A Jewish Rabbi and a Catholic Bishop Walked into a Mosque…

To be precise, it was Ireland’s Croke Park Stadium, not a proper mosque, but what happened there was no joke. On Friday, July 31, Ireland’s top Catholic prelate, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, “joined Muslims in celebrating a key Islamic festival which falsifies the Bible by declaring that the patriarch Abraham took Ishmael, not Isaac, to be sacrificed on Mount Moriah.” Also present was Jewish Rabbi Zalman Lent, who enthused “it is special we can all sit here together ... as brothers.”

Martin was just as enthusiastic, saying: “Today marks a new chapter in the history of Croke Park. Today our celebration is a gesture of recognizing publicly the place of the Muslim community as an integral part of the family of the Irish and to recognize the contribution of your Muslim community to the Ireland of today and to the Ireland of tomorrow.”

In this event we see yet again the Catholic hierarchy’s endless solicitude for Muslims and Islam, and its disdain for actual Catholics…. Martin’s participation was all the more unconscionable that they would be celebrating Eid al-Adha, the day on which Muslims sacrifice animals in honor of Abraham sacrificing Ishmael — not Isaac.

When Diarmuid Martin and Zalman Lent think of Abraham, they probably think of Genesis:22:15-18 [15] And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, [16] And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: [17] That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; [18] And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
See All..., in which Abraham is rewarded for his faith and told he will become a blessing to the nations: “by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.”

But their Muslim friends don't read Genesis. They read the Qur’an. Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son (who is not named)is recounted in 37:102-109. Islamic tradition holds that the son Abraham sacrificed was Ishmael, and that the Bible’s saying he was Isaac is more evidence of the Bible’s corruption. 

Martin and Lent were thus reinforcing a worldview that takes for granted the legitimacy of everlasting enmity and hatred between Muslims and non-Muslims — and doing so precisely in the context of trying to build bridges between Muslims and non-Muslims.

This disgraceful event shows the priorities of the Catholic hierarchy today, and those of Leftist clerics in general. Islam is the preferred religion of the Left, and that holds true even when the leftists in question are clerics of different faiths.

And even worse, the endless solicitude of Leftist Jewish and Christian clerics for Islam will never be reciprocated. The Muslims who greeted Martin and Lent at Croke Park Stadium thought of them as unbelievers from among the People of the Book, people whom the Qur’an terms “the most vile of created beings” (98:6). They almost certainly thought that before this event, and they continued to think it afterward. The words of the Qur’an will never be erased. A pious, knowledgeable, believing Muslim will never disregard those words just because an infidel, who is akin to an animal (Qur’an 8:55) shows him kindness.

The command will remain: “Muhammad is the apostle of Allah. Those who follow him are ruthless to unbelievers, merciful to one another” (Qur’an 48:29). That is something you will never hear from the likes of Zalman Lent and Diarmuid Martin. But it remains in the Islamic holy book nevertheless.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/08/jewish-rabbi-and-catholic-bishop-walked-mosque-robert-spencer/