Posted on 09/20/2006 8:28:24 AM PDT by EveningStar
... The problem with this quotation isn't the inaccuracy of the Emperor's observation but the opening it provides to allow Islamic apologists to take us back once more to the days of desperate and deadly Muslim-Christian competition in the late Middle Ages. For instance, Anas Altikriti, writing in the British leftist journal "The Guardian" under the headline "An Insufficient Apology" seized the opportunity to remind his readers that "whilst the Catholic church was cementing the barbarism of Europe's dark ages," the Muslims were "busy writing literature, philosophy, art, architecture, medicine, chemistry, physics, biology, algebra and music." He goes on in lyrical terms to hail the "vast and illustrious universities and libraries of Baghdad, Damascus, Cordoba, Seville and Cairo" and "the 100 years of glorious co-existence among Muslims, Christians and Jews" in Spain...
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
The Pope's great mistake: assuming people wanted to hear the truth.
ping
True, but while the west then progressed to the Renaissance and Enlightenment, the Muslim world retreated from this high point and went back to the 7th century and never ventured forth again.
The Pope doesn't want the Roman Catholic Church on the wrong side of history this time. His mistake was backing up when confronted by the Islamists and bowing to the alter of political correctness.
I don't think he made a mistake. The muslims have made a mistake in thinking that they can expect to make all of us cower before them. This Pope is standing up to them and so should we all.
Agree completely, Ingtar.
The Pope threw in the "controversial" quote to make sure that people -- not just Muslims -- would actually pay attention to his very important ideas. He wants to make sure that everyone understands that the Church -- and Christianity in general -- are firmly on the side of reason and free will.
ping
Michael Medved....what the Pope did and the reaction to it has opened the dam!! Good things will come of it...the Pope is on God's side and God is on the Pope's side....great things can happen.
"whilst the Catholic church was cementing the barbarism of Europe's dark ages," the Muslims were "busy writing literature, philosophy, art, architecture, medicine, chemistry, physics, biology, algebra and music."
I think most of this attributed to Muslims/Islam happened before Islam took over.
Article by Anas (remember the appropriate part of the body) a muslim, what would one expect. The greatest contributiuons by muslims are carpets that fly and genies' in bottles. Who are the muslims going to put up against Jerome, Augustine, Aquinas, Ignatius, Fulton Sheen, and on?
Thank you Eveningstar. Michael Medved ping. Anyone want on or off the low volume Medved ping list, please send me an FR mail.
.....the opening it provides Islamic apologists to take us once more back to the days of desperate and deadly Christian-Muslim competition in the late Middle Ages.
Michael (ding ding) Michael, are you trying to tell us that previously the Islamic apologists were complete and absolutely lying dormant, on this subject.
Hello,hello.
I'm getting kid of tired of Medved. He's been very whiny lately.
Like Medved's whiny friend Saddiqui. His response yesterday to everything said by Robert Spencer was "you're stupid, you're a bigot, you're just dumb."
Medved should be calling on RABBIs to back the Pope!! I haven't heard ONE rabbi say a peep.......cowards????
He said he was sorry if people were offended, not that he was sorry for saying what he said.
What period does he mean by "dark ages"? If he means after the fall of Rome, he could be right. But if he is including the medieval period, from the 10th century until the Renaissance, he's dead wrong.
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