist will deny that Jesus is the Christ.
          2. He will deny that Jesus is from God.
          3. He will not acknowledge that Jesus came in the flesh.
          Now, the current Pope and previous Popes believe that Our Lord is from God and that He came in the flesh. Furthermore, I know that you do not believe in the Pope’s title of “vicar of Christ” but, by using that title, the Pope does affirm that Jesus is the Christ. If the Pope is who you say that he is then would it not make sense for him to drop that title? The take away from this is is the fact that the Pope cannot possibly be the Antichrist.

          The nation state of Israel does deny that Jesus is the Christ and they deny that he came from God. Based on that, who is likely to be more associated with the anti-Christ? The Pope or the nation state of Israel?

  3. The foul creature has never read the Bible with understanding, if he has ever read it personally.
    If he had, he would know he’s a liar, a false shepherd, a rotten tree producing rotten fruit, a wolf in sheep’s clothing’. He might even see that he is an “offspring of serpents, a dirty cup and a whitewashed grave full of dead men’s bones.” And he’s ‘doing the desires’ of the devil.

    • How do you know that he has never read the Bible? Where is your proof for that accusation?

      • Ah, now Tony, you need to learn to read with understanding. I never claimed “that he has never read the Bible.”

        I’ll quote myself. “has never read the Bible with understanding, if he has ever read it”
        You see, I didn’t write that he has *never* read it. Just that there is a question….in my mind at least…whether he has ever read it.
        He’s contradicted it, so obviously he doesn’t agree with it, or he doesn’t understand it….or both.
        Now, you can get the point: the proof is in what he has said over and over and over.
        By the way, I can’t prove it to your satisfaction, but I have personally read it numerous times. So, I know he’s without understanding, or he’s just evil.

        • Then how do you know that he has never read it with understanding? Also, how do you know that you have an understanding of it? BTW, I do not intend my comments/questions as being sarcastic. I ask questions in order to come to the truth. God bless you in this Christmas Season.

        • If he read with understanding, it would be obvious in his speech. He would know he doesn’t sit in a seat vacated by Peter. He would know Jesus said, “Do not call anyone your father on earth, for your Father is the heavenly One.” He would not allow others to call him ‘holy father.’
          And he would recognize the evils of islam and not make excuses for mozlums. “Do not give what is holy to dogs, nor throw pearls before swine.”

          Either he has never read these, doesn’t understand what he read, or he wants to go against what the Bible…and Jesus….say.

          I figured you would say what you did about my understanding. And that’s because I do understand the warnings Jesus and His Apostles gave about such things.

        • Had to cut short….thank you for the well-wishing.
          I’m just truly tired of the propaganda on behalf of ghouls who terrorize and then lie about all of their evil.

          Many of those killed in Gaza were actually terrorists working for hamas….even some of the regular *citizens* who kept hostages as slaves and mistreated them terribly. That makes those ones all enemy combatants and not civilian casualties.

        • Somehistory, please help with my question, I want to reply to certain people, but they have no “Reply” button at the bottom of their comment! Which I always thought that they did NOT check the box at the bottom, where it says “Notify me of follow-up comments by email”.
          As for Tony above, asking the question “The Pope is not the Antichrist? Why”, there is no Reply word at the end of his comment, and I want to reply, that he hasn’t studied enough about the evil side (which anyone pray to Jesus first before studing that subject), or about Satan wanting to copy everything God does, so people end up following him (satan), instead the true path. Like the Trilogy of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, there is the evil side who copies: Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet.
          There are so many teachers, and people who agree, that Satan is himself, we’ll not know who the antichrist will be until the middle of the Tribulaton, and we know that the Pope will be the “False Prophet”.
          So Satan can have someone, religious on his HIS side, who is evil as he is, and is known throughout the world, but not only that, but is WORSHIPED as a godly figure, if not god himself, throughout the whole world!! I mean, for evil sake’s, who can beat the pope on THAT!
          So thanks, if you could answer my top question there. And I see others ALSO replying, to others on here, when there is no “Reply” there also…I find it very weird, curious, and unsettling…very strange! lol…but serious, do you see a Reply, and I don’t on my end?

        • The Pope is not worshipped and no one considers him to be a god. He needs the grace of the Lord Jesus as we all do. He is not the false prophet.

        • Joan,

          It isn’t choosing to get email notices which cause a “reply” option at the end of a comment.
          The “reply” automatically appears at the end of the first few comments after the initial one, but then the option is not present.
          So, it’s then only possible if you go up to the last available reply and click on it. You may need to put the name of the person you wish to address….like I did with your name on this ‘reply’ to you.
          If you wish to reply to Tony, then just use the same reply option at the end of my last (before this) comment and write in his name.
          Hope that helps.
          This comment will not have a ‘reply’ after it.

  4. Pope Francis is exposing his own lack of understanding of the reality of the this current war in the Middle East of Israel versus Hamas, of which Hamas started on October 7th 2023.

    For the real cruelty is not done by the solders of that Israel Defense Force but committed by the jihadists of Hamas.

    As explained in the newspaper The Epoch Times April 3-6, 2024, A14 the reader in informed about “Civilian Casualties.” For it reads, “Israel risks the lives of its soldiers to prevent civilians deaths. Hamas risks the lives of civilians to prevent terrorist’s death. Israel considers it a failure, and Hamas considers it a globally advantageous when civilians die than its soldiers.”

    The contrast between Israel and Hamas is vast and outstanding.

