Even crazy Benito Mussolini reacted like a normal human being when a group of Arab ambassadors informed him of their desire to build a mosque in Rome. “There will be a mosque in Rome,” the Fascist ruler said, “only when a Roman Catholic Church is permitted in Mecca.”

In the city of St Peter, off the foot of Monte Antenne, now stood an edifice that has been called the largest mosque in Europe. Its main hall can take two thousand worshipers. Its significance did not escape Abdul Qayuum Khan, the Pakistani Director of the Islamic Cultural Center in Rome given the right to build the mosque. He told the New York Times that, “Even if it is not the largest … it is the most important mosque in Europe. The simple fact that it is the only one located in the heart of Christianity, in the Mecca of Catholicism, you might say.”

The Catholic Church initial objection to building a mosque in Rome was dropped after the Second Vatican Council in 1965. Thereafter, permission to build was granted by the Italian government to the Islamic Center and a 7-5 acre undeveloped lot was donated. The $40 million building was financed by Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia.

“For centuries, Islam and Christianity were in conflict,” said Paolo Portoghesi, the Chief Architect of the project to the Times. “This is an expression of the opening of dialogue among the different religions.”

This dialogue recently reached its zenith when King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia visited Pope Benedict XV1 at the Vatican. It was the first of such visits ever.

I feel it is a perfect time to discuss Islam and the rest of us. I am psyched that maybe this time, the discussion will be fruitful. As against the discussion we usually have after some Muslims massacre Christians on their streets, burn up churches, hotels and stone foreign embassies because either the moon woke up on the wrong side of the sky or a cartoonist in a frozen room in Sweden drew Prophet Mohammed without putting in parenthesis, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, Peace Be Upon Him.

Interestingly, King Abdullah can wake up, hop into his private jet and visit the Pope in Vatican but the Pope cannot visit King Abdullah in Mecca. In fact, non-Muslims are not allowed to visit Mecca. King Abdullah can worship in a mosque in Rome but the Pope cannot worship in a church in all of Saudi Arabia. In fact, there is no church in all of Saudi Arabia.

In an article published in the October 18, 2003 edition of La Civilta Cattolica, a journal edited by a group of Jesuits in Rome, the situation of Christians in Muslim countries were described as one burdened by discrimination and often bloody persecution. The article described Islam in all of its history as being in perpetual warlike poise pushing to conquer all it ever came in contact with.

If history can be our guide, the journal tells us that Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Egypt once had vibrant Christian communities from which emerged several important personalities of the early church. These North African countries produced church heavy weights theologians and philosophers like Saint Cyprian, Saint Augustine, Saint Fulgentius, Bishops of Carthage, Hippo and Ruspe respectively. With the conquest of Islam came the total annihilation of Christians in these North African countries, except for Egypt where a tiny Coptic Orthodox Christian community still exist.

The same happened in the Middle Eastern countries of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Mesopotamia, modern day Iran and Iraq. Aside from Lebanon where there is still a significant population of Christians constantly under threat, the rest of the countries successfully vanquished the once thriving Christian communities.

This disappearance of Christians is achieved by religious persecution. It may be violent or non-violent. In each instance, Muslims invoked the Islamic law that divides the world into three distinguished camps – dar al-harb, dar al-islam and dar al-‘ahd, the house of war, the house of Islam and the house of accord respectively. Those countries in the house of war category, like infidels in non-Muslim countries, must be subjected to the offensive and external Jihad, holy war.

Those in the house of accord category, like Christians and Jews (often called people of the Book) Hindus, non-Muslims in Muslim countries, for over 1000 years were subjected to dhimma, an inferior social order that forbid display or expression of their religion. Under dhimma, for instance, ringing of church bell was prohibited, so were solemn funerals, procession of the cross, selling of church objects like the Bible. Building of places of worship was banned because the lands acquired through Muslim conquest were all considered sacred to Allah. Even at that, one could lose his dhimma status by refusing to pay taxes, offending the prophet Mohammed and the Islamic religion, converting a Muslims to another religion, taking up arms against Muslims etc. Such acts received punishments as severe as death penalty.

The Koran stated in Sura 9:29 that the people of the Book must be made to pay double taxes. Under dhimma, non-Muslims were subjected to other restrictions: they were not allowed to bear arms, bear witness in trials of Muslims, ride a horse, take as wife daughters of Muslims, inherit from Muslims or act as a government official etc. They must also dress in a special way. The only way for those consigned to this low social status to escape these restrictions was to emigrate or to convert to Islam in order to partake in a meaningful life. It was therefore no surprise that after 1000 years of dhimma, Muslim landscapes successfully eradicated its Christian population.

… to be continued