St. Francis Was Anti-Islam

St. Francis of Assisi is known for being charitable to the poor, as the pope who took his name might like to remind us.  But as Raymond Ibrahim explains in American Thinker, St. Francis was known for something else.

When Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the new Catholic pope in 2013, he chose the name of Francis to indicate that his pontificate would be one of mercy and compassion for the poor and needy.  Such is the reputation of his eponym, Saint Francis of Assisi: "the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation," said Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, as to why he chose that name.

St. Francis (1182-1226) is indeed known for all those qualities.  But he was known for something else his modern-day namesake fails to live up to: unapologetically confronting Islam.

I've been to Assisi twice, and visited the church built in honor of St. Francis.  But during those visits, I did not learn that he himself had done some travelling.  Back to American Thinker:

In 1212, during the Fifth Crusade, Francis and a fellow monk traveled to the Middle East and sought audience with Sultan al-Kamil - despite al-Kamil's vow that "anyone who brought him the head of a Christian should be awarded with a Byzantine gold piece" (p. 57).  

The "p. 57" refers to the page in the book St. Francis of Assisi and the Conversion of Muslims, by Frank M. Rega, which Ibrahim reviews in his article.  That's right, St. Francis went to the Middle East during one of the Crusades.  Read the full article at the first link above.  This story comes via The Religion Of Peace.