Good Friday 2011, Rome

Note: I have added excerpts from the Pope's Easter speech to this post.

Check out the dozens of photos at Bivouac-Id of Muslims praying in Rome on Good Friday. These prayers took place before the Altar of the Fatherland, the huge white monument built to honor Victor-Emmanuel and 50 years of Italian unity. The construction spanned sixteen years from 1895 to 1911. The fact that the prayers took place there is regarded as a "declaration of war against the Italian Fatherland" by the authors of the video below. The fact that it took place on Holy Friday is a "declaration of war on all Christians".

The video was produced by Maxime Lépante, of Riposte Laïque, who made the many videos of Muslims praying in the streets of Paris. The text is simple: the Muslims gather, they lay down their tarps in the street. The muezzin calls them to prayer. The speaker at one point says that Islam does not treat women as objects, that objects do not say anything. At the end, a quote from Turkish Prime Minister Erbakan in 1989 that "Europe in its entirety will become Islamic. We will conquer Rome".




A Bivouac reader points out that another equally ominous event took place in Milan on Good Friday. For the first time in Italy, at 1:09 p.m., the call to prayer in Arabic was broadcast through loud speakers from the minaret of the Cascina Gobba mosque:


- Another provocation from the Muslim community that only confirms that Milan has become the capital of Islamic fanaticism of the Italian peninsula. The archbishop of Milan, Dionisio Tettamanzi, and the president of the Italian Commission of Bishops Ambogio Spreafico, are both favorable to the construction of a large mosque in the city.

This article from Il Giornale, in Italian, has the whole story.

Update: April 26 - Pope Benedict XVI, in his Easter Sunday speech Urbi et Orbi, expressed the wish that refugees from the Middle East and North Africa be welcomed by people of good will. Here are the last two paragraphs of the speech, from the Vatican's website:

May the Land which was the first to be flooded by the light of the Risen One rejoice. May the splendour of Christ reach the peoples of the Middle East, so that the light of peace and of human dignity may overcome the darkness of division, hate and violence. In the current conflict in Libya, may diplomacy and dialogue take the place of arms and may those who suffer as a result of the conflict be given access to humanitarian aid. In the countries of northern Africa and the Middle East, may all citizens, especially young people, work to promote the common good and to build a society where poverty is defeated and every political choice is inspired by respect for the human person. May help come from all sides to those fleeing conflict and to refugees from various African countries who have been obliged to leave all that is dear to them; may people of good will open their hearts to welcome them, so that the pressing needs of so many brothers and sisters will be met with a concerted response in a spirit of solidarity; and may our words of comfort and appreciation reach all those who make such generous efforts and offer an exemplary witness in this regard.

May peaceful coexistence be restored among the peoples of Ivory Coast, where there is an urgent need to tread the path of reconciliation and pardon, in order to heal the deep wounds caused by the recent violence. May Japan find consolation and hope as it faces the dramatic consequences of the recent earthquake, along with other countries that in recent months have been tested by natural disasters which have sown pain and anguish.

While no one doubts the Pope's sincerity, it would be instructive to know what he thinks when he hears the call of the muezzin or when he sees so many discontented unassimilated Muslims praying in Rome on Good Friday. Especially since the mosques were empty, meaning that those out in the street did not have to be there.