Egyptian Jesuit, Challenges Conventional Wisdom

Hegazi Case: Is there a plan for the world’s conversion to Islam?

by Samir Khalil Samir, SJ

Some theories about an alleged Muslim plan to convert the world are a myth. But it is fair to say that some Muslims are engaged in constant propaganda and that at a social and cultural level Islam is colonising the West. Saudi Arabia provides the money; the process of de-Christianisation offers the religious motive; ignorance and a sense of embarrassment in many Western governments do the rest. Here is the third (and last) part of an analysis by Fr Samir Khalil Samir, an Egyptian Jesuit and Islam expert.

Beirut (AsiaNews) – Is there a Muslim plan to take over the world? There is talk about a paper (which I haven’t seen) ostensibly published at a conference held in India in 1996 that purports to endorse a strategy for the conversion of Europe by 2050 and of the world by 2100 to Islam.
I think this is just a myth or some story blown totally out of proportion. I do think though that for the past 60 or so years the Muslim Brotherhood, increasingly backed by Saudi Arabia and many other Muslim countries like Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc., has tried to turn Muslim countries into Islamic states governed by Sharia law.
The second phase of this plan, carried out concurrently to the first, is to Islamise Christians living in Muslim countries. This is happening wherever there are radical Muslims, in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iraq . . . . We saw this happen in Iraq in the past year, where some neighbourhoods in Baghdad have become micro-caliphates in which Christians are told to convert to Islam or pay the Jizya (protection money), and accept second-class status.
Converting Europe
The third phase is the conversion of Europe (and for Muslims Europe symbolises Christianity). This is carried out first and foremost by working with young, European-born Muslims through imams teaching radical ideologies in mosques, prisons, bookstores. The next step is propaganda through Tabligh, a method that evolved in Pakistan and has spread to Europe. It is a mystical, Sufi-like missionary movement that has converted tens of thousands of Europeans. Another movement that aims at converting Europe is that of radical Islam, which is highly critical of European culture as a whole.
However, the most dangerous trend because it is subtler is that incarnated by Tariq Ramadan, a scholar who has become a leading figure in Europe and is consulted as an expert by Western governments.
Ramadan says that Muslims in Europe want to become European Muslims but for this to happen European society must recognise Muslims and give them the necessary space to express ourselves.
In practical terms this means converting Europe’s social and legal systems in order to facilitate converting people. It means Islamising institutions on the premise that since Europe no longer has a soul but only technology, Islam is the only religion that can fill the void.
Throughout Islam’s history conversions were the consequences of systems’ changes. In Egypt for instance a Christian who wanted to play a role in politics sooner or later had to convert with his family automatically following. Today anyone who wants to be a government minister, a head physician or an army general needs the advantages that come with being Muslim. As a result of this over the centuries the best and brightest and their offspring could only leave.
The same happens in marriage. Non-Muslim women who marry Muslim men today end up becoming Muslim. And yet, the Qur’an says that a Jewish or a Christian woman need not change her religion to marry. Verse Five, Chapter Five (the last to be revealed by God) does indeed say:
“Today, all good food is made lawful for you. The food of the people of the scripture is lawful for you, [and your food is lawful for them]*. Also, you may marry the chaste women among the believers, as well as the chaste women among the followers of previous scripture, provided you pay them their due dowries. You shall maintain chastity, not committing adultery, nor taking secret lovers. Anyone who rejects faith, all his work will be in vain, and in the Hereafter he will be with the losers.” (Translation by Rashad Khalifa)
In Italy and Europe it is becoming increasingly commonplace for European women to become Muslim in order to marry Tunisian, Libyan or Moroccan men even though the Sharia does not require it. Pushed by extremists Muslim men increasingly demand from their future wives that they convert, and the latter out of love and because of the lack of strong religious convictions often do without fully grasping its consequences.
Until the 1950s many Muslims intellectuals and political leaders boasted at having a Christian wife. This is no longer the case in Muslim but also in traditionally Christian countries. This is a victory for radicals in the Muslim world who, as they put, “can convert even in their Christian world.”

Read the full Asia News article (here)