Posted on 09/15/2006 7:40:18 AM PDT by Froufrou
Religious scholars and clerics across the Middle East are raging about Pope Benedict XVI's comments on Islam, which he made during a speech in Germany this week. Some are demanding that the pope apologize to the world's Muslims.
This is the latest of a series of rows over non-Muslims' views on Islam, although previous arguments have involved less prominent individuals than the head of the Roman Catholic Church, whom Catholics see as the direct spiritual descendant of the Apostle Peter - and whom some regard as God's representative on earth.
From the Egyptian Brotherhood in Egypt to Islamist clerics in the Gulf, from shari'a judges in Lebanon to top religious figures in Turkey, senior Muslims have criticized the pope's speech at the University of Regensburg in Bavaria on Tuesday.
Some have called on Muslim governments to sever ties with the Holy See and to expel Vatican representatives from their countries. A scheduled papal tour to Turkey in November also is drawing flak.
It's not clear whether critics who have slammed the pope have read the full transcript of his 3,700-word address, but what they have seen or heard is enough.
Specifically, Pope Benedict cited a 14th century discussion on Islam and Christianity between a learned Persian and the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus.
He quoted the emperor as saying to the Persian, "Show me just what Mohammed 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."
The pope told his academic audience that Emperor Manuel II had then explained why spreading faith through violence was unreasonable, that "violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul."
He also quoted the emperor as saying, "Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats ... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death ..."
In his scholarly discourse, the pope said Manuel II had argued that it was "unreasonable" to spread faith through violence.
Benedict spoke at some length about God being "reasonable." Quoting the verse from John's gospel in which John writes "In the beginning was the Word," he noted that the Greek word for "Word" - logos - also means "reason."
"John thus spoke the final word on the biblical concept of God," the pope said.
He concluded by saying that Christians invited "our partners in the dialogue of cultures" to reason.
The translation of the full text of the speech, as prepared for delivery, has been made available by the Vatican.
A Vatican spokesman said Thursday the pope wanted to "cultivate an attitude of respect and dialogue toward other religions and cultures - obviously toward Islam too"
"What is at the pope's heart is a clear and radical refusal of the religious motivation of violence," said spokesman Federico Lombardi.
Among those condemning the pope's words about violence and Islam were the head of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization based in numerous Arab countries which gave birth to the Hamas terrorist group in the Palestinian territories.
The pope also was criticized by Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian-born scholar based in Qatar and regarded as the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. Qaradawi has come under fire for praising Palestinian suicide bombers and for calling on Muslims to fight against U.S. forces in Iraq.
Qaradawi was quoted as telling al-Jazeera television that the pope should "apologize to the Muslim nation for insulting its religion, its prophet and its beliefs."
What DOESN'T set these people off!!??
Let me try one - Hey Muzzies!! It's Friday!!!!
(That should take a lot of the heat off the Pope)
A particularly egregious example:
Pakistan Shows Its True ColorsAt the urging of hard-line clerics in Islamabad, Pakistani police last year arrested Younis Sheikh, a medical lecturer, under Pakistan's draconian blasphemy laws, and in August, an Islamabad judge sentenced him to be hanged, USA Today reports.
Sheikh languishes in a jail in nearby Rawalpindi, waiting for Pakistan's High Court to hear his appeal. The mullahs of Islamabad say he defamed the prophet Mohammed when he told students the prophet's parents weren't Muslim because they died before God revealed Islam to their son. Despite an international outcry over the Younis Sheikh case and his own campaign to rid Pakistan of Islamic extremism, President Pervez Musharraf has shown little stomach so far for a showdown with Muslim militants over the country's blasphemy laws.
In "If Iraq, Iran, and North Korea Are the 'Axis of Evil,' Why Is Pakistan an Ally?" research fellow Leon Hadar writes that, "Pakistan's government, led by an unreliable military clique that is assisting radical Islamic terrorist groups in Kashmir, pressing for a war with India, and presiding over a corrupt and mismanaged economy, has been a recipient of vast sums of U.S. military and financial aid."
What you seem to be describing is the flag of the Red Cross (ICRC)
Perhaps I missed something? Is there some sort of Templar connection with the ICRC?
I thought the Swiss flag was originally the flag of the Canton of Schwyz, developed in the 1200's.
But maybe I wrong?
Since I listen to him every day, I would have noticed. Please provide the exact quote in context, the date it was stated, and in which of the three hours / time of day it was made. I have the MP-3's of his programs on my computer and can retrieve, and transcribe it as soon as you point it out.
