We know what Pope Leo XIV thinks that the example of Lebanon teaches us: that Christians and Muslims can live together in harmony, and we in Europe should, therefore, not be alarmed by the demographic changes we are currently enduring, as Muslim numbers continue to rise. There is no reason, Pope Leo believes, to fear either the ideology of Islam or the increased presence of Muslims in our midst. Others, including Italian journalist Giulio Meotti, do not agree. More on Meotti’s view, and the sobering lessons he draws from the example of Lebanon, can be found here: “The Pope asks Europe to follow Lebanon. Good luck!,” by Giulio Meotti, Israel National News, December 4, 2025:
We hear the sound of the wall when it collapses, not the sound of the ivy as it takes over.
On the plane returning from Lebanon to Rome, Pope Leo XIV urged Catholics concerned about the West to be “less afraid” of Islam, promoting “coexistence” and “friendship” between Christians and Muslims.
All well and good so far. Look closer.
Then, referring to testimonies gathered during his visit to Lebanon, the Pope invited us to take inspiration from this experience “also in Europe and North America”. And that is exactly what worries me – that we are ending up like Lebanon, which in 1989 regularized half a million Muslim Arabs, losing its Christian and French cultural and religious identity.
Apparently, the pope does not know that there are reasons to worry about Muslims settling en masse in what they call dar al-harb, the Land of War, where Infidels live and dominate. He does not know that the Qur’an instructs Muslims “not to take Christians and Jews as friends, for they are friends only with each other.” (5:51) He does not know that Muslims are taught that they are “the best of peoples” (3:110), while non-Muslims are “the most vile of created beings” (98:6). He doesn’t know the dozens of verses in the Qur’an that instruct Muslims to subdue non-Muslims by force, as in 47:4 — “when you meet the Unbeliever, strike necks.” Nor does he know that Muhammad, the Model of Conduct (“uswa hasana”) and the Perfect Man (“al-insan al-kamil”) has said in the hadith (the record of the words and deeds of Muhammad) that “I have been made victorious through terror” and that “war is deception.” Nor does he know that Muhammad said that “Islam is to dominate and not to be dominated.”
What would it take to persuade Pope Leo to read and study the Qur’an, with an exegetical guide to each verse, such as that supplied by Robert Spencer? He needs to understand this alien creed, in order to better defend Christendom, that Muslims and their mindless collaborators on the left are now undermining.
Sometimes all it takes is a spark. The Lebanese civil war began with shots fired at a Maronite church that Phalangist leader Pierre Gemayel was inaugurating on the morning of April 13, 1975. Shots from a passing car hit Christians entering for Mass. Four dead.
That was the beginning of the end.
Like the bullet that the Serb Gavrilo Princip fired at Grand Duke Franz Josef in August 1914, that was the spark that caused the outbreak of World War I, the Muslim killing of Christian Lebanese on April 13, 1975 was the spark that led to the Muslim-Christian civil war in Lebanon that lasted from 1975 to 1990.
Arafat’s Palestinian Arab terrorists, heroes in today’s Europe, turned Beirut into a military stronghold. Christians lost the civil war – not militarily (the Phalange held out to the end), but politically and above all numerically.
But the 1975-90 civil war was not a religious war: it was a demographic referendum conducted at gunpoint.
I disagree with Meotti. The 1975-1990 war was a religious war. And it was indeed also a kind of “referendum” on Lebanese demography — would the population ratios of Christians, Sunni Muslims, and Shia Muslims remain the same, or would the war contribute to the rise in Muslim numbers relative to the Christians? We know the answer: the Maronite Christians may still claim the presidency, but power has shifted decisively to the Muslims. The Palestinian Muslims in the refugee camps are outbreeding the Christians, whose birth rates are much lower. And two decades after the Lebanese civil war had led to Christian demoralization in the country, and an outflow of Christians to Europe and North America, Lebanon allowed 1.5 million Syrian asylum seekers, almost all of them Sunni Muslims who were indeed persecuted under Assad’s rule, to settle in Lebanon. And that led more Lebanese Christians to leave the country, for they knew how they would be treated once the Muslims gained firm control of Lebanon.
Kuffar says
Pope Leo the latest incarnation of the Anti-Pope, continually sells out Christ and Christian’s far 30 pieces of silver. The Judas price. I am a cradle Catholic, but I will never call Leo a Pope. He is Satan’s tool. And a Tool.
Wellington says
If only Leo was a nothing. But he is far worse than a nothing.
