[goldstategop]

The current Pope wants reciprocity. Muslims have complete religious freedom in the West while non-Muslims have none in the Muslim World. For reconciliation and peace to exist between religions there must be equality between them. The Muslims desire not equal status with others but the submission of others to them. Here is where we must draw the line.

(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )

[Ruth A.]

Good article.

[yldstrk]

I think it was a positive and important step into the future. Muslims have got to learn how to dialogue with spoken exchanges of thoughts. Muslim attitudes of superiority must be replaced with respect for others.

[Bringbackthedraft]

"And it is tragic and dangerous when one sows pain, either deliberately or carelessly." .....New York Times editorial

AGRRRRRRRRRRRR! Didn't they have this Pope written up in the NYT almost like he was a member of the SS Einsatz Gruppen, or something, before he became Pope? The NYT should practice what they preach.

[308MBR]

I'm afraid this is why he's predicted to be the next to last pope. The last one will probably be a muslim at heart.

[DJ Taylor]

More and more it is becoming evident to even the most impartial observers that two disparate religions such as Christianity and Islam can never coexist peacefully together. Christianity, based on love; kindness; understanding; and forgiveness, can never coexist alongside people who have lost their souls to a religion that is based on hate, cruelty, intolerance, and murder as is Islam.

[siunevada]

Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, was an outgoing former actor with a natural talent for gauging the effect of his words. The new pope is a shy ex-professor. Yet he has not so far seen fit to equip himself with an adviser to guide him through the minefield of making public declarations on sensitive, complex issues in a media age.

A savvy confidant, like the previous papal spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, who came from a national daily newspaper, Spain's ABC, might well have prevented the crisis that enveloped the Vatican this week. He would have spotted immediately the danger in the pope quoting someone describing the teachings of Mohammad as 'evil and inhuman' and tried to persuade the pontiff to express his ideas in a rather more tactful fashion.

I think this is a misjudgement. The shy professor who isn't media-savvy.

He's not a man without experience with the media in his previous position and he may have had some notion that the media who live for 'conflict' would lift ideas out of context from his speech.

[Right Wing Assault]

'Any remarks which offend Islam and Muslims are against Christ's teachings.' - Egypt's Christian Coptic Pope Shenouda III

Shenouda is saying that since his people are getting reamed by Egypt and he doesn't want to make it worse.

But any remarks (or actions) which offend Christians are NOT against Mohammed's teachings. Of course killing them is OK, too.

The problem is that our guy said be nice, so people can hit us over the head with that.

But Mohammed was an SOB and also a "prophet" so no one can criticize Muslims for being SOBs.

[GOP Poet]

bookmark

[FreePoster]

"Pope Benedict's long mission to confront radical Islam"

The Vatican had better increase their military budget.

I like Pope Benedict, and I don't mind anything I read that he said. But talking about peace with Islam is just playing into the hands of the Islamofascists. Being nice is not going to impress or persuade them. In fact, they will just take it as progress in their efforts to make us cower. People have to stop being deluded by their wishful thinking about what they would like Islam to be. Islam, at least the kind that we read about in the news everyday, simply needs to be fought and defeated.

[Hound of the Baskervilles]

'Any remarks which offend Islam and Muslims are against Christ's teachings.' Egypt's Christian Coptic Pope Shenouda III"

ANY remarks???? That is absurd! I have been offended many times by remarks about the Catholic faith. I get over it! I accept it. I can handle being offended. I don't expect to be treated with kid gloves all the time, even when it comes to my religion. I don't think about how Jesus feels sorry for me when I get offended. I get over it without killing people and rioting in the streets. You don't even have to be religious to do that, you just have to be civilized and believe in free speech, freedom of religion and the right of free people to disagree.

[wolf78]

The most important passages of the article are the last ones:

Under Benedict, the key issue, in Vatican-speak, is not 'dialogue' but 'reciprocity'. Even before his election, there was a growing feeling among Catholic prelates that dialogue with Islam consisted largely of Catholic initiatives.

What is more, endless discussion did not seem to be solving the biggest outstanding problem between the two religions: that while Muslims were free to build mosques, worship and proselytise in the West, Christians were often denied religious freedom in Islamic countries.

Some of the smaller states on the Arabian peninsula have begun to allow Christians to practise their faith openly, but Saudi Arabia, for example, still bans all public expression of non-Muslim religions. In several other countries, Islamic law effectively deprived Christians of basic rights.

Benedict has made it clear that he sees freedom of worship as merely a start and that, for there to be full reciprocity, Catholic priests will need to be free to fish for souls in Muslim lands. Last May, he told a Vatican conference on immigration to and from Islamic countries, that while Christians had to respect Muslims, they also had the right to offer them what he called 'the Christian proposal'.

The German pope unquestionably respects Islam. But he equally unambiguously intends to stand his ground. The signs have been there ever since his inaugural mass. During the service, prayers were read out asking for God's intercession on behalf of oppressed Christians. Few noticed, but one was read in Arabic.

And with that the Pope is right.