If the "Muslim religious scholars" who are now attacking the Roman Catholic Pope's comments actually want to be believed in their profession of a "peacful" Islam, then they can quit standing up to excuse and defend every form of inhuman degradation perpetrated by Isamic terrorists around the Middle East, simply because those terrorists are Muslims.
Absent Islamic terrorism, which is based on Islamic religious intolerance and Islamic intolerance of diverse world cultures, there would not have been an Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has continued now for almost sixty years and Osama and the millions of Osama clones would not have found the support they have in Muslim societies.
While stage-managing their own world-political agenda, for the myth that they are "victims" and that existence of Israel is an example of racism, it is in fact their religious xenophobia and intolerance towards Jews that is the obvious racism.
The only "crime" to Israel's existence is that Jews were determined to have at least one place in the world where they would not live ever again under the Dhimmitude of Muslims or the anti-semitism of Europeans; a goal of national self-determination that they had every right to strive for and achieve; a goal that was rightfully centered on the ancient homeland of the Jews - Israel.
The Israel of 1948 would have been a miniscule shadow of its current dimensions and created no Arab refugees. Instead of culturally and religiously accepting a tolerant peaceful co-existence with that tiny state, the Muslims, the Arabs, with all their vast Muslim and Arab dominated lands in the world, tried to obliterate Israel. By doing so, they created the security requirements for a much larger Israel, in order for Israel to defend its existence.
If Muslims and Arabs think that Israel or the world is going to go back to 1948 and 1948 borders, on new promises of peace that Israel has waited sixty years for, then the Muslims and Arabs are still living in an alternate reality of the myths that they have spun for themselves. And if so, then their continued belief in those myths will make their past failures look small by comparison.
They are in a sucicidal cycle of self-perpetuating myths that fail and with each failure perversely reinforcing the myth. Who knows how big the catastrophe must be to break them of it.
Muzzies, take yourself an enema and get it all out of your system.
What would happen if we returned like wth like? Would it bring armageddon?
Those were religious European Christians. Now we have secular Europe that wants to avoid a war at all costs.
Well said, I agree. I can however praise those men in the Catholic church, individuals, who have done so much to spread Gods word worldwide.
While Catholicism is encumbered by the ambitions of men, at the core is still the immutable word of God.
"Perhaps I missed something? Is there some sort of Templar connection with the ICRC"
Oddly, yes. The Red Cross was founded by a York Rite Freemason named Jean Henri Dunant about 1860 or so.
(The York Rite is the expressly Christian-only branch of the fraternity.)
The current state of the organization would have the man (a lay preacher) spinning in his grave.
The answer is very simple. Pakistan has nuclear weapons and the current government is at peace with the US and will not allow the nukes to be used in a religious jihad.
The Pakistani government is fragile and sits on top of nation with about 60% of population being radical, Al Qaida supporting, Muslims.
Pakistani government needs all the help we can give it to protect those nukes.
Should the current Paki government fall to the zealots we WILL have to take military control over those nukes, and prop up a new government.
Our survival depends upon it. The current government has allowed us to build 3 new military bases in their country (not widely publicised)
Militant Islam will nuke us without regard to their own survival. We are allies with Pak government to prevent their takeover.
Give em time....
give em time.
"Muslims are ENRAGED by________"
This could EASILY be a DAILY headline with a new word filled into the blank.
If the Pope would stand by his words and say something to the effect that "Yes, that is what I said and it is the TRUTH, etc." this Baptist girl would be VERRRY impressed.
Muslims need to visit a SMALL southern Baptist church one Sunday if they want to REALLY get pissed off!
Sadly, the megachurches in the cities are caving to the PC crowds and watering down the message about homos and Muslims.
No they were not invented by them. But way back before the printing press, every single bible was written by hand. And before it was written it was spoken. If anyone with a pen could write that bible as they interpreted it, what would we have today? One word change can entirely change the meaning of something. So did someone other than the evil cult assume that responsibility?
Then you disobey the Bible, which commands obedience to church leadership in Hebrews 13:17, among other places.
Take your anti-Catholic rant to the religion board, where it belongs.
Winston must have been a prophet! His words are coming true in Africa and Europe NOW. Wise man.
AMEN, boy is that the truth. Thanks.
It was Sept 13, 2006, in between 2:20 PM EST and 2:30 PM EST.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1700737/posts?page=599#599
A poster here called DCWonk also commented on it.
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