In a little-noticed speech last year the head of the Vatican's department for interfaith contacts, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, thanked Muslims for bringing God back to Europe."Muslims, having become a significant minority in Europe, were the ones who demanded space for God in society," said the Cardinal.
He omitted to mention the means by which Islamist religious activists had forced their God back into Europe.
A small group of fanatics used bombs, threats and intimidation to compel governments to give them influence, and the Christian churches did not hesitate to hitch a ride on the mullahs' coat tails. Now "interfaith" is everywhere.
If the Muslims can demand special attention, then all religions must have a slice of the cake.
So, goes the reasoning, God is Back.
And this is, indeed, the striking title of a new and widely-reviewed book whose authors declare that religion is returning to profoundly influence public life.
So it may be in impoverished nations. And God may well be back, to an extent, in the political processes of Europe, but he is not back in the hearts of Europeans.
And with an American President who truly understands the meaning of secularism, God is finding himself on the back foot in the US, too.
A Eurobarometer poll reveals that when asked about what they value most, only 7% of Europeans nominated religion. That same poll tells us that about half of Europeans think that religion is afforded too much importance.
When asked about what values the European Union represents, the ranking starts with human rights (37%), then peace (35%), democracy (34%) and way down last again is religion with only 3%.
So, if Christianity is not the future of Europe, will the continent become Islamic?
The answer is again, no. The capitulation of western governments to the violence of Islamic jihadists and the subsequent channelling of all discourse about Muslims through religious representatives has created the impression that all Muslims are deeply pious and inimical to western values. They are not.
We have been bamboozled by the term "Islamophobia", which suggests that Islam is under systematic persecution in the west. But new research by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights shows clearly that while people who identify themselves as Muslims are, indeed, victims of much discrimination, by their own account hardly any of it is because of their religion.
Another poll showed that young Muslims have a strong desire for westernisation, which again contradicts those who have been appointed to speak for them from the pulpits.
The next claim that the vested religious interests make is: Christianity was responsible for the present democratic nature of Europe. Without Christian influence, Europe would not be the prosperous and compassionate place it is today.
Politicians are gradually becoming wise to the ploys of the theocrats who have bullied them into submission.
When they have completed this process of disengagement from religious power-seekers, the secularisation of Europe's states and institutions will resume at an increasing pace.
And we will all ? religious and non-religious alike ? be the better for it.
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Source (GNM)
SV (2)