The fires and the spires

“I Paris var det Gud, der brændte for fem år siden. I dag, i København, er det pengene, der blusser.” – In Paris God had burnt, in Copenhagen, money was on fire.” (Information Tidende, Danish Information news, April 16, 2024).

This was the first comment of the Danish press, as I wrote immediately yesterday on my sites while the fire burst in the Danish capital.

Evidence or hazard? Things occur when we do not expect them, events that seem “normal”, even overtime. Five years ago, the French Notre-Dame Cathedral of Paris suddenly burnt in a long and strong fire that could have destroyed the whole structure. It did not but threw away 800 years of some parts of the building, the exceptional arches and the “remarkable” spire created and added by Violet-Le-Duc.

One suspected everything, could not really consider that it was a terror attack and some thought, they still hold on the explanation that it was an accident, an incident. No additional comment. It was on April 15, 2019 at the end of the day and the fire continued over April 16, 2019. It was very difficult to stop it and noticeably the fire brigade and the police could save a lot of art crafts, paintings. By the way it also allowed to discover or uncover a lot of documents, coffins, and other interesting material that had been forgotten over the ages. Now, exactly five years after the fire at Notre-Dame, where a lot of people commenced to question themselves: how could it happen? Why? Yes, the terrible why. Yes, who could do this? We are so much scrolled in a self-contented civilization, societal niches and secured asset managerial rules, laws, legal protective bodies. As if nothing can harm us, though a lot of societies are harmed or harming themselves. The Western style is unbreakable. Ditto. Well, no, and on April 16, 2024, the magnificent Stock Exchange Market Building in Copenhagen blew up exactly as Notre-Dame did. The same pattern, the same fire, and we could say the same: no, it is impossible! The same spire that fell down in flames; and, on the side, the BATMAN Advertisement. But Neither Superman nor Batman came to save the walls and the wealth. And the question is: is it a dream? Just a dream, nothing else. A nightmare, but just as floods show at present in Dubai and Oman, two desert regions and tiny States that rose up from sand for billionaires?

It makes no sense, good gracious that on very same date, two huge and highly historical and cultural, financial and religious creations of the same nature collapsed in two typical Western wealthy European old countries. Who calls to the prayers at present in Europe, and who despises or disregards the Islamic way of living? It shows again. No! It has been quietly waiting and will be waiting for their “kairos” as the Christians love to say.

As the Sultan had told Napoleon: you are always running after victory and conquests. We (Islam) know that we have time, eternity and get what we ought to get in time. Such was the position of General Omar Ibn-Al-Khattab in the year 15 of the Hijri, when he captured Jerusalem and the Holy sites of Judaism and Christendom. His Decree (Achtiname) is still in force in Jerusalem, though ignored by the tradition heads of the Churches. It is no more valid for the Jews, i.e. the Israeli government. I can be totally mistaken, but we do note a strong redeployment of the Islamic State and its actions all over the Jewish and Christian world. There is a real fight and desire to possess or control the Holy Sites. Sunnites and Shiites are in war. Israel realizes with success a process of matching with the neighboring Arab countries of the region. The Islamic movements target both the former Russian “empire” and the Western “civilization” or a world that tries to find a new definition of its existence.