A very special ‘touring’ exhibition is on view in the western Polish city of Poznan. The city’s trams are displaying images of ‘modern martyrs’ who, it is claimed, have died at the hands of Muslims or in Muslim nations. Is this a good idea in the light of the ‘cartoon controversy’ that has swept the world this month?
Among those depicted on the posters are the Italian priest Andre Santoro who was killed by a young Muslim fanatic in Turkey four weeks ago and a Polish nun who was mortally injured three years ago in a church in the Congo capital of Kinshasa. The captions on the posters describe their ‘road to Calvary’ and invite the residents of Poznan to take part in the Stations of the Cross service this coming Friday. Piotr Pilarczyk of the Saint Benedict Foundation.
“The posters show martyrs of our time, Christians who died in the last three years in Pakistan, Egypt, the Congo, Indonesia and Turkey. The Stations of the Cross are dedicated to Christians who suffered for their faith. We want to express solidarity with them and want to pray for the martyrs of the 21st century.”
Representatives of Poland’s small Muslim community, which numbers around 30 thousand people, called the exhibition a ‘provocation’. Their view is shared by professor Janusz Danecki of Warsaw University, a prominent expert on the Islamic world.
“This is a sort of provocation which can cause a reaction from Muslims. I’m not certain if Polish Muslims will react in a vehement way but I’m sure that some groups outside Poland might react. This would be the beginning of a new phase of conflict of opinion. There’s always a danger that it would change into a real open conflict.”
Professor Danecki argues that what makes the poster display in Poznan so controversial is first and foremost its timing, soon after a massive wave of protest following the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
This is not to say, he adds, that we should not talk about the Christian martyrs of our time.
“It should not be presented now. We know about these facts and we remember about the tragedy of a Catholic priest who was killed in Algeria a few years ago. There was a lot of discussion also in Poland. This is a subject to be discussed, not to be presented in public without the participation of the Muslims. Why don’t we present our grievances to the Muslims and ask them to explain why it all happened, because they have their own views. In this way, they are asked to react in a similar way which is absolutely unacceptable.”
The organizers of the exhibition say their initiative has nothing to do with the recent events. They condemn the publication of the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. Piotr Pilarczyk again.
“We don’t show those who are guilty of persecution but focus on martyrs. There are many political regimes and groups all over the world which persecute Christians. We don’t refer directly to any of these groups. We show the truth, real people who suffered for their faith so I don’t think it can offend anyone.”
And besides it is just a coincidence that this happened in Islamic countries. Though I wonder what was the last time you heard of a Catholic youth shooting an inman in the back and walking away shouting “Hail Mary” or “John 3:16?”
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Wow, I have to disagree with Danecki! We shouldn’t mention they were martyred by Muslims because it might make Muslims mad? So his solution is to just keep quiet about it? That won’t bring about any change of heart in the Muslim world.
Catholic martyrs inspire a big yawn from most diplomats, professors and media types. Good looking women and their peers are the only ones whose demise inflame their feelings.
With priests and religious, they team up to criticize anyone who dares bring up the subject.
If Catholic Poland won’t speak up for these innocent victims, just who will?
So let me see if I have this straight…. We shouldn’t publicly venerate martyrs because it’s insensitive toward the people who killed them? And then the families and countrymen of the people who did the killing will have to kill some more in order to wipe out the insult to the killers?
So would this work for all the other martyrs, too? Should we venerate the people who killed them instead?
Professor Danecki and his legions of liberal intelligentsia are very big on the holy sacrament dialogue as long as it involves thuggery at someone else’s house. When it happens to them, then gated communities arise around them for protection from those who pay no attention to windy words.
It reminds me of all of the romanticizing of our own barbaric urban gangs starting with the likes of Leonard Bernstein, et al, that resulted in tens of thousands of young men slaughtering each other on our city streets over the last four decades while the dialoguers held cocktail parties and crafted social service committees designed to do nothing but dialogue.
