Posted on 09/17/2006 3:45:13 AM PDT by TaxachusettsMan
VATICAN CITY — Islamic groups demanded that Pope Benedict XVI apologize Sunday in his first public appearance since his remarks about Islam and holy war sparked anger among Muslims around the world.
Italian media reported higher security at the Vatican and at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, in the Alban Hills outside Rome, where the pope was to appear before the faithful. But security measures were not visibly higher at either location, which have been under heavy guard since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
The pontiff gives his blessing and makes brief remarks to pilgrims every Sunday at 6 a.m. EDT. He has been staying at Castel Gandolfo since his return on Thursday from the German pilgrimage where he made the remarks.
A Vatican statement on Saturday afternoon said that the pope "sincerely regrets" that Muslims were offended, but stopped short of the apology demanded by many Muslim leaders in the Middle East and Asia.
The Jordanian chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood fundamentalist movement said Sunday that was not enough, and called on the pope to personally apologize.
"The Muslim Brotherhood severely condemns the pope's statement and asks the pope to apologize openly," the organization said in a statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
All you had to do was ask...but you didn't. You would prefer to attempt a putdown even if on incorrect assumption.
No they aren't.
They've already started killing Christians!
There was no need to ask the questions you would LIKE me to ask, in order to feed your line of thinking on the Pope -- instead, I asked you the questions I wished to ask. You responded with even more on your theme of "The Pope is Submitting". He's not.
And for that, you assign the labels to me of "irrational, small".
You sound like a liberal scholar. Are you female and ordained?
Submission is the goal of islam and the Pope knows it well. It seemed to me at the time that he was distancing himself from certain point he had made. If he did, he would have been to caving to islam's threats of violence and that would have been submission in the classic manner of a dhimmi.
I think and hope I might have been wrong. There has been some clarification of what the Pope said and it now seems the Pope is not "apologizing."
As I said earlier, I do not want the Pope to hurl insults at Islam, but I do want him to stand firmly behind his speech (which by the way was one of the best things to happen in this war so far).
You then asserted your opinion that merely because the Pope said he hoped to "appease" Many Muslim around the world, that meant he was "submitting" to Islamo dictates.
I disagreed with your take, your analysis of the matter. You essentially told me to take my opinions and shove it. Now you are trying to tell me that I willfully and with "childishly squabbling", perhaps, refused to ask you "good questions" and because you are an innocent sinner here for educating.
Your posts have not asked questions, but made ASSERTIONS, which in fact, one can take as being of an "informed" position. Now you claim you do not have one.
Pardon me, for misunderstanding that you were looking for opinions which support your hypothesis, or opinions, on the matter.
This topic is highly charged.
You and I are on the same page in re capturing and dealing aggressively with Islamofascim and Islamo fascists. It's a worldwide struggle which must be addressed, worldwide.
You might appreciate and be heartened reading this recent news posting.
I am deeply sorry the Moslems and the New Duranty Times were too stupid to understand what I was saying
and were unable to distinguish between my own thoughts
and quoted words of someone who lived 500 years ago.
It's too early to tell but I think this Pope may take on islam the same way that JPII took on communism.
I know he's not a politician, but he's a spiritual general with massive power.
He could kiss Bin Laden's butt in public and it wouldn't be enough.
Had massive power, this episode will silence him for his whole papacy.
Just emailed this posting of yours to someone who worked under Cardinal Ratzinger at CDF.
His immediate response: "The Old Professer does NOT know Professor Ratzinger!"
He suggests that you track down Father Robert Taft, S.J.'s comments on this whole episode, which I saw a while back on the FOXNews website but can't seem to track down now. He thinks Taft has it right (and Taft also had to work with Cardinal Ratzinger and CDF regarding the Orthodox Church).
The Rev. Robert Taft, S.J., a specialist in Islamic affairs at Rome's Pontifical Oriental Institute, said it was unlikely Benedict miscalculated how some Muslims would receive his speech.
"The message he is sending is very, very clear," Taft said. "Violence in the name of faith is never acceptable in any religion and that (the pope) considers it his duty to challenge Islam and anyone else on this."
Has he repeated his early statement or only referred to his "poor choice of words?"
Of course you are sadly correct
Which is all true BTW.
Papal Address at University of Regensburg
"Three Stages in the Program of De-Hellenization"
http://zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=94748
The smallest joke or slight leads to a demand for an apology, then they threaten. One or two more steps and they are at your throat. Islam will not be safe to live with until what's left of them are back to being tent-dwelling sheep-herders in the deep desert without any other source of income.
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