Pope Talks Tough About Terrorism and Islam

LA Times ^ | 8/20/05 | TRACY WILKINSON

[abu afak]

COLOGNE, Germany -- Pope Benedict XVI chose unusually tough language Saturday to tell Muslim leaders they must work harder to combat terrorism and steer youth away from "the darkness of a new barbarism."

On the third day of his first foreign trip as pope, Benedict met with 10 representatives of Germany's growing Muslim community as part of his effort to reach out to other faiths. But he quickly dispensed with the diplomatic niceties and zeroed in on the "cruel fanaticism" of terrorism and the responsibility of religious leaders and educators to prevent it.

ADVERTISEMENT

"You guide Muslim believers and train them in the Islamic faith," he told his select audience, who traveled to the Cologne archdiocese to meet the pope. "Teaching is the vehicle through which ideas and convictions are transmitted. . . . There is no room for apathy and disengagement, and even less for partiality and sectarianism."

Benedict condemned terrorism as a "perverse and cruel decision" that "shows contempt for the sacred right to life and undermines the very foundations of all civil society." Terrorists, he said, falsely use religion to poison relations between all religions.

Benedict's meeting with the Muslims was held at the Cologne archdiocese and journalists were barred from attending, in contrast to the pope's high-profile visit to a synagogue the day before that was televised live.

His pointed remarks were made to a community with whom his relations were already strained and marked a departure from his exceedingly tolerant predecessor. As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the pope had been quite critical of Islam in a number of his writings. Before and after becoming pope in April, he voiced alarm at the loss of Christian identity, especially in Europe, sacrificed to a modern multiculturalism that accommodates, among other diversities, Islam..."

[mvpel]

Condemn those who conduct terror in the name of Islam!

They can't:

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/007595.php

Al-Naqqash: The claims about Islam's renunciation of violence are meaningless, unfounded, and illogical. Why? Because Islam is one of the greatest advocates of violence, when violence is warranted, and one of the greatest advocates of peace and compassion, when compassion is warranted.

Islam is the religion of life in general, and not a blind religion. Islam does not surrender to foreign aggression. So stating categorically that Islam is a religion of love that rejects violence – This is a big lie. "Take them and kill them wherever you find them." This is taken from the words of Allah (the Koran). About whom? About Allah's enemies. This is violence.

[jan in Colorado]

God seems quite fond of the death of innocents.

Oh, you mean the death/crucifixion of His son Jesus? Yes, He was innocent...lived a perfect life...

I wouldn't say God was "fond" of His death, it just HAD to happen the way it did.

[Gondring]

... it just HAD to happen the way it did.

God doesn't seem very omnipotent if He HAS to do something. And it's nobody's fault but His own if He has things set up that way...no?

I think it's more theologically sound to say that He chooses cruelty or death, not that He is powerless to stop it. And certainly I agree that Jesus conducted Himself in ways that He knew would lead to His death.

[Convert from ECUSA]

" To the Muslim in the article who voiced concerns that as opposed to Christians, Muslims were always being blamed for terrorism, NEWSFLASH: there aren't any Religious Christian Terrorist organizations comparable to Alqaeda. There are NO Religious Christian Terrorist organizations period."



Amen and right on!

[Convert from ECUSA]

" He, (without an army), faced the Muslim leaders and condemned terrorism. He told them that the ideals and concepts of terrorism came from Islamic teachers, indicating very strongly that terrorism is NOT something that simply came about all on its own, but comes from within Islamic teachings. This was a very bold statement by the Pope. Contrast that with our own President Bush, who does nothing but heap praise upon Islam, calling it the 'religion of peace' and the like. He would not dare to tell a panel of mainstream Muslim leaders that it is sometimes their teachings that help promote terrorism. He is not able to see that terrorism is the child of Islam, claiming again and again that it is something very separate, some disconnected radical offshoot. Conversely, the Pope linked terrorism to 'mainstream' Islam, (perhaps subtley, but he did it)."

Amen, and right-on!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[RS]

"He told them that the ideals and concepts of terrorism came from Islamic teachers, indicating very strongly that terrorism is NOT something that simply came about all on its own, but comes from within Islamic teachings."

Perhaps you could source this, as it is NOT in the article this post refers to -

Conversly the Pope DOES use a statement very similar in concept to what Bush says --

"Terrorists, he said, falsely use religion to poison relations among faiths."

... and the article states - "Benedict has been careful, however, not to link terrorism and Islam..."