A Cardinal Defends Islam & Muslims

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn

A Catholic Cardinal in Austria, Christoph Schönborn, in an interview with Austria's Kronen Zeitung newspaper made unexpected remarks when he was asked the question, ‘Will Islam conquer Europe?’ The 71 year old who was seen as a prospective Pope said in response, "When we see that the mosques are well visited and the churches are badly visited, we cannot blame Muslims for wanting to Islamise Europe. But we must reproach ourselves for not doing enough to maintain a Christian Europe." The Cardinal added, “It is not Muslims' fault if Europe is being de-Christianised, fear of the Islamisation of Europe is nonsensical if one does not contribute something to the fact that Europe remains Christian. But, of course, if a church is sold in the Netherlands and transformed into a supermarket, when the supermarkets are more important to us than the Christian roots of Europe, we must not be surprised that Europe de-Christianises. But it is not the fault of the Muslims." Christoph also condemned the attempts to make Muslim refugees look bad for the actions of a few among them, “Crime is crime. And as with the people of Austria, there are also among the refugees those who abuse social benefits. But it would not be right to conclude that all refugees do this." Cardinal Christoph though conceding that a lot of terrorists acts have been carried out with the call “Allahu Akbar” dismissed that this was something peculiar to Islam. To this, Schönborn said: "That's a problem. But I also say that religions are always at risk of terror being committed in their name. Just think of the Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, who killed each other - in the name of their religion.” Cardinal Christoph Schönborn also showed concern that Christians in Muslim majority nations are often been targeted, "That religions are in competition with each other is as old as the world. I am pleased that Muslims can freely exercise their religion with us, but I also wish that Christians in Saudi Arabia were able to practice their religion freely, and in other Muslim majority countries."