The archbishop of Mosul, Iraq, said Wednesday that he fears more for Europe than for his native Iraq because Europe is naïve about the dangers of radical Islam.
“Europe is becoming the sick child of the modern world, because it is moving away from its faith and its cultural and religious roots,” said Archbishop Najeeb Moussa Michaeel in an interview with the European Post. “By dint of turning away from the Church and its heritage, it falls in love with the worst fundamentalist, lax or individualistic ideologies, as long as they are opposed to those who built it.”
“This is an immense sorrow for those who love Europe,” Archbishop Michaeel said. “A pain that will be repaired only through education and culture, through knowledge and the coming out of a false vision of secularism, which must not be instrumentalized to oppose God and spiritual values.”
Post-Christian Europe is a ripe target for radical Islam, the archbishop suggested, because it has abandoned the soul of its culture and this vacuum looks to be filled.
“Islamism fills a void, an emptiness,” the archbishop said. “In the East, we often look at Europe with envious eyes. But we have retained natural values: the defense and promotion of the family, living faith, pride in our identities and our roots. All things that I see slowly disappearing in Europe.”
“I am more afraid for Europe than I am for Iraq,” he continued. “Here, in some ways, we have lost everything; here, you neglect the importance of your treasures, your cultures, your civilization. And you sometimes give way to fundamentalist or Salafist movements that gradually impose their ideologies on those around them, to become bearers of hatred and disrespect for the countries that welcome them.”
The archbishop also warned that Europeans can be disingenuous in their approach to immigration by not realizing who is coming into their countries and what their intentions are.
One would “have to be short-sighted not to see that Europe is naïve in the face of terrorism and uncontrolled and unattended immigration,” Michaeel stated.
“Not all these people come to love you, or to serve the countries that welcome them,” he warned. “If you do not control and fight the outlaws, and those who refuse the values of your country and human rights, and impose their own laws, you will lose your way of life, your culture, your peace.”
“For Catholics, naivety is not charity, prudence is,” he added. “It is indispensable to have an eye for love, and an eye for prudence, this is how you are invited to look at migration.”
“As for terrorism, if you do not make it disappear by law and firmness, it is you and your children who are exposed to the danger of kneeling,” he said.
“We must fear false gods, slavers, violence and the sword, and not turn away from the God of love and peace,” he added. “Christians all over the world are undergoing a real ordeal, and always give martyrs, because of the fanaticism of a god of sword and violence.”
“Unfortunately, you also have your martyrs murdered by the same ideology and by the same fanatical groups,” he said. “All over Europe, people are falling because of the expansionist Islamist ideology.”
“Father Hamel and his assassination, like many other innocent victims in Europe, should have been an occasion for awareness and vigilance.”
“Too bad that was not the case,” he concluded. “Europe: Wake up.”
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