It says something when the head of the world’s largest Christian church sounds more like a Leftist European politician than a cleric.  When asked if Europeans are justified in fearing Islam, Pope Francis diplomatically answered the question by using a false parallel. Francis compared the idea of conquest in Islam to Christianity:

Today, I don’t think that there is a fear of Islam as such but of ISIS and its war of conquest, which is partly drawn from Islam. It is true that the idea of conquest is inherent in the soul of Islam. However, it is also possible to interpret the objective in Matthew’s Gospel, where Jesus sends his disciples to all nations, in terms of the same idea of conquest.

Francis is conflating the Islamist version of jihad, a physical holy war, to Jesus’s command for believers to fulfill the Great Commission:  “make disciples of all nations.” This is intellectually dishonest to say the least.  Someone needs to ask Francis how many Christians interpret the referred passage in Matthew’s Gospel as a command to establish world domination rather than as a calling to evangelism.  Where are these Christian armies?

Yet millions of jihadists do believe in carrying out violent jihad.   Sheikh Yousuf al-Qaradawi is so prominent a Sunni cleric that he has 1.19 million Twitter followers.  He is considered a spiritual leader by the Muslim Brotherhood.  And he has been known to support terrorism and violence while appealing to Islamic texts for justification. The Counter Jihad Report provides an example from 2014:

Qaradawi cited an infamous, apocalyptic hadith frequently invoked by Islamists telling Muslims to kill Jews.

“The Messenger of Allah (May Allah bless him and grant him peace) has informed us, when he said: “The Hour will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews, with Muslims fighting them until the Jew hides behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees saying: ‘Oh Muslim, Oh servant of Allah, this Jew behind me, come kill him.’”

Jihadists also obtain their desire for conquest adhering to the spirit of these Quranic verses, just to name a few:

Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture – [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled. –Quran 9:29

They wish you would disbelieve as they disbelieved so you would be alike. So do not take from among them allies until they emigrate for the cause of Allah. But if they turn away, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them and take not from among them any ally or helper.   –Quran 4:89

Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment […] –Quran 5:33

Something else is driving Pope Francis to make such an absurd comparison than just ecumenicalism and liberal theology.   Perhaps Francis is seeking an alliance with Islam for political reasons.  In the same interview with French newspaper La Croix when Francis compared jihad to the Great Commission, he also commended the election of London Mayor Sadiq Khan and stressed protecting religious liberty:

In London, the new mayor (Editor: Sadiq Khan, the son of Muslim Pakistanis) took his oath of office in a cathedral and will undoubtedly meet the queen. This illustrates the need for Europe to rediscover its capacity to integrate.

However, everyone must have the freedom to externalize his or her own faith. If a Muslim woman wishes to wear a veil, she must be able to do so. Similarly, if a Catholic wishes to wear a cross. People must be free to profess their faith at the heart of their own culture not merely at its margins.

Electing a radical like Khan with a history of supporting terrorists such as Shaker Aamer isn’t an example of Muslim integration into European society, but instead an Islamist takeover. As for defending religious liberty, Francis fails to realize that Islamists don’t view freedom and equality through a Western lens but such concepts through sharia. Therefore, freedom means freedom from “man-made law” while equality means equality under sharia. Islamists oppose other faiths’ religious rights.

We have already seen in the past how Francis highlighted the need to speak out against ‘Islamophobia’ on his 2014 trip to Turkey.  Last month, the Vatican reneged on its offer to help Christian refugees staying in Greece come to Italy, taking three Muslim families instead. Francis has also advocated for an ‘open borders’ policy disproportionately benefiting Muslims migrants. Francis’s actions prove he might indirectly be the best ally of Islamists in Europe.

It’s disheartening that the Pope’s influence and clout is being used to advance an Islamist agenda. For a Europe beleaguered by an identity crisis, it’s time European leaders such as Francis denounce the kind of moral equivalence prevalent in European political discourse.  It is ridiculous to compare even ‘radical’ Christianity to violent Islamists. Only once they abandon this kind of moral equivalence can leaders begin to effectively combat the dangers of Islamic terrorism and sharia law.  Europe is on its way to committing ‘civilization suicide,’ and many of its leaders are welcoming it.