[NYer]

James V. Schall, S.J. taught political philosophy at Georgetown University for many years until recently retiring. He is the author of numerous books and countless essays on philosophy, theology, education, morality, and other topics. His most recent book is Reasonable Pleasures: The Strange Coherences of Catholicism (Ignatius Press).

[NYer]

When we see how Allah is understood in Islam, how he is described, we are hard pressed to see what, if any, relation the Christian God and Allah have at all.

Lengthy but worthy read! Ping!

[Paladin2]

At a minimum, Islam needs to remove Mad Mo’, sharia and jihad.

[fishtank]

A good start would be for the RCC to re-write the Vatican 2 documents.

They goofed BIG TIME on Islam.

[Lurkinanloomin]

al-Sisi is a truly brave man. I wish Islam could be reformed.
I doubt that it can. Anyone trying will be killed.

[Misterioso]

No one thought that communism could fall except, perhaps, Reagan and John Paul II. Some elements of it still strive to hang on, to be sure, but its evils have generally been acknowledged as inhuman.

Acknowledged? By who?

[babygene]

There’s not going to be a “reform” of Islam. Islamic countries have been inbreeding for 1400 years (marrying first cousins or worse), and their gene pool is so polluted at this point that there is no going back. This is true for almost all Muslim countries.

What needs to happen is they be isolated to the extent possible. They are all marginally crazy.

[JudyinCanada]

Islam need only agree to 3 major changes:

1) admit that the Old Testament is the holy word of God.

2) admit that the New Testament is the holy word of God.

3) admit that mohammed is a false prophet and allah is a false god.

[GenXteacher]

There will be no reform of Islam from within. It has been spread by the sword since its beginning, and those who destroy and kill in its name will rule over those do not, because the non-violent ones approve of the violent ones. The secular West will perish before it, and only a more militant Christianity akin to that of the War of the League of Augsberg or the Thirty Years War will survive it.

[TigersEye]

The Mohammed Factor

If you condemn murder you condemn Mohammed.

If you condemn thievery you condemn Mohammed.

If you condemn rape you condemn Mohammed.

If you condemn pedophilia you condemn Mohammed.

If you condemn terrorism you condemn Mohammed.

If you condemn Mohammed you condemn Islam.

[Yardstick]

Off topic but is the Blue Mosque an architectural copy of the Hagia Sophia? They look nearly identical in the pic.

[Defiant]

My theology professor. He is awesome.

[DuncanWaring]

Reform Islam?

You might as well try reforming cancer.

[fidelis]

The only way to reform Islam is from within Islam itself. But that will never happen because reason would have to prevail over fanaticism, and Islam long ago officially rejected reason as having anything to do with religion. Thomas Aquinas noted this about Islam very early on, and this is what Pope Benedict was getting at in his Reggensburg speech. Islam is literally (and by religious conviction) un-reasonable. Without reason, a religion drives itself on pure emotion alone, and in the case of Islam that emotion is hate.