Libya’s Interim National Transitional Council (NTC), which seems about to take over the country, repeatedly announces its commitment to “democracy”.

Hard to believe.

It doesn’t seem to be happening in Egypt. It won’t happen in Syria.

Why should it happen in Libya?

Throughout most of history there has been no such thing as “Libya”.

 “Libya” holds over 100 tribes, many speaking different dialects.

The tribes around Benghazi have never considered themselves obliged to take orders from Tripoli.

The west-versus-east brawling of recent months is merely a continuation of what has been going on more or less forever.

Meanwhile, democracy remains a concept foreign to most North Africans.

* * *

How, then, to achieve peace?

The politicians will come up with various strategies.

But politics alone won’t do it.

There are two ways to seek peace in the world — the natural way and the supernatural way — i.e. politics and prayer.

Politics is unavoidable — but without supernatural help from God, violence will NEVER end.

When the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to the children at Fatima, she offered a plan for peace:

“Pray, pray a great deal and make sacrifices. Penance is necessary. If people amend their lives Our Lord will, even yet, save the world – but if not, punishment will come.”

* * *

There are now fewer Muslims in Africa than there were in the year 1900 . . . .

 Whereas numbers of African Christians have increased by 33,000 percent — from an estimated one million to 330,000,000.

Why not in Libya?

Australia’s government faces a sort of a crisis.

Australian consumers – both domestic and industrial – don’t buy Australian-made.

Should we impose tariffs, making imported products no longer cheaper than local stuff?

The alternative is to do nothing much — just let our unemployment rate rise and continue selling off Australia’s assets until there are none left.

All of this doesn’t matter much really.

At stake is merely whether we can maintain our material standard of living and our freedom.

If we do nothing, we’ll probably survive somehow.

What does matter is whether we destroy ourselves spiritually.

If we do, we’ll have to exist with the consequences eternally – we’ll have forever to hate ourselves.

That will be hell.

                                                                                                * * *                            

OK.

The General Superior of the Society of Saint Pius the Tenth (SSPX) has been called to the Vatican for a “special meeting” on September 14.

He’ll meet Cardinal Levada, the Pope’s spokesman, to discuss the “canonical situation” of the SSPX.

Will the Cardinal:

(1) threaten to re-impose “excommunication” on the Priests of the Society?

(2) then offer that the Pope will restore the SSPX to “full communion” – provided Vatican appointees select who become the bishops of the Society in future?

* * *

What won’t be discussed is the real crisis, i.e. that the mainstream Catholic hierarchy no longer believe God has chosen the Catholic Church as the one Church through which he desires to communicate with mankind.

Only the SSPX  proclaims the traditional Catholic position.

Vatican policy, since the 1960’s Second Vatican Council, is that one religion is about as good as another . . . that you can find God through protestant “Christianity”, Judaism, Islam, Mormonism, Buddhism, Freemasonry – you name it.

If that was true, then God (any god who makes any difference to anything) does not exist.

That is the CRISIS facing today’s world.

On September 14, please pray for the future of the world, including the Pope, Cardinal Levada, Bishop Fellay . . . and your own soul.

In Pakistan, August 12 is “National Minorities Day”.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani yesterday reaffirmed his government’s “obligation to strengthen the bond of love and promote culture of tolerance”.

He quoted a government decision to reserve a percentage of minorities in the government and said, “Extremism is a serious threat to the fabric of our society . . . perpetrators of crime against minority communities anywhere in Pakistan must be brought to justice, and they will be.”

Sounds pretty good. But is it believable?

Australian politicians also make some hardly-believable claims . . . for example, that Islam is basically a peaceful faith;  that terrorists are the exception – bad Muslims.

Was the Prophet Mohammed himself, therefore, a “bad Muslim”?

He personally ordered the annihilation of whole cities, and the beheading of those who failed to submit to his religion.

Such stories aren’t inventions of enemies of Islam, but are recorded in the writings of traditional Muslim authorities.

* * *

The Catholic faith teaches that there is one God, who is a Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Muslims are angered by such a suggestion.

Catholics believe that Jesus Christ was/is God’s only-begotten Son.

Muslims believe that “Allah has no son”.

So is there any point at which Muslims and Christians can come together?

* *  *

Islam’s holy book, the Qur’an, mentions the BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 37 times. It seems little interested in the mother of Mohammed.

