Posted on 09/17/2006 9:06:31 AM PDT by ncountylee
In an incredibly clumsy attempt to initiate a dialogue among diverse cultures and religions, Pope Benedict XVI has inadvertently incurred the wrath of Muslims around the world. A growing number of people are expressing outrage over a speech delivered by the Pppe in Germany on Tuesday, in which he seemed to endorse the erroneous belief that early Muslims spread their religion through violence. Sadly, the pope's call for a calm and rational dialogue - something the world very obviously urgently needs - has been lost in the midst of all the fury.
The outrage in response to the pope's remarks is reminiscent of the fury sparked over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. In the height of that controversy, angry protests erupted in nearly every Muslim country around the world, and at least 285 people were killed and 823 injured in cartoon-related violence. The bloody reactions to offensive images only served to reinforce negative stereotypes about Islam and Muslims.
It is understandable that many Muslims are now angry about the remarks made by the pope, whose argument was riddled with factual errors. For example, he mistakenly claimed that a particular sura in the Koran, "there is no compulsion in religion," dates to the Mecca period of Islam, when the Prophet Mohammad was still powerless and under threat. But in fact the sura he quotes is from the Medina period of Islam, when the Prophet had already gained a strong following. This is but one of many factual errors that formed the basis of the pope's ill-informed argument.
We can forgive the pope for not knowing that the Koran explicitly forbids coercion in religion and encourages reasoned faith. After all, he is not a specialist on Islam, and he based much of his argument on a medieval text
(Excerpt) Read more at dailystar.com.lb ...
This "reasonable" Arab editorial will never reach the illiterate vermin that comprise the "Arab Street."
Papal errors? Islamic errors, maybe.
The Pope was right on the money, though.
The Pope, and the writer of that article, didn't use PUBH after Mo's name. They are all going to Hell, Fur Shur.
This doesn't make any difference since the suras that call for Jihad against non-believers come chronologically after this one anyway.
"the erroneous belief that early Muslims spread their religion through violence"
The only error is not stating that muslims have always spread their cancer through violence...a simple look at the news at any point in time bears this out.
It is impossible to reason with crazy (and evil) minds.
If you say I am an irrational violent person, I will punch you in the face as my counter argument.
Yeah, people were begging to be converted at the point of a sword. The sword just made the conversion more exciting. And by the way, what about Steve Centani?
Excuse me???
What lying sacks of scat!
There can be NO dialogue with any person whose beliefs require lying and trickery in every day interaction.
How is it that so many Muslims are ignorant of their religion's dictums about peace?
Either the Muslims masses are incredibly ignorant or the editorial writer is ignorant (or lying). He can't have it both ways.
Well, I wonder what you call taking a country over by force and making the citizens of said country convert to islam? This is what muslims did when they took over Spain and Trukey many centuries ago, not to mention a lot of other countries until they were finally driven out. The pope didn't endorse an "erroneous" belief, he told the truth. This article is a blatant attempt to make the pope out a liar by pretending to side with him, calling his statements "errors".
What BS.
Cartoon-related violence. Well there you have it.
... through compulsion.
Bartastic lies from a lying Muslim. We don't fall for your taquiyah any longer, and btw, we're armed.
The pope's ealier September discussion is where the quotes come out of a long essay on moslemism. If anybody reads them currently on msnbc web news they would be hard pressed to come up with some of the more vacuous conclusions being offered in freepers. Imams not interested in seeking a montheistic discourse but a faith by the sword Islamic world domination found what they were looking for to exploit their minions. It took them five days to bring their message to riotous conclusion. What the Vatican reply should have read, was ask this; "By taking the pontiffs discourse out of context and turning them into riots are some in the Moslem commmunity more interested in creating strife unwilling to enter into a dialog on common interests." Instead of our MSM taking the Vatican's statement and turning it into an apology http://.www.theusmat.com/home.htm
"Reasonable"? Well, probably as close as anyone will come to seeing anything like "reasonable" among literate Muslims.
But was the Pope in error in anything about the historical accuracy of the quote in question? Granted, the Muslims seem to be believe the statement itself was offensive, and perhaps hate to be reminded that they were pretty well pegged centuries ago, but not much has changed between then and now, concerning how Islam is spread across the world. Convert, or if unwilling to convert, submit to the state of Dhimmi. The third choice is to be executed.
And once a person has converted, there is no going back.
Never.
Or option #3 kicks in. And the backslider will be hunted to the ends of the earth to carry out the terms of the sentence.
If things come out the right way this speech may go down in history as the early wake up call to Europe and the world.
No, it's not, but it is predictable.
On the contrary, violence is the only Muslim answer to anything.
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