A Challenge, Not a Crusade

Op-Ed in NYT ^ | September 19, 2006 | JOHN L. ALLEN Jr.

[Ready4Freddy]

SEEN in context, Pope Benedict XVI’s citation last week of a 14th-century Byzantine emperor who claimed that the Prophet Muhammad brought “things only evil and inhuman” to the world was not intended as an anti-Islamic broadside. The pope’s real target in his lecture at the University of Regensburg, in Germany, was not Islam but the West, especially its tendency to separate reason and faith. He also denounced religious violence, hardly a crusader’s sentiment.

The uproar in the Muslim world over the comments is thus to some extent a case of “German professor meets sound-bite culture,” with a phrase from a tightly wrapped academic argument shot into global circulation, provoking an unintended firestorm.

In fact, had Benedict wanted to make a point about Islam, he wouldn’t have left us guessing about what he meant. He’s spoken and written on the subject before and since his election as pope, and a clear stance has emerged in the first 18 months of his pontificate. Benedict wants to be good neighbors, but he’s definitely more of a hawk on Islam than was his predecessor, John Paul II.

[Ready4Freddy]

John L. Allen Jr. is the Vatican correspondent for The National Catholic Reporter.

[BelegStrongbow]

"He also denounced religious violence, hardly a crusader’s sentiment. "

Dear Mr. Allen, you have been on this beat for a number of years now. Surely you do understand that the word 'crusader' does not equal the word 'jihadist'.

I can understand the editors at the NYT not knowing this (or, worse professing not to understand), but Allen has been around actual religion too long to get a pass.

[Vaquero]

A good crusade would feel good right about now......Lets start by evicting all non-citizen middle easterners from those countries that have been in the forefront of terror.

We need to take heed from the crap the Islamofasicts have been pulling in Europe....we are also in the crosshairs and we need to act NOW.

[Ready4Freddy]

Perhaps he's responding to those who have used the term 'crusader'/

[BelegStrongbow]

And buying right into their revisionist reading of the word.

[maryz]

The uproar in the Muslim world over the comments is thus to some extent a case of “German professor meets sound-bite culture,”

Too true!

Back later --

[snoringbear]

It seems to me that what we are at the forefront of is the "Third Crusades" and not "WW III". Because of this, we should all stop using the word "terrorist" to describe our opponent. We are fighting a military force, albeit a low tech army, but an army nonetheless. An example; towards the end of WW II when the Japanese had depleted it's source of trained pilots, it converted from a hi-tech military to a low-tech military by resorting to untrained pilots, aka kamikaze's.

[maryz]

Apparently -- from the article -- the speech was not an isolated event, but part of larger comprehensive plan of attack (as I rather suspected all along).

Those who are interested in this view might also want to read Stratfor's analysis: Faith, Reason and Politics: Parsing the Pope's Remarks. (The link at the top brings you to a registration page, but links further down bring you to the article, and the article is reproduced in full at post #14.)

[sauropod]

The uproar in the Muslim world over the comments is thus to some extent a case of “German professor meets sound-bite culture,” with a phrase from a tightly wrapped academic argument shot into global circulation, provoking an unintended firestorm.

Actually it was intended. It was whipped up by the Anti-American MSM.