Comments on: Another Danish Cartoons-style crisis?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 10:45:05 +0000

I think its interesting to see how a stupid comment taken out of context can erupt such anger in people all over the world, but over 50 bodies found dead scattered all over baghdad doesnt even make headline news anymore. Dont get me wrong, I’m a muslim, and one that believes that what the pope said is completely unacceptable, but I truly beleive it was done not out of malicious intent, but out of sheer stupidity. Its true, pope benedict has had a very hard time filling in the shoes of his very prominant and admirable predecessor, and is still struggling with it. His words, I believe, were not meant to offend, but rather taken out of context. He has in fact made an apology to Islam and to all muslims and that needs to be duly noted rather than condemned and deemed ‘insufficient’. What i think however is incredibly important to note, is that the Vatican has been one of the most vocal and loudest voices, and sometimes being the only one to speak out against injustices in Palestine and Lebanon. This also came at a time when there wasnt even a peep out of the arab nations with respect to these injustices, but the vatican condemned israel and its acts of aggression totally. But now after a stupid mistake made by an incoherent pope (who did infact attempt to rectify his mistake with an apology), causes fury and anger all over the muslim world and propogates any extremist or terrorist group to jump on the islamist bandwagon with claims of “revenge against the cross”, only instigating more tension and hatred in the region. Were the vaticans effots done during the war on lebanon and palestine done in vain? I think people need to look at the bigger picture before they make assumptions about comments being ‘sacreligious’.

By: Comandante Gringo

Comandante Gringo — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 05:19:27 +0000

As an atheistic communist I have little particular sympathy for either side here. And what sympathy I do have is pretty much colored by any humanity and/or sincerity I see being extended by any of these true believers to others not ‘of the faith’. That’s about it. Indeed, I do not actually respect willful ignorance or delusion, doggedly adhered-to, in the face of knowledge otherwise.

And so: about the post from the first commentator above…

I don’t know where this guy is coming from, but he has wilfully ignored the obvious truth in this case — apparently in order to make some spurious claim in favor of this vicious, inquisitor pope. Fact is, the medieval quote dredged up out of obscurity to make this pope’s not-so-obscure point in an extremely public setting where it was meant to signal something important, was in fact no mistake at all. It was obviously intended to send a big, fat message to somebody. A lot of somebodies, for that matter.

And so the muslims are quite justified in their outrage here. They’re mostly all being quite reasonable about this, given the circumstances, actually. Indeed — this catholic pot shouldn’t be calling any other religious kettle black either for that matter: given its — and its pontiff’s — own history.

Hell — I’m offended at the Enlightenment/Reason side of this fascist gasbag’s speech.

By: Shehab Fakhry

Shehab Fakhry — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 19:30:05 +0000

Never though I might one day defend the pope, but I really think the guy did not mean to offend Islam at all. Of course I can see how the quotation is offensive, but he clearly distanced himself from the utterance when he merely quoted. This is not the pope’s statement about Islam, but a thirteenth century emperor’s view of Islam. The pope then used the quote as a prelude to his theological ruminations (which are very intelligent, although I disagree with him philosophically). The point he was really making is that in Christianity God is not transcendent to the categories of “reason” while in Islam he is. That might be a rejected by Muslim (and Christian) scholars as a misunderstanding of Islam. But that is a pretty innocuous misunderstanding and I cannot see how it warrants the fury of the Islamic scholars. I can only attribute this wave of rage to the fact that they misunderstood him, or didn’t read him carefully.

By: Arab Angles

Arab Angles — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 17:24:04 +0000

On the subject of relations between Christians and Muslims, you may be interested in a blog whose aim is to publish English translations of analyses and opinions published in the Arabic-language media. The first issue contains translations of five articles from the independent Egyptian media on the underlying reasons for last April’s sectarian violence in Alexandria: