Islam Takes Advantage of the Lack of Faith in Madagascar

“In my diocese, mosques are being built everywhere… The construction of over 2,600 mosques in Madagascar is underway,” said the prelate who will receive the berretta from Pope Francis on June 29 and who is currently archbishop of Toamasina and president of the country’s episcopal conference.

In describing the rise of Islam on his island, the high-ranking prelate did not beat around the bush: “It is visible; it is an invasion,” he lamented. And he blames the Gulf States and Pakistan that “buy people with money; we see young people leave to study in Saudi Arabia and when they return to Madagascar, they are imams.”

As is so often the case, the power of the wicked feeds off the cowardice of the good. Archbishop Tsarahazana sees in this situation a lack of Faith and a lack of Christian life: “I ask myself: why are we in such a critical situation when the number of Christians is increasing, and our leaders are mostly Christians? If we were truly Christian, things would not have reached this point. Hence the question: how deep is our faith?”