Wednesday, September 20, 2006
The Pope and Islam
Some Muslim leaders and politicians have accepted the apology, others haven't. The diverse responses seemed to affirm Ratzinger's 1997 contention that discourse with Islam is difficult because there is no unanimously accepted mediator.
``I think the first thing we must recognize, that Islam is not a uniform thing,'' he said in ``Salt of the Earth.'' ``In fact, there is no single authority for all Muslims, and so for this reason, dialogue with Islam is always dialogue with certain groups.''
In recent years, the pope reiterated doubts about Islam's compatibility with Western-style modernity. According to an account of a seminar he held in September 2005, Benedict told theology students that Islam can adapt to democracy only if the Koran is radically reinterpreted.
Western Culture
``The absolute nature of the Koran makes dialogue all the more difficult, because there is very little room for interpretation, if at all,'' said Samir Khalil Samir, an Egyptian-born Jesuit priest and a participant at the meeting.
The pope has voiced complaints that church calls for tolerance and the latitude for freedom of worship in the West haven't been reciprocated by governments and religious leaders in Muslim states.
In February 2006, the pope addressed Morocco's ambassador to the Vatican, asking for ``respect for the convictions and religious practices of others so that, in a reciprocal manner, the exercise of freely chosen religion is truly assured in all societies.''
Benedict's suggestion that Western culture, based on Christian values, differs markedly from Islam underlay his controversial opposition to Turkey's possible admission to the European Union. In August 2004, he told the France's Le Figaro magazine that Turkey should be excluded because ``Europe is a cultural continent, not a geographical one.''
``Turkey, which is considered a secular country but is founded on Islam, could instead attempt to bring a cultural continent together with some neighboring Arab countries,'' he proposed.
At the same time, Benedict continues to call for dialogue with Islam. Shortly after his election as pope, he addressed Muslim leaders at an inter-religious gathering and said, ``I express my appreciation for the growth of dialogue between Muslims and Christians. I assure you that the church wants to continue building bridges of friendship with the followers of all religions.''
The fact that the Pope, the globally accepted spiritual and moral leader, not political leader, of one billion Catholics has the cojones to lay out this position for the entire world is extraordinarily important. It is literally earth-shaking for 2 central reasons: 1) It is a unifying explanation for why Catholics, and Judeo-Christian society generally, has little choice but to resist, even physically by violent means if necessary, Islam's doctrinal philosophy of spreading Islam by violent means, rather than reason; 2) it is a latent recruiting tool, encouraging Muslims either to reform Islam sufficiently to eliminate violent conversion, dhimmitude or murder of apostates, or leave Islam altogether.
Ultimately this Pope is elevating the playing field for Judeo Christian and Islamic society and leading a discourse which politicians are incapable of leading. Where will this lead?
2 Comments:
By 
skipsailing, at
Wed Sep 20, 10:51:00 AM:
It is a sad testament to our lack of progress as a species that recent pontiffs are defined by the enemy they face.
JPII's biggest challenge was the soviet empire.
Benedict's challenge is irrational Islam.
We need to think about this in biblical terms, for just a moment. The President chose his words carefully and used the term "The holy land". that says something very important. It says to Hamas and Hezbullah that the region the are desecrating is holy to many people in this world.
Is it indeed another crusade? If by crusade we mean a fight to insure that christians and jews can worship at sites of scriptural importance, then yes it is a crusade.
This current conflict is NOT an attempt to simply harvest muslim heads. The muslims control much of the territory that is mentioned in both books of the Christian bible. Are they acting as good stewards of these revered locations?
hardly.
The muslims in Iraq managed to slaughter pilgrims of their own faith. Does anyone doubt how they will treat jews or christians seeking to visit Tyre?
A very interesting speech, no doubt about that.
By 
, at
Wed Sep 20, 06:01:00 PM:
Small pet peeve: The Pope's speech was not LITERALLY Earth-shaking. Though the Muslim response perhaps could be characterized as literally church-shaking.
JK