The Catholic Church has gone the way of so much of the West. It has gone into destructive stupid mode.
Anyone out there still thinking the Catholic Church is the true faith? Really? Tell me why.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Well, the Church of England is currently led by a man who absolutely loves islam, and even though he may be pretty ill, his heir is an agnostic and said to be uninterested in Church of England affairs. While in Moscow, the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church has interfaith dialogs w/ muslims
Doesn’t look like there is a mainline Christian denomination of any significant population that is openly opposed to islam
ploome says
“Sometimes all it takes is a spark.”
that was 9/11
the muslim invasion of USA really took off after that
The number of Muslim houses of worship in the U.S. also has increased over the last 20 years. A study conducted in 2000 by the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership identified 1,209 mosques in the U.S. that year.
Their follow-up study in 2011 found that the number of mosques had grown to 2,106, and the 2020 version found 2,769 mosques – more than double the number from two decades earlier.
lesson to be learned….slaughter American civilians and gain influence, presence and power.
abu taleb says
Jesus said “the world hate us”, so Christians should expect that there is hostility toward Christians everywhere and forever. This woke pope certainly does not believe what Jesus said.
And Quran says that muslims should not befriend with Christians, and should attack and subjugate them.
Seems this pope knows nothing at all.
ploome says
there were no Christians when Jesus spoke
somehistory says
The Bible is clear: Jesus spoke to men who wrote down His words so all who put faith in Him could know the same things His first disciples heard Him preach and teach. He made it clear that the words applied to all those listening and to those “who put faith in Him” by reading what those Jews wrote.
Those first men and women who believed were called Christians in the Books of Acts and Peter. Those first ones were both Jews and Christians.
His warning about being hated apply to both Jews and Christians at the time He spoke and to Christians today.
ploome says
the Gospels written in Kione Greek, by Greeks about 100 years after the cruxifixction
ploome says
there were no Christians while Jesus lived
he was not referring to Christians
KufarDawg says
While the word Christian didn’t exist in Yeshua of Nazareth’s time (and neither did the English, German or French languages), Josephus, the famous Jewish historian, I believe did refer to Cristos and his followers thus differentiating them from the Jews of the time.
somehistory says
The Bible writers Luke (Book of Acts of the Apostles) and Peter wrote that the followers//disciples of Jesus were called Christian. That was very early on after Jesus was murdered and retuned to heaven….in 33 CE.
Naturally it was not written in English, but the meaning was clear.
ploome says
my response to you and some history was not posted/ blocked / deleted…I am surprised that Robert would do that.
KufarDawg says
‘The most direct reference to Jesus comes in Antiquities Book 18, Chapter 3. This passage has become known as the Testimonium Flavianum, given a name due to its popularity. Josephus writes about “Jesus, a wise man,” who “performed surprising deeds,” had disciples, and even was “condemned to the cross by Pilate at the suggestion of Jewish leaders.” He continues to describe how Jesus’ followers didn’t reject or abandon “his teaching” and “continued to spread his message.” They formed what Josephus called the “tribe of Christians.” Some scholars debate the original phrases, thinking later Christian editors might have added or changed parts, but the core passage is almost universally accepted as genuine and authentic. It confirms how Jesus lived, taught, gathered disciples, and was crucified under Pilate, all consistent with the Gospels.’
Later, in Book 20 of Antiquities, Josephus even mentions James as “the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ.”’
from: https://www.christianity.com/wiki/people/what-do-we-know-about-josephus-the-historian-who-wrote-about-jesus.html
Supposedly the great Roman historian Tacitus also referred to Yeshua of Nazareth.
STJOHNOFGRAFTON says
The lesson of Lebanon is a simple Before And After. Before Muslim power, Lebanon was known as the Paris Of The Middle East. After Muslims took over, Lebanon become the Sphincter Of The Middle East.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Lesson of Lebanon was: Be like Burma, not Lebanon. Expel muslims from your country en masse, and don’t look back, or bother what the rest of the world thinks of you. Uncle Sam may ban your people from getting visas: BFD!!! Just give Trump and Rubio the 🖕 if you have to!
Cynthia says
This pope is an ignorant leftist. Our politicians are also ignorant. Some want the billions from Qatar and Saudi Arabia more than keeping their country and culture.
I’m not sure if Trump cannot be bought these days.
