{"id":2587,"date":"2009-07-19T21:44:41","date_gmt":"2009-07-19T21:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com.108-166-28-151.mdgnetworks.com\/wordpress\/?p=2587"},"modified":"2013-03-20T21:45:47","modified_gmt":"2013-03-20T21:45:47","slug":"continuity-st-francis-of-assisi-fr-zakaria-botros-and-islam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/continuity-st-francis-of-assisi-fr-zakaria-botros-and-islam\/","title":{"rendered":"Continuity: St. Francis of Assisi, Fr. Zakaria Botros, and Islam"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n

Jihad Watch<\/em><\/p>\n

While not formally connected, two books I recently finished reading \u2014\u00a0St. Francis of Assisi and the Conversion of Muslims<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Defying Death: Zakaria Botross, Apostle to Islam<\/a><\/em>\u00a0\u2014 complement each other very well, specifically by establishing continuity between medieval and modern Islam, and, in so doing, demonstrating that Islamic intolerance has a long pedigree.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For instance, after St. Francis and his companions challenged the sultan\u2019sulema<\/em>\u00a0to a theological disputation in order to show the superiority of Christianity to Islam, the latter refused and \u201cinstead insisted that they be killed [by beheading], in accordance with Islamic law.\u201d (p. 60)<\/p>\n

Medieval Muslims appear to have also had the same soft spots of today\u2019s Muslims. A contemporary notes, \u201cThe Saracens treated with great cruelty those Christians who spoke ill of the law of Mahomet.\u201d (p. 90) Other anecdotes reveal that Muslims could tolerate Christians \u2014 except whenever the latter questioned Muhammad. Reminiscent of how today\u2019s non-Muslims often get themselves in trouble, or worse, killed, whenever they allude to the prophet of Islam \u2014 whether by quoting history, publishing cartoons, or naming teddy bears \u201cMuhammad.\u201d<\/p>\n

After St. Francis asked the sultan to convert to Christianity, the latter confessed: \u201cI could not do that. My people would stone me.\u201d (p. 65) Indeed, the sultan was eventually attacked \u201cfor his tolerant attitude towards Christians and was accused of failing to be a \u2018fervent Muslim.\u2019\u201d (p. 75) These two points are a reminder that today\u2019s Muslim apostate, no less than his medieval counterpart, must be executed \u2014 as we see in daily headlines \u2014 and that Muslims who are too \u201cfriendly\u201d with infidels, in direct contravention to Koran 3:28, can be denounced of apostasy.<\/p>\n

If the reader still thinks the above is aberrant or \u201coutdated\u201d behavior for Muslims, another book \u2014\u00a0Defying Death: Zakaria Botross, Apostle to Islam<\/em>(2007) \u2014 makes clear how tenacious such reactions are. A Coptic priest who has spent his life proselytizing Muslims, Botross\u2019 experiences with the former mirror those of St. Francis. According to his biography, when the priest began preaching to Muslims in Egypt, he was imprisoned, tortured, and eventually deported; when Muslims actually began converting, his life, according to Islamic law \u2014 which condemns both the convert and converter \u2014 was forfeit.<\/p>\n

Undeterred and now in his mid 70s, he currently hosts a very popular\u00a0Arabic satellite program<\/a>\u00a0dedicated to examining Islam vis-\u00e0-vis Christianity, especially through their scriptures, in an effort to debunk the former. And just like St. Francis, he constantly invites the\u00a0ulema<\/em>\u00a0to debate him \u2014 only to receive death threats, including a multi-million dollar bounty on his head.<\/p>\n

Botross often explores arcane Arabo-Islamic texts, many which contain unflattering material concerning the Prophet \u2014 he recently ran a series dedicated to documenting the \u201cperverse sexual habits of the Prophet<\/a>.\u201d As with St. Francis\u2019 experiences, the Muslim response, including live callers hysterically promising to cut Botross\u2019 head off, confirms that Muhammad, then and now, is a soft spot for Muslims.
\nFinally, as with the sultan who, reflecting upon the possibility of his conversion to Christianity, concluded that \u201cI could not do that. My people would stone me,\u201d the many Muslim converts appearing on his show and calling in, reveal that their apostasy from Islam has made them outcasts, many in hiding, others on the run for their lives, often from their families.<\/p>\n

