Something Is Obviously Wrong Here

Pope Benedict XVI angered Muslims earlier this week with a speech in which he discussed Islam, quoting a 14th century tome calling Islam "evil and inhuman."

As such, it distilled many of Benedict’s longstanding concerns, about the crisis of faith among Christians and about Islam and its relationship to violence.

And he used language open to interpretations that could inflame Muslims, at a time of high tension among religions and three months before he makes a trip to Turkey.

He began his speech, which ran over half an hour, by quoting a 14th-century Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologus, in a conversation with a “learned Persian” on Christianity and Islam — “and the truth of both.”

“Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread the sword by the faith he preached,” the pope quoted the emperor, in a speech to 1,500 students and faculty.

He went on to say that violent conversion to Islam was contrary to reason and thus “contrary to God’s nature.”

Most of the speech addressed secularism in Europe and the West, but these remarks certainly did inflame Muslim passions.

Some of the strongest words came from Turkey, possibly putting in jeopardy Benedict’s plan to visit there in November.

“I do not think any good will come from the visit to the Muslim world of a person who has such ideas about Islam’s prophet,” Ali Bardakoglu, a cleric and chief of the Turkish government’s directorate of religious affairs, said in a television interview there. “He should first of all replace the grudge in his heart with moral values and respect for the other.”

Muslim leaders in Pakistan, Morocco and Kuwait, in addition to some in Germany and France, were also critical, with many demanding an apology or clarification.

The NY Times urged the Pope to "offer a deep and persuasive apology," and the Vatican, while not abjectly retracting the remarks and prostrating itself, has backed away from the comments, as of this morning.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict told Muslims on Saturday he was sorry they had found his speech on Islam offensive, expressing his respect for their faith and hoping they would understand the "true sense" of his words.

"The Holy Father is very sorry that some passages of his speech may have sounded offensive to the sensibilities of Muslim believers," Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said in a statement.

Muslims are offended that their faith has been characterized by the pope as sanctioning violent conversions.  Unfortunately, there are factions that seem to do just that.  Recall that the captured Fox journalists, Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig, were converted  to Islam at gunpoint.

The significance of this forced conversion has been downplayed in the media. The New York Times and the Washington Post even pronounced the two "unharmed" on release. This judgment is perverse. If Muslim prisoners in American custody were forced to convert to Christianity on pain of death or as a condition of release, the press would denounce it as virtual torture, and rightly so: No sane person would say the prisoners had suffered no harm.

[...]

And Centanni and Wiig remain at risk--like the writer Salman Rushdie, marked for death by Islamists who deem his writing blasphemous, or Abdul Rahman, a Christian convert forced to flee Afghanistan earlier this year. The two journalists, having announced their conversion, now must live as Muslims lest some imam declare them apostate and his followers take it upon themselves to carry out a sentence of death.

I scanned the press releases from CAIR.  There was one calling for the release of the journalists. I did not find one either celebrating their release, or denouncing this "conversion at gunpoint."  I'm not aware that any Muslim religious leader has issued a ruling recinding the conversions, either.  And the group that took Centanni and Wiig issued a statement after their release stating that more abduction/conversions were in their plans.

"Any infidel blood will have no sanctity," the group said in the statement.

"Any infidel blood."  CAIR did not issue a release denouncing that statement either.

Meanwhile, statements such as this one, from Al Qaeda #2 Ayman al Zawahiri and "Azzam the American", contain a not too subtle subtext of "convert or die."

"Instead of killing yourself for Bush … why not surrender to the truth (of Islam), escape from the unbelieving army and join the winning side. Time is running out so make the right choice before it's too late," he said.

Peaceful and devout Muslims have not acted consistently to denounce these violent extremists in their midst on their own, or to invalidate these gunpoint conversions.  They could go a long way toward removing any doubt about Islam's nature by doing so.  Either Islam is peaceful and can coexist in harmony with Christianity, with Buddhism, with Judaism, or it can't.

By doing so they can unambiguously demonstrate what they see as the untruth in Benedict XVI's remarks.  I think the Pope's remarks were intemperate given the heat of the current conversation, and as a religious leader he might best use his bully pulpit to spread the message of tolerance with honey rather than vinegar, encouraging peaceful Muslims to denounce and renounce the clearly objectionable acts and statements listed above. But the way for Muslims to combat these characterizations is by showing - clearly and loudly - that they abhor the activities that lead to those impressions.

Something is wrong here.  The problem is that either Islam is peaceful, in which case this peaceful Islam should distance itself visibly from the violent extremists in their midst, renounce jihad, and celebrate a diversity of religious belief that could then peacefully exist.  Or Islam is not peaceful, in which case such disgraceful acts as abduction conversions will be the norm in the community.  Which is it?

9/16/06 1220: Tigerhawk on 'infantilizing Muslim rage' - read it all.

Yet Islam needs jihad, which I understand means "struggle." It needs a jihad against illiteracy. It needs a jihad against ignorance. It needs a jihad against sloth. It needs a jihad against corruption. It needs a jihad in support of women, without whom it cannot succeed in the modern world. It needs a jihad against the clerics who have -- allegedly, according to "moderates" -- perverted the truth of its religion. It needs a jihad against its governments -- secular and Islamic -- who have destroyed the future for more than a billion people. It needs a jihad against despair.

Comments

[Jeff]

Pope Benedict XVI was very courageous in saying what needs to be said in regards to Islamo-Fascism. And he hasn’t apologized for what he said. He just said he is sorry that the Muslims were offended.

But, I guess the Muslims can’t handle the truth.

By the way, leftists have come out and renounced the Pope’s comments.

Here is what one liberal blogger posted.

http://melt212.livejournal.com/171321.html

“I feel empathy for the muslims who just got bitch slapped by the pope because I had a boyfriend like that once. ”

Spoken like a true member of the Democratic Party base. Treats foreign affairs like it was the Jerry Springer show.