Linda Goudsmit says
Hugh Fitzgerald gives Il Papa a pass he does not deserve when he writes, “Apparently, the pope does not know that there are reasons to worry about Muslims settling en masse in what they call dar al-harb, the Land of War, where Infidels live and dominate.” Does not know????????? Of course the pope knows!!! I think it would be far better if the world remembered the lessons of Voltaire, “Those who can make you beleieve absurdities can make you commit atrocities!!!”
jerry glenn says
Pope Dhimmi II
Lizabee says
So sad to see a Pope admonish his Christian flock but praise the wolves. He’s not a good shepherd. I want another shepherd that makes the flock feel safe.
Nick Geraci says
Does the Pope know that the wall built around the Vatican originally was to keep the muslim hordes out?
Antonio says
Tha Catholic church has become a Globalist Fraud, not to mention tbe pedophilia travesty, what a disgrace. The pope has become the anti-Christ.
OLD GUY says
Our political and religious leaders are being pulled in multiple directions all at one time. We can only wish and pray that they make decisions based on what is best for us their followers not their purse or egos.
memi says
Lebanon is a mess today as most Christians have left to Europe and the ones remaining suffer the fate of the Alawites, Christians and Druzes in Jihadist “Syria”.
Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun has a most difficult job of containing the damage inflicted on that poor country’s minority citizens, especially Christians who feels themselves outnumbered nad treated a “migrants” in their own lands.
Aoun deserves a medal for ccoperating and seeking assistance from the West and friendly neighboring countries like Israel, Greece (whose large Orthodox Christian minority has lived in Lebanon for thousands of years) and the island EU country Cyprus, stiall occupied by 50,000 Turkish soldiers(!) under Erdogan’s Islamofascist regime defying 5 UN Resolutions to remove themselves from the north of Cyprus which they invaded and are trying to Islamicise and use Burqas and Sharia Law on the Turkish Cypriots who wish Turkey would remove itself from Cyprus!
Ialamofascist Turkey, mini-Qatar (with 350,001 citizens (I’m counting its newest citizen, TUCKER CARLSON who just “bought a lovely estate home in DOHA) and its 3 million foreign workers whose rights are being abused daily by the Qatari petro-Dollar Oligarcy (the little Islamofascist Gas Station in the Gulf) is supporting, with Erdogan, with trillions of Dollars, European and American Universities and create Foundations & NGOs to serve Hamas, ISIS and the barbarian warmongering MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD!
Time the so-called West listen to the Qatari National Democratic Party Opposition (QNDP) head Khaled al-Hail who tells it like it is: Qatar is the cause of Terrorism and Islamist ideology promoted in every country in the West and with its Al-Jazeera propaganda machine and Trillions manipulates and BRIBE (as they did with Eva Kaili in EU and its corrupt officials & mafiosos) American Congress, Senate and the EU!
With sycophant-“journalist” Tucker C. praisibng the “virtues” of mini-Islamofascist Qatar and its “policeman” Erdogan’s Turkey, and having received considerable “investment” funds for his new News enterprise and a lovely home in Doha, anything and everybody can be bought by these kid-glove-wearing barbarians and their obscenely obese chequebooks! Who’s next?
ploome says
ear Memi:
“Lebanon is a mess today as most Christians have left to Europe and the ones remaining suffer the fate of the Alawites, Christians and Druzes in Jihadist “Syria”.”
before the suffering of the Alawites Christians and Druzes
and
For over 2,500 years, Jews lived continuously in North Africa, the Middle East and the Gulf region the first Jewish population had already settled there at least 1,000 years before the advent of Islam.
Until the 1960s, approximately one million Jews lived in Iran and other Arab countries having arrived in the region more than 2,000 years before. Nowadays, it is estimated that only around 15,000 remain, as the majority of the Jewish population in Muslim lands were forced to flee their homes in the years following the establishment of the State of Israel. This mass expulsion and exodus is part of modern history, but inexplicably, it’s neither taught at schools nor remembered within the context of the conflicts in the Middle East.
https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/news/the-expulsion-of-jews-from-arab-countries-and-iran–an-untold-history
……….you all read the Bible….where were the Jews?
JohnB says
It was Archduke Ferdinand who was assinated on 28 June 1914, not Duke Franz Joseph in August 1014
ploome says
it is surprising that every single Christian declaration is allowed here, (sounding like a fundamental evangelical revival event) and any comment reacting to this fundamental religious mantra is ‘moderated” and now blocked”
the GOSPELS as opposed to the BIBLE
was written in Kione Greek, by Greeks
Is that statement not allowed? It is a lIe? why was that deleted/blocked?
I would very much appreciate a response.
ploome says
Apologies Hugh, I see my comment is posted.
I was too hasty with my conclusion,