This is odd. Pope Francis has said that “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence.” He has also said that “Muslim terrorism does not exist.”

So if he really believes those statements, and others he has made about the peaceful nature of Islam, then he must believe that the Muslims who killed these Christians after first demanding that they convert to Islam were misunderstanding their own religion. As one of the world’s foremost imams, Francis should correct this: he should either go personally to Egypt in order to instruct these Muslims in the proper reading of the Qur’an, or send teams of Catholics who understand Islam correctly to Minya and other jihad hotspots in order to conduct outreach with the local jihad-inclined Muslims and correct their misunderstandings of authentic Islam.

In fact, not to do this is only to open the door to more jihad violence against Christians. Imam Francis owes it to the world to help these misunderstanders of Islam back to the Straight Path.

In reality, the Muslims who first asked these Christians to convert and then killed those who refused were following Muhammad’s instructions as recorded in a canonical hadith. Muhammad said: “Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war…When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these you also accept it and withhold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them…. If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah’s help and fight them. (Sahih Muslim 4294.)

“Leave them; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14)

“Pope Says Copts Were Killed After Refusing to Renounce Their Christian Faith,” by Patrick Goodenough, CNS News, May 30, 2017: