Somewhat differently, the pope on his way back from his 2015 trip to Manila, "went out of his way to invoke an apocalyptic 1907 novel by an English convert from Anglicanism called 'Lord of the World.' The novel lays out a dystopic vision of a final conflict between secular humanism and Catholicism, with the showdown taking place on the fields of Armageddon." [4]
Although both IS and the pope anticipate a conflict, IS sees it to be between those belonging to the Zionist system and those who oppose Israel and the Catholic Church, whereas the pope saw it in 2015 to be between secularism and Catholicism. He might have changed his mind since the murder of Fr. Jacques Hamel when he said "'[i]t’s war, we don’t have to be afraid to say this … a war of interests, for money, resources. I am not speaking of a war of religions. Religions don’t want war. The others want war.'" [5]
What the pope meant by "a war of interests" was as vague to this blogger as it was to Fr. Alexander Lucie-Smith who wrote the article, published by the Catholic Herald, asking if this current conflict was parallel to the Northern Ireland conflict in the 1970's where "it was commonly averred that the Troubles were only coincidentally a religious conflict, but were in fact a conflict that sprang from entrenched social inequalities." [6]
"Can we say that contemporary Islamist terrorism is rooted in social and economic inequalities? It must be true that social and economic inequalities do not help, and that in a country like France the Muslim community feels itself to be somehow excluded from national life. This seems to be beyond question. The sort of young men who are drawn to terrorism are clearly not integrated into society; if they were, they might have found better things to do with themselves.
"But this raises the major question: are they not integrated because their religion prevents them from integrating into the French mainstream? This is the question that needs to be confronted: is the link between terrorism and Islam merely extrinsic or is it intrinsic?"
...
"The Pope’s words on the plane seem to indicate that there is something 'behind' ISIS, and seem to be at one with the usual Italian idea of dietrologia or 'the facts behind the facts': in other words, someone or something is 'behind' ISIS, and ISIS is a front for some other movement. But there is no evidence that this is the case.
"Perhaps we should face up to the alternative, namely, that ISIS is serious about its stated aims, and it is what it says it is: the caliphate in arms, an attempt to resurrect the supposed state of affairs that existed in the 7th century. In other words, its inspiration comes from inside Islam (albeit a rather recondite current in Islam) and nor [sic] from outside it.
"But this brings into question the other thing the Pope asserts: 'This is not a war of religions.' It is, albeit only on one side." [7]
Perhaps the reasons "behind" the rise of ISIL are both extrinsic and intrinsic. An extrinsic reason besides those that are economic could be the reluctance of the French to absorb the culture of Islam thereby changing irrevocably what it means to be "French." An intrinsic reason besides the innate difficulty in abandoning one's culture for a completely new set of behavior [8] (like speaking a foreign language with no grammatical error and no accent) could be what Fr. Alexander Lucie-Smith had alluded to, that IS is waging a jihad, a Muslim holy war against non-believers.
Whether this conflict is religious or secular in nature is still being decided but not where the final showdown will take place: on the preordained grounds of Armageddon.
[1] http://observer.com/2016/07/why-isis-sees-an-elderly-priest-as-a-threat-to-the-caliphate/
[2] http://ichthys.com/mail-Armageddon.htm
[3] http://observer.com/2016/07/why-isis-sees-an-elderly-priest-as-a-threat-to-the-caliphate/
[4] https://cruxnow.com/church/2015/01/25/apocalyptic-beliefs-may-explain-why-francis-is-a-pope-in-a-hurry/
[5] http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2016/07/29/the-popes-comments-on-fr-hamels-murder-were-very-mysterious/
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Behaviors new to Muslims include acceptance of gay marriage (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/10065679/France-legalises-gay-marriage.html) and transgenderism (http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/07/16/519371/france-passes-law-against-transgender--and-harassment/) which the pope, and Fr. Alexander Lucie-Smith too (as a Catholic priest, he has to), like their Muslim brethren, reject. See http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20030731_homosexual-unions_en.html and http://www.advocate.com/marriage-equality/2015/10/06/heres-what-pope-says-about-same-sex-marriage (Vatican against gay marriage). See http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/the-popes-take-on-transgender-issues-accept-the-body-god-gave-you-56797/ (Vatican against transgenderism).