* The Qur’an speaks of Mary as having  unique dignity:  “Remember when the angels said, O, Mary! Verily God hath chosen thee, and purified thee, and chosen thee above the women of the world.” (3:42)

* Mary’s sinlessness is also proclaimed by the Qur’an: “With goodly acceptance did her Lord accept her, and with goodly growth did he make her grow.”  (3:32)

* Islamic writers quote the Prophet saying, “Fatima (his own daughter) would be the chief of the women of Paradise, were it not for Mary, daughter of Imran (i.e. the Mother of Jesus)”.   (Ibn Hanbal, Musnad 3:80)

Something to think about.

Yes, London is in chaos.

Likewise Birmingham and other UK cities.

Thousands on the streets looting, assaulting, starting fires.

Everybody has a theory about why it is happening.

Some blame the government for unemployment and reduced welfare handouts.

Others blame multiculturalism.

Some blame the police.

Others blame parents for not keeping their teens under supervision.

So far, I haven’t heard anybody blaming celebrity-atheist and author Richard Dawkins.

Certainly RD isn’t personally responsible for everything.

But he has done his bit to make the lives of Britons purpose-free.

Popularising the notion that smart people don’t believe in God.

* * *

Australia is half-way there, having let ourselves be lumbered with an atheist Prime Minister.

Plus a God-denying Greens party manipulating every government decision.

Not believing in God means not believing in any absolute difference between right and wrong.

The godless can logically feel free to do whatever turns them on.

They often do – and will do increasingly, unless big changes occur in our society.

* * *

When schools and media focus young minds on little else but mocking tradition and idolising celebrity-parasites, what can we expect?

But there is always hope.

God does exist.

His will is always done.

He is almighty.

When something bad happens, there is a reason.

There is always something to be learned from it.

When more people go to their church confessional on Saturday nights than go to night-clubs . . . .

Then we’ll know we’re ready to reform our world into a better and truly peaceful place.

The Australian government recently banned live cattle exports to Indonesia because their methods of killing are allegedly cruel and painful.

The ban seriously disrupted many Northern Territory and Queensland communities where thousands are employed in the cattle industry.

Then, the other day, we’re told that the exporting would resume.

The reasons for these changes – who leaned on who – we’ll probably never be told.

* * *

Islamic teaching is that cattle should be slaughtered by knife cut — severing the major neck blood vessels.

At the moment of cutting, the animal’s head must face Mecca (Makkah) the Muslim holy city in Arabia.

The resulting edible meat product can then be labelled “halal”, i.e. permissible for Muslims to eat – because it has, at least implicitly, been dedicated to the Islamic god, Allah.

The Koran says, “do not eat of that upon which the name of Allah has not been mentioned, for indeed, it is grave disobedience”.  (Qur’an 6:121)

* * *

It is all part of Sharia law.

Worldwide, big business is knuckling under.

McDonalds now sell, for example, halal chicken nuggets. Kentucky Fried, Pizza Hut and others do likewise.

None of which affect me.

However, the other day I was about to eat a slice of Coon cheese, when I spotted on the wrapping that word “halal”.

What to do?

* * *

Should a person professing to be a Christian eat food that has been dedicated to what is, to him, a false god?

Similar questions arose back in Biblical times and were dealt with by Saint Paul (in chapter 8 of his first letter to the Corinthians).

His attitude was that, although dedicating food to a false god has no effect and it is still just food . . . there is another angle to consider.

By taking that food, might we give the impression we are acknowledging that act of dedication as being valid?

A mosque built in Amman, Jordan, has been named after Jesus.

According to the Australian Cathnews website, “both Muslims and Christians have shown appreciation for it”.

A few weeks ago, a billboard was erected in Sydney carrying the message “JESUS: A PROPHET OF ISLAM”. Plus a phone number to ring and receive a free copy of the Quran.

Within 24 hours that billboard had been vandalised — the word “Islam” being partly torn away.

One of the organisers, a Mr Mohamed, said, “I’ve had positive feedback from Christians, atheists, Muslims . . . saying, ‘we support you, keep up the good work’”

He added, “About 10 percent of calls have been really offensive: ‘no one wants Muslims here etc.’”

Didn’t he receive any responses pointing out (politely) that the billboard message is simply not true?

He should have.

No need to be offensive. But Jesus wasn’t and isn’t a prophet of Islam.

* * *

When Jesus lived, there was no Islam to be a prophet of.

Jesus died in the year 30AD. Mohammed founded Islam 600 years later.

Jesus taught that he himself was the Son of God.

Islam says that he is not.

Jesus taught that God is a Trinity (God, one and unique in his essential nature, is three really distinct persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost).

Islam says that he is not.

The teachings are incompatible.

* * *

Jesus Christ told his disciples not to blend in with other faiths – but to convert non-Christians to Christianity:

 “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you . . . .”   (St Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 28)