UPDATED: Sorry, Holy Father, the war IS about religion

Commenting on the murder of Father Jacques Hamel, RIP, a Roman Catholic priest, while he was saying Mass in a small town near Rouen, France, his boss of bosses, the increasingly delusional Pope Francis, said yes, there is a war going on, but it's not about religion. Not about religion! Can you beat that for crazy talk? The killers who slit Father Hamel's throat after making him kneel while they preached a sermon in Arabic, were Islamic terrorists who shouted "Allahu akbar!" as they did the despicable deed.

The crazed Muslims were doing their small, ugly part in waging jihad -- holy war -- against the "infidels", i.e. non-followers of the Prophet Mohammed, non-believers in "Islam, the religion of peace". But according to the Pope, they were not Islamic warriors, but poor marginalized people who were victims of social inequality and the evils of capitalism.

Walt wonders what it would take for Francis, who loves everybody except traditional Catholics, to admit that the Islamists are trying to kill us. Obviously the murder of an elderly priest in a backwater of northern France isn't enough. Would an attack on the Holy Father's own person in the middle of St. Peter's during Midnight Mass cause the scales to fall from his eyes? Perhaps. But the jihadis wouldn't dare to do that, would they? Would they?!

Further reading: "By killing a priest in France, terrorists have clearly stated they’re waging a war on Western religion", by Rex Murphy, in the National Post.

Key quote: A secular West mainly regards jihadism as an attack on modernity, as a primitive hatred for progressive ideals and liberated lifestyles. That’s true. But it is just as much a revulsion against the roots of our Western ways — the Christian stream of thought and practice that has always centred on the idea of the dignity of the individual and the integrity of every human life. We may have forgotten those roots, but the murder of Fr. Hamel, and the manner and place of his murder, should tell us that the jihadists have not.

Further reading, added 2/8/16: "Italian bishop disagrees with Pope, sees 'ongoing assault by Islam on Christianity'", Catholic Culture. Walt's comment: Of course you'd have to be Catholic to see it that way.