Religious Wars: Crusades vs. Jihads

This article will no doubt cause significant controversy, specifically this portion: "Attempts at the 'Islamification' of the West cannot be denied," he (Ganswein) said, according to an English translation in the Catholic Explorer. "And the associated danger for the identity of Europe cannot be ignored out of a wrongly understood sense of respect... The Catholic side sees this clearly and says as much." My first thought is to compare this potential "Islamification" to the "Christianification" of almost the entire Western Hemisphere. An excellent quote comes from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, which was later adapted into the movie blockbuster Apocalypse Now: The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly fatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretense but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea — something you can set up, and bow down before. This site also has some insight: As Europeans increasingly took over the lands and/or the resources of non-Europeans in Asia, Africa, the American, New Zealand, Australia,and various other regions of the world dominated by Europeans on behalf of "White Christian Civilization," they increasingly saw themselves as the stewards of world civilization, placed on earth to elevate and guide the nonwhite masses. This collective feeling of racial superiority developed gradually over the centuries as the European peoples established contact with non-European peoples for the purposes of conquest and exploitation. Foremost among these perceptions and values was the notion that they, as Europeans, were a chosen people with a destiny that included the expansion of their "European Christian Civilization" over the face of the earth. Non-Europeans had no vote in the matter. One such theory, called by some historians, "the European theory of the right of discovery,", grew out of an ancient claim by Christians that they had the right to dispossess non-Christians of their land anywhere in the world. There has been little apology for this type of "Christianification", yet when the specter of "Islamification" rises in a primarily Christian region, the Church must make a call for action. What a surprise.