Last week at a German university , Pope Benedict delivered a lecture entitled  "Faith, Reason and the University — Memories and Reflections" in which he reiterated the position of the Catholic Church which rejects religiously motivated violence.  

He has been criticized for inappropriately quoting from a 14th-century text by the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus (1350-1425). The text in question is Dialogue 7 of the emperor's 26 Dialogues with a Persian.  Pope Benedict was talking about  one of his favorite subjects, one that as the leading Vatican theologian, he has entertained many times in his long career:  faith and reason. 

Manuel II Paleologus became emperor 615 years ago in 1391.  Constantinople, then the capital of the Byzantine Empire was under siege (1394-1402) by Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I. The city was finally conquered by the Ottomans in 1453.  In his 26 Dialogues with a Persian, the emperor wrote about the problems of his day:  forced conversions to Islam, jihad (holy war) - and the relationship between faith and reason.

 
Pope Benedict XVI

I guess I should include the offending quote the Pope used in his lecture, although I'm sure you've all read it elsewhere: 

"Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

How has the Muslim world reacted to the Pope's lecture in which he condemned faith-inspired violence? With outrage and violence! 

• Thousands have marched (remember the demonstrations over the Danish cartoons?!)
  
• a Greek Orthodox church and an Anglican church in Nabulus were fire bombed. Palestinians bombed and engaged in shootings against five churches in the West Bank and Gaza.
  
• Two Somali gunmen shot and killed an elderly Italian nun, Sister Leonella,  working at the Austrian-run children hospital of Mogadishu just four days ago. Her guard died instantly, but she was rushed to the operating room.  Just before losing consciousness, Sister Leonella whispered, "I forgive,  I forgive." The paper, Catholic News, reported that the killing came "less than two days after a hard-line Mogadishu cleric urged Muslims to "hunt down" and kill those who insult Islam following the Pope's controversial remarks about the religion last week."
  
• Somali Sheikh Abubukar Hassan Malin, the "hard-line cleric" in question,who is allied with Somalia's Supreme Islamic Courts Council, urged Muslims to "hunt down the Pope" in a speech, saying: "We urge you Muslims wherever you are to hunt down the Pope for his barbaric statements as you have pursued Salman Rushdie, the enemy of Allah who offended our religion. Whoever offends our Prophet Mohammed should be killed on the spot by the nearest Muslim. We call on all Islamic Communities across the world to take revenge on the baseless critic called the pope."
  
   Sister Leonella Sgorbati
  
  
  The Pope's point seems to have been that violence in the name of religion is wrong. Perhaps he chose to quote from that text, 26 Dialogues with a Persian, as an oblique message to Iranian president Ahmadinejad.  Pope Benedict is a man of considerable erudition. not sharing his faith and  world-view,  I don't presume to know what his intentions were.  
  
  I cannot seem to fathom why Muslims ~ adherents of that "religion of peace and tolerance" ~ don't find it necessary to speak out against Muslim violence in the name of Allah. In fact, they are absolutely silent.
  
  When Muslim clerics and terrorists cite medieval sources, like a fatwa of Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328), who called for Muslim violence against the enemies of Islam ~ that's okay.
  
  When Muslim religious and political leaders: claim that Jews are descendents of monkeys and pigs, deny that the Holocaust occurred, and call for Israel to be wiped off the face of the Earth ~ that's okay. 
  
  When Muslims dress their little children up as suicide bombers and laud the terrorists who blow up men, women and children in restaurants, shopping malls, buses in the name of Allah ~ that's okay.

However, when some non-Muslim, Danish cartoonist draws a cartoon of Mohammed, the "offense" is considered so egregious that it provoked Muslims who cry foul, demand due respect ~ and erupt in violence.  To be respected, you have to be respectable.
 

The cartoons ignited a wave of violence that included the destruction of property, kidnappings, attacks on embassies, a KFC! - and death.  I suspect that all that was nothing compared to the sunami of rage that is erupting over the Pope's remarks.  Muslim leaders are quick to demand that we be respectively PC and not offend Muslim sensibilities, but are unwilling to extend that same respect. 

"The fact that the Pope has to apologize for intellectual engagement of a vital topic, while the West shrugs off the Muslim violence and murder that has ensued is a terrible portent in this civilizational struggle between fundamentalism and reasoned, humble faith."   ~Andrew Sullivan

Earlier this week in a New York Sun article entiled 'The West Should Be Free To Criticize Islam,' Daniel Pipes wrote:   "the Muslim uproar has a goal: to prohibit criticism of Islam by Christians and thereby to impose Shariah norms on the West.  Should Westerners accept this central tenet of Islamic law, others will surely follow. Retaining free speech about Islam, therefore, represents a critical defense against the imposition of an Islamic order."

Tags: andrew sullivan, ibn taymiyya, islam, manuel ii paleologus, muslim violence, pope benedict, sister leonella
Current Location: دَوْلَةْ إِسْرَائِيل‎,
Current Mood: cranky
Current Music: National Public Radio