  5. As for that bogus claim of Pope Francis Israeli cruelty in Gaza, the reality is that the actual , real, cruelty are committed, many times over, by the Jihadists of Hamas in their horrendous evil goal committing against genocide of the Jewish people that’s the goal of Hamas and not of those in power in the State of Israel regarding the “Palestine” people.

    About innocent those children who died in Gaza because the jihadists Hamas hiding among places with children. Also this current war that Hamas started this with Israel on October 7th when it launched its brutal vicious and murderous and even vile and heinous jihadist attacks on the peaceful Jewish citizens of the State of Israel.

    Those innocent children who died in Gaza because of Israel’s air force was not the intention of the government and military officials of Israel.

    Those youngster who had been killed had died because those despicable jihadists of Hamas, because they are so very callous and cruel that they deliberately stationed their jihad strategy command and weapon centers at buildings that have children in and around those places.

    Therefore the bloodguilt for the death of those children of Gaza on the wicked hands of the Hamas jihadists.

    • To put it bluntly, Bergoglio flunks “The Israel Test” in which author George Gilders makes a convincing case that attitudes towards Jews, Israel, and Judaism have become the litmus test between an ever demented crowd of leftist and rightist authoritarians and people of a more sane conservative or classical liberal persuasion. The so-called progressives have to hate Israel for the same reasons they hate America, free market economics, and the Western cultural tradition: they forever hate all that is good and all that has redeeming value.

  7. The Pope is a senile old fool who should be retired to some quiet convent somewhere so he can chase the nuns around, He probably wouldn’t know what to do with them if he caught them.

  8. Pope Francis is the Catholic equivalent of “selected” POTUS Joe Biden.

    Both are totally rotten to the core.

    • Yes, James.
      Captain Kangaroo had a little thing on his show on certain days called “Tom Terrific and His Wonder Dog.”
      The foe for Tom and dog was “Crabby Appleton” who sang, “My name is Crabby Appleton and I’m rotten to the core.”
      Crabby was a good guy compared to the two you name.

    • Yes, he says they should have the same things from the ‘church’ as those who respect and obey the Bible’s Laws on such things.

        • No I don’t have to do any such thing. I choose what I write and to whom I reply.

          You have an agenda here in your failing attempt to absolve the pope creature for his lies, and his obvious hatred of what is good. You claimed to be ‘searching for Truth’ but that claim has been proven untrue.
          Jesus said, “Blind guides is what they are.” And He said those who follow blind guides will fall with them into the pit. Jesus was plainly talking about people like the pope.
          You Follow?

        • I follow the Lord Jesus and those He appointed through the successors of the Apostles. Where is your disdain for the Pope and the Catholic Church coming from? The Catholic Church nor the Pope is the anti-Christ.

        • Sorry, Tony, but you don’t “follow”….because I meant “do you understand” and obviously you don’t.

          Jesus did not appoint anyone…..NO one….as a “successor to the Apostles.”
          He told them, “Do not you becalled “teacher”….and do not call anyone your ***father*** on earth.”

          And yet, the Catholics call their preachers “father this and father that” and you call your pope “Holy Father.”
          And you have the mistaken idea that these men can forgive your sins. And, the “church” has long held that these men should not marry.
          Have you ever read Paul’s words about, “In later periods of time, some will ****fall away from the faith*** *forbidding* to marry.*…..?
          then there is “purgatory” which is not found in the Bible so that little old ladies will go and pay a priest to pray their husbands out and into heaven.
          Those things are just a few of the un-Scriptural things done by the “church”

          And, now, I’m done.

          …..

        • Apostolic Succession
          2 Chr 19:11 – high priest is over you in everything of Lord’s
          Mal 2:7 – seek instruction from priest, he is God’s messenger
          Eph 2:20 – Church built upon foundation of apostles & prophets
          Eph 4:11 – God gave some as apostles, others as prophets…
          1 Cor 12:28-29 – God designated in church: apostles, …
          Acts 1:20 – let another take his office
          Acts 1:25-26 – Matthias takes Judas’ apostolic ministry
          1 Tim 3:1, 8; 5:17 – qualifications for: bishops, priests, & deacons
          1Tim 4:14 – gift conferred with the laying on of hands
          1Tim 5:22 – do not lay hands too readily on anyone
          Acts 14:23 – they appointed presbyters in each church
          2Tim 2:2 – what you heard from me entrust to faithful teachers
          Titus 1:5 – appoint presbyters in every town, as I directed

          We can start there.

        • You can find many verses which seem to fit with your twisted ideas….and that is exactly what satan the devil tried to do with Jesus on the mountain. the devil quoted verses, but twisted the application.

          And furthermore, none of the verse you cite are rom Jesus Christ. he chose the twelve. One proved unfaithful, but Jesus didn’t even choose a replacement. The other apostles did.
          The Apostles and other Christians did not have a full understanding of things, even though Jesus Himself explained them.
          He told them not to have *titles* because “all of you are brothers.” But men like to have titles, so they have given themselves titles, anyway.

          Then Jesus appointed Paul as an Apostle to the Nations.
          It also does not matter that there were priests in the Judaic Law, because Jesus fulfilled the Law so that it was no longer necessary…..or correct…for His followers to follow it.
          And….Christians were never under or obliged to follow the Law unless they were Jews before Jesus died. After He died, no one was obligated to follow the Law.

          You can kiss the pope creature if you wish. That’s your privilege. But as I said, I am done, so don’t expect another reply.

  10. The Pope is regarded by Catholics as infallible in matters of theology, but it appears in other matters the Pope is totally capable of being a moron.

  11. That wee Popey dude must be overjoyed when he sees all those Christians being slaughtered by peaceful loving muslims in Nigeria.

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