Throughout history when humanity is pushed into a corner and call out to Heaven for intervention, Our Lady has always responded to the call.
Since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the twin towers of New York, the attention of Westerners has been drawn to Islam, since we were told that Osama Bin Laden committed these terrorist attacks in the name of Islamic fundamentalism. While it is true that the vast majority of Muslims condemn violence and these terrorist attacks, a minority of extremist Moslems claim that it is “Allah” who asked them to wage a holy war against “the infidel”.
What is Islam?
What is the real face of Islam? Does it preach peace or war? Even if the word “Islam” itself can be defined as “to make peace”, “to surrender”, the truth is that there is a dark side of Islam which, although only put into practice by a small number of extremists, indeed advocates violence. Over the centuries, Muslims have engaged in tremendous wars with Christians and Jews, and Christians are being persecuted and killed by Muslims today in many countries , like Indonesia and Sudan. Is there a way Christians and all Muslims can co-exist together in peace?
In 1952, Catholic Archbishop Fulton Sheen devoted a chapter in his book, “The World's First Love”, entitled “Mary and the Moslems”. In it, he wrote that it is his firm belief that Muslims will eventually be converted to Christianity, thanks to the devotion they already have to the Virgin Mary. In fact, God the Father seems to have a special plan to draw the Muslims to Jesus through His Mother, Mary.
Bishop Sheen wrote: “In the Koran, (which is partly lifted from the Bible) the Virgin Mary is mentioned thirty times. It believes in Her Immaculate Conception, and also, in Her Virgin Birth. It has also verses on the Annunciation, Visitation, and Nativity. Angels are pictured as accompanying the Blessed Mother and saying: ‘Oh, Mary, God has chosen you and purified you, and elected you above all the women of the earth.’ Mary, then, is for the Muslims the true Sayyida, or Lady. The only possible serious rival to her in their creed would be Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed himself. But after the death of Fatima, Mohammed wrote: ‘Thou shalt be the most blessed of all the women in Paradise, after Mary.’ In a variant of the text, Fatima is made to say, ‘I surpass all the women, except Mary.’
This brings us to our second point: namely, why the Blessed Mother, in the 20th century should have revealed Herself in the significant little village of Fatima, Portugal, so that to all future generations, she would be known as ‘Our Lady of Fatima.’ Since nothing ever happens out of Heaven except with a finesse of all details, it is believed that the Blessed Virgin chose to be known as ‘Our Lady of Fatima’ as a pledge and a sign of hope to the Muslim people, and as an assurance that they, who show her so much respect, will one day accept her divine Son too. . . it is believed that the Blessed Virgin chose to be known by the name Fatima because she also came for the conversion of Islam, without which there cannot be an era of peace for mankind.
Evidence to support these views is found in the historical fact that the Muslims occupied Portugal for centuries. At the time when they were finally driven out, the last Muslim chief had a beautiful daughter by the name of Fatima. A Catholic boy (the Count of Ourem) fell in love with her, and for him she not only stayed behind when the Muslims left, but even embraced the Catholic Faith. The young husband was so much in love with her that he changed the name of the town where he lived to Fatima. Thus, the very place where our Lady appeared in 1917 bears a historical connection to Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed.
It is a fact that Muslims from various nations, especially from the Middle East, make so many pilgrimages to the Shrine of Fatima in Portugal that Portuguese officials have expressed concern. The combination of an Islamic name and Islamic devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is a great attraction to Muslims.
The Muslims, during their Spanish occupation, had actually named the Wolf River with a Islamic term ‘Guadalupe’ (Guada = River; Lupe = Wolf). Hence, the famous Catholic image in Spain has been known, since the 14th century, by the Islamic name of ‘Our Lady of Guadalupe’.
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In the fullness of time, we can be sure that Almighty God knew that the Islamic religion would pose a serious threat to Christianity. God also knew that the Spanish missionaries would face grave resistance in the ‘new world’ from the mighty Aztec Indians. The Aztecs worshipped an evil stone ‘serpent god’ that demanded human sacrifice. (Between 20,000 and 50,000 were sacrificed a year. The rituals included cannibalism of the victims' limbs. The early Mexican historian Ixtlilxochitl estimated that one out of every five children in Mexico were sacrificed.)
However, with God all things are possible. Our Lady appeared to a humble Aztec Indian convert by the name of Juan Diego in 1531. When asked her name by Juan Diego, at the request of the local bishop, Our Lady's response, in the Aztec language, included the words ‘te coatlaxopeuh’ (pronounced: ‘te quatlasupe’) and meant ‘one who crushes the head of the stone serpent.’
To Juan Diego and his fellow Aztecs, this revelation had great meaning, coupled with the miraculous image of Our Lady standing on top of a ‘crescent,’ the symbol of this evil serpent god. A tidal wave of conversions to Catholicism ensued. However, Bishop Zumarraga, who was Spanish, made what was no doubt a ‘heavenly mistake’ that one day may lead to the mass conversion of Muslims. To the Bishop's Spanish ears, Our Lady's Aztec name of ‘Te Quatlasupe’ sounded just like the name of the revered Madonna from Spain with the Islamic name, ‘Guadalupe.’ Hence, the bishop named the Mexican Madonna ‘Our Lady of Guadalupe.’ It is interesting that the ‘crescent’ is also the symbol for Islam.
At Fatima, Our Lady taught us to pray the Rosary every day. Heaven presented its peace plan at Fatima and truly gave us hope for world peace. Conversions were promised at Fatima: the conversion of sinners; the conversion of Russia; and what also appears to be the conversion of Islam. Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!