Raymond Ibrahim<\/a>\u00a0is the associate director of the Middle East Forum and the author of The Al Qaeda Reader, translations of religious texts and propaganda.<\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Raymond Ibrahim Jihad Watch While not formally connected, two books I recently finished reading \u2014\u00a0St. Francis of Assisi and the Conversion of Muslims\u00a0and\u00a0Defying Death: Zakaria Botross, Apostle to Islam\u00a0\u2014 complement each other very well, specifically by establishing continuity between medieval and modern Islam, and, in so doing, demonstrating that Islamic intolerance has a long […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[227,714],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-FJ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2516,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/zakaria-botros-islams-scourge-returns\/","url_meta":{"origin":2587,"position":0},"title":"Zakaria Botros: Islam’s Scourge Returns","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim FrontPageMagazine.com Father Zakaria Botros, also known as Islam's \"Public Enemy #1,\" is back. From around 2005-2010, this 76 year-old Coptic priest was Islam's bane. Appearing weekly on Arabic satellite, where he was viewed by an estimated 60 million people worldwide, mostly Muslims, he meticulously exposed any number\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Islam"","block_context":{"text":"Islam","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/islam\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3086,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/was-osama-bin-laden-the-chicken-or-the-egg\/","url_meta":{"origin":2587,"position":1},"title":"Was Osama Bin Laden the Chicken or the Egg?","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 18, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim PJ Media To posit the significance of Osama bin Laden's demise, we must first decide which came first \u2014 the chicken or the egg? Quaint as it is, this question is fundamentally an inquiry into the nature of cause and effect. In our context, did Osama bin\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1561,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/what-did-you-say-about-muhammad\/","url_meta":{"origin":2587,"position":2},"title":"What Did You Say About Muhammad?","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim PJ Media Which is more likely to elicit an irate Muslim response: 1) public cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, or 2) public proclamations that Muhammad was a bisexual, sometime transvestite and necrophile, who enjoyed sucking on the tongues of children, commanded a woman to \u201cbreastfeed\u201d an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3281,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/osama-bin-laden-man-of-love\/","url_meta":{"origin":2587,"position":3},"title":"Osama bin Laden: Man of Love?","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim MESH (Middle East Strategy at Harvard) In many ways, Michael Scheuer is the paradigmatic case of an otherwise knowledgeable and experienced Western adult who takes al Qaeda\u2019s word at face value. According to his book,\u00a0Imperial Hubris, his credentials and thus authority to speak about al Qaeda and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5357,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/islams-public-enemy-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":2587,"position":4},"title":"Islam’s Public Enemy #1","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Coptic priest Zakaria Botros fights fire with fire. by Raymond Ibrahim National Review Online Though he is little known in the West, Coptic priest\u00a0Zakaria Botros\u00a0\u2014 named Islam\u2019s \u201cPublic Enemy #1\u201d by the Arabic newspaper,\u00a0al-Insan al-Jadid\u2014 has been making waves in the Islamic world. Along with fellow missionaries \u2014 mostly Muslim\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3373,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/al-jazeera-and-history-the-fall-of-acre\/","url_meta":{"origin":2587,"position":5},"title":"Al-Jazeera and History: The Fall of Acre","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim Jihad Watch Amidst the images of suffering and slain Palestinians, Iraqis, and Afghanis, the internationally (in)famous Arabic news station al-Jazeera today had an interesting five-minute segment that it played over several times: the fall of the Muslim city of Acre (Arabic: \u2018Akka\u2019) to the Crusaders, which after\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2587"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2589,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587\/revisions\/2589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}