From Novus Ordo Watch:
Don’t you hate it when that happens? You’re hosting a big interfaith peace event with Jews, Muslims, and “Christians”, and then the Muslim imam ad libs the text he had previously submitted and adds a prayer for “victory over the infidels.” Bummer!A commenter at Gates of Vienna confirms this:
Is this what happened on Pentecost Sunday in the Vatican Gardens?
We’re not entirely sure. A controversy has erupted in Europe over this. According to Egyptian-German political scientist, historian, and author Hamed Abdel-Samad, who could be described as the Modernist version of a Muslim, the Islamic clergyman who offered the “prayers for peace” in the Vatican on Sunday did not stick verbatim to the prepared text of the prayers as published beforehand, but instead ended with a quotation from the last verse of Sura 2 in the Koran, which reads, “You are our protector, so give us victory over the disbelieving people”. The “disbelieving people” can alternatively be rendered “unbelievers” or “infidels.” In any case, what is meant is victory over people who are not Muslim.
Practically no one in the Vatican understands Arabic, but, not unexpectedly, Vatican Radio has already denied Abdel-Samad’s claim. “Fr.” Bernd Hagenkord, SJ, editor at the German-speaking offices of Vatican Radio, says the claim that the Muslim cleric ended his prayer with a quote from the Koran or with a petition against infidels is “nonsense” (source here — in German but further down includes English translation of all prayers “verbatim as prayed”, allegedly).
I do understand Quranic Arabic very well. I also know Quran itself rather well. I am an ex-Muslim. This link that you have posted was cut! The full recitation from the Quran by this imam that I watched on the Al Arabiya channel two days ago had his recitation up until the final verses, and without a shadow of a doubt he recited the second sura Al Bagharah’s last few verses till the very end where he did say, “and pardon us and forgive us and have mercy on us, you are our guardian, so make us victorious over the tribe of disbelievers [or ‘deniers’, as the word kafir really means]”.
Now the question is: who chopped this video to take out the controversial part out of it? It is cut literally in the middle of the verse where the controversial part starts, and jumps to the imam’s prayer in his own words, which are not controversial. You can recognize the end of recitation and beginning of his own prayer by the fact that he stopped singing and start speaking normally. If you pay attention you will notice the place where it was cut. It is noticeable.
They kept his recitation until the end of the of “forgive us and have mercy on us.” But the last two clauses — “you are our guardian, so grant us victory over unbelievers” was neatly and in very Stalinesque fashion airbrushed out!
I also confirmed this with a friend who knows Arabic well.
After being shown the evidence, Radio Vatican admitted that the Imam did call for victory over unbelievers, but they then quoted Father Felix Körner, a Jesuit who teaches at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, who tries to contextualize it!
We must put ourselves in the early period of Islam, here we are perhaps still in Mecca or in the early years in Medina; Islam is a small group that is persecuted by polytheists, pagan groups who want to get rid of Muhammad and his followers. Disbelief in this case means people who do not recognize the one God. Therefore, in this Koran instead of the unbelievers is mentioned, against which we will ask for help to God, not the Jews nor the Christians who clearly, of course, recognize the oneness of God!Wow! Dhimmitude is an understatement!
...This verse, perhaps spontaneously chosen by someone who then recited the Koran by heart, actually fit very well into the overall context of the peace prayer! There were always three steps in the three religions. We know the Creator and praise him, we acknowledge our sins and confess them, and we ask for the gift of peace. And all this comes in these three Quranic verses which are still very beautiful. You, God, know everything. We repent of our sins and ask for forgiveness. And we need your help, so that peace and justice may arise. This is the content of these three verses, so that was an understandable choice - Perhaps made spontaneously, but in any case a good choice.
In a similar vein, when the Pope visited Jerusalem, he met with Mufti Mumannad Hussein:
Here is what Hussein says about Jews - you know, one of those groups that the Vatican is convinced is embraced by Islam:
(h/t Maria, IronyDome)