Chris Ripke is a well-known artist in the city. His studio is near a mosque in Insuindestraat. Shocked in 2004 by the murder of director Theo Van Gogh by an Dutch Islamist, Chris decided to paint an angel on wall of his studio and the biblical commandment "Gij zult niet doden," thou shalt not kill. His neighbors at the mosque found the words "offensive," and called the mayor of Rotterdam at the time, the liberal Ivo Opstelten. The mayor ordered the police to erase the painting, because it was "racist." Wim Nottroth, a television journalist, camped out on the spot in protest. The police arrested him, and his film was destroyed. Ephimenco did the same in his own window: "I put up a big white sheet with the biblical commandment. Photographers came, and the radio. If you can no longer write 'do not kill' in this country, then you are saying that we are all in prison. It is like apartheid, whites living with whites and blacks with blacks. There is a great chill. Islamism wants to change the structure of the country." For Ephimenco, part of the problem is the de-Christianization of society. "When I arrived here, during the 1960's, religion was dying, a unique event in Europe, a collective de-Christianization. Then the Muslims brought religion back to the center of social life. Aided by the anti-Christian elite."
A number of years back I was one of the first bloggers in NZ to report on what was occurring in Europe during the Islamic Cartoon Fiasco. Some of you will remember the outcry over the publishing in Denmark of a number of cartoons criticising Islam that resulted in spectacular protests, riots and deaths throughout the world.
At the time, I was still an agnostic with a New Age bent that I was growing out of.
At some point between my conversion back to Catholicism (after 20 years or more away from it), I realised that the problem with Islam wasn't so much Islam, but Christianity. Take a Christian country that is barely Christian, add many years of Islamic immigration, and soon you will get an Islamic country. Not because Islam is strong. It isn't, it can't be, it's not the entire truth about God. It's because a weak post Christian nation creates a void that is filled with the strongest religion that can get in there. Environmentalism, secularism, New Age hippie shit just doesn't cut it.
So why does Islam have this strength? It's partial truth. It points to the Christian God. It just doesn't know Him. Anything that is partially true is given strength by that truth. Human beings are oriented to truth and so will gravitate to that which is the most true. Because there is such a bias against Christianity in a post-Christian society, and Christians do not live as they should in order to be a light to the world, the most natural place for most people to end up will be in Islam if it is offered.
I realised this a number of years ago. That's why this blog is so staunchly and obviously Catholic. Hiding is just not an option. Being shy is for those that don't want to survive and create a better future for their children. Because Catholicism is 100% true and oriented completely towards the one true God, one Catholic will be worth 1,000 Muslims, 20,000 Greenies and 100,000 Atheists.
It's time to choose a side. Don't sit this one out.
Related Link: Eurabia Has A Capital: Rotterdam ~ Chisea