Voice of the Martyrs posts on Christian martyrs (most often Protestant) around the world. What is most troubling is that so much persecution occurs in Moslem countries. Islam has paid lip service to tolerance, allowing, at best, Christians, Jews and others to live under their tyrannical heel as second class members of society–rather like the decent folks have to do in gang infested communities in the U.S,
I quote Ronald Reagan: “If not us, who? If not now, when?”
Saying that this “isn’t the right time” for such a display means you can always say this “isn’t the right time” and never get around to addressing the real and disturbing fact that Christians have died for their faith, and that it’s important not only to acknowledge this, but to remember and learn from it, and to face those who persecute us.
This is a sort of provocation which can cause a reaction from Muslims.
I think that’s the point. The point of the argument over the cartoons, and this display, is about Muslim reaction. And the fact that they react not with rational, reasoned argument and diplomacy, but violence and death.
Our media is so quick to portray Christians who protest abortions and an episode of “Will & Grace” as intolerant bigots. But I’ve never seen a Christian protest of such things with signs that read “Behead those who insult Christianity”, “Freedom go to hell”, “Learn from 9/11”, “Butcher those who mock Christianity”, and “Be prepared for the *real* holocaust.”
So when this display is out, is it prudent to ask the people who created it to pull it down or to expect people who live in democratic, free societies – including Muslims – to behave in an appropriate manner?
I vote the latter.
What a contrast to the images of Palestinian mass-murdering terrorist ‘Martyrs’ pasted all over Arafatistan and venerated by the people there.
This makes my heart sick. Poland, the homeland of John Paul the Great, questioning wether it is a good thing to venerant martyrs in public. With the rest of Europe embracing Dhimmitude with open arms, If Poland, the last bastion of Catholicism in Europe is going down this path then Europe is truely doomed
Let us pray Poland stands fast, and the people continue posting these images of those who have fallen. Remembering that those Christians who’ve died, did so with out a bomb strapped on to kill innocent people, but because of their love of our Lord Jesus.
i was just surfing the net and came across this aritcle and read everyones comment.
I am a Muslim and her is my opnion. There is no harm in showing pictures of those you love but what is the point of having muslims involved in it, when we show pictures of our martyrs we donot attach to it a photo of who killed them, because just like you we belive that they are in a better world now enjoying it!
what would be the end of us showing photos and u showing photos? it will just end up in hatered.
why is only christians from the western side of the world who believe that they cannot coexist with muslims, eventhough we got thousands of christians all over the arab world that we are living with overhere, we go out together, we go to school together and we work together, we love each other!!!
It is mentioned even in the Quran that our best friends are the christians becasue they got preists who get sencere when ALLAH is mentioned!
We love jesus ‘isa ‘ becasue he was sent to human kind just like Moses, Ibrahim, Josef and the last prophet Mohamed. they all had the same message ‘worship Allah’.
We are more peaceful than everyone thinks, it is mentioned in the quran ” O, thoses who donot believe in Allah; We donot worship what u worship and you people donot worship what we worship and we will not worship what u worship, u got your religon and we got ours” So it cannot be more freedom than that.
it is not a religon thing that we got conflicts in, but as we all know it is a political thing but certain parts are trying to involve religon in it because it is a very sensitive thing that sparks troubles, so donot go with the tide.
why donot we all try to know about each other better, know about islam and what really islam ‘the religon’ is preaching for? let us leave the politcal scene and what is shown in TV news and dig up info. about each other, let us save the humanity from being misused by politics. As ALLAH ordered us ‘ we are brrought to this world to worship him’ so our 50 or 70 years is for worship and in islam worship is work, study, build, marry, enjoy life in the right way, and pray.
By the way, for those who donot know, A Muslim can never be a muslim unless he believes that chrisitianty, bible, jesus, moses (all prophets) angels, heaven, hell, day of judgment exists. Thats why we can never offend jesus with a drawing nor even draw him out of our respect to him nor the bible, becasue we believe that one day the bible was the words of Allah the same as the quran until some changes happened in it… there is alot of common things between the quran and the bile, islam and chrisitianity, so why donot we find the similarties between us and portray them rather than other hatered portrays.
Feal free to mail me!