Don’t ever say that you weren’t warned……..
France: Muezzins, not Church Bells
by Giulio Meotti
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9161/france-church-bells-muezzins
- French Catholicism is now witnessing a tragic decline, caught between two fires: state secularism and political Islam.
- Le Figaro wondered if Islam can already be considered “France’s prime religion”.
- Muslim countries are generously funding France’s mosques, covering an average of 50% of total costs.
- “Avignon is no longer the city of the Popes, but of the Salafis. … They [Muslim extremists] urge us to rewrite the history of France in the light of the ‘contribution of the Islamic civilization'” — Philippe De Villiers, author of Will the Church Bells Ring Tomorrow?
- The trend indicates that in France, there are currently three young practicing Muslims for every young practicing Catholic.
- “It is conceivable that Islam is overtaking Catholicism”. — Osservatore Romano, the Vatican official daily newspaper.
A new book is shaking France. Les cloches sonneront-elles encore demain? (“Will the Church Bells Ring Tomorrow?“), by Philippe de Villiers, is shattering the nation. France, the “eldest daughter” of the Catholic Church, is instead turning into “the eldest daughter of Islam“. “With arrogance, they [Muslim extremists] urge us to rewrite the history of France in the light of the ‘contribution of the Islamic civilization'”, de Villiers states.
De Villiers points out that:
“France has experienced many misfortunes in its history. But for the first time, it must face the fear of disappearing. In France, there are two groups: a new people who move with pride and an exhausted people, who are not even aware of the conditions needed for their own survival”.
De Villiers paints a grim picture of French Catholicism: “Avignon is no longer the city of the Popes, but of the Salafis”. In Saint-Denis, where the French kings and Charles Martel are buried, “tunics and beards now dominate, and girls are dressed in the Islamic shrouds”. If a parish is still alive there, it is thanks to the zeal of the Christian community of Africans and Tamils. “The Kings’ cemetery is just one enclave. It belongs to a story that does not count anymore”.
The bell towers of the churches in de Villiers’ book are already growing silent in Boissettes(Seine-et-Marne), and on the outskirts of Metz, where the bells of the church of Sainte Ruffinehave been forced by the state secularist authorities to keep silent. It happened in the Breton village of Hédé-Bazouges, where silence is filled by the sound of what de Villiers calls “the clergy in the djellaba” [outer robe worn by North Africans] — the muezzin’s call to prayer. It is happening everywhere in France.
Will France soon forbid the ringing of Notre Dame’s bells? It happened already in Boissettes, and on the outskirts of Metz, where the bells of the church of Sainte Ruffine have been forced by the state authorities to keep silent. Meanwhile, the muezzin’s calls to Islamic prayer continue to broadcast. (Images source: Wikimedia Commons) |
“France is no longer a Catholic country”, writes Frederic Lenoir, editor in chief of Le Monde des Religions. Le Figaro wondered if Islam can already be considered “France’s prime religion”.
