Muslims Dost Protest Too Much!!!
His Holiness quotes the last Christian Emperor in Constantinople regarding what Islam has brought new to religion, namely conversion under the sword or death and the Islamic world is in an uproar. My favorite is one official said this could lead to violence. Uhm, lets see for years Muslims have been kill Coptics in Southern Egypt, bombings of Christian churchs, and death to Christians trying to evangelize in Islamic countries. Maybe the truth hurts. The propeht did gain power by killing all those that posed a threat to his authority slaughtering Jews in the Arabic Penisula and other Arabs.
Death for the sake of power is nothing new and neither is death for religion, but the difference is other religions have progressed realizing the conscious is up to the individual and final judgment is for God. The real concern is to see how intermixed religion and secular authority is and how these governments are at the whim and passion of the people. To me it demonstrates an easily manipulated and ignorant society. A society that was once welcoming and advanced beyond its Western brothers, but quickly spiraled into a paranoia when power over its people was threaten by the development of the west. I say where is the media saying the Pope has the freedom of speech and why they do not condemn those countries that clearly would not allow any dialogue or pointing out historical quotes.
posted by DCMASSHOLE @ 8:56 AM
5 Comments:
You almost had it.
"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
William Shakespeare
Actually, methinks that the other shoe has not yet fallen. Before long, it will be our (the USA's - The Great Satan's) fault. After all, the Pope, whose election in the Sistine Chapel was orchestrated by the Bush White House, is just a puppet of the USA, isn't he?
And, the liberal press will back up and expand this point of view, if they stay true to form.
We are, after all, the root of all evil and the cause of worldwide Islamic terrorism, aren't we?
The whole idea of the "jihad" was formulatd by the CIA and introduced by covert operatives, wasn't it?
Islam, "the religion of peace", cannot be held culpable. They are the victims here!
Now, alas, I must remove my tongue from within my cheek.
the catholic church held the Inquisition which converted lots of people on pain of death
THUD. That sound is the other shoe dropping. Today, the head Muslim Cleric in Iran told his followers that the anger toward the Catholic Church should be directed towards the United States.
And Roxy, I believe the Inquisition is found under "history" not among
"current events".
Kathleen Parker wrote:
"In non-news today, Muslims are outraged. Also, the sun rose at its usual time and the Earth continued to turn on its axis in the customary fashion.
"As the sentient know, extremist Muslims have found another excuse to bloody the streets, this time over a quotation from a lecture Pope Benedict XVI delivered last week at the University of Regensburg in Germany. My guess is that not many of the outraged Muslims have actually read the lecture -- it's not the sort of thing one lightly skims between effigy-burnings.
"Policemen patrol Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican September 18, 2006. The Vatican has instructed its envoys in Muslim countries to explain Pope Benedict's words on Islam but Church experts said on Monday the furore has probably set back relations between the two faiths by decades. REUTERS/Max Rossi (VATICAN) To understand what the pope actually said, one would have to stop and think, which is a colossal waste of time when there are infidels to kill. Thus far, people who claim to be fervent disciples of the religion of peace have shot a missionary nun in Somalia and demolished Christian holy sites in the West Bank and Gaza.
"All this just because the pope had the audacity to suggest that some Islamists tend to prefer violence to reason. Whatever gave him that idea?
"The single line extracted from the pope's lecture to inflame the highly flammable is an excerpt from a 14th-century dialogue between the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and 'an educated Persian' about Christianity and Islam. Said the emperor:
"'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 by the sword the faith he preached.'
"This one-sentence quotation was part of a wide-ranging discussion about the intersection of faith and reason, as well as the contradictory nature of religion and violence. Pope Benedict's key point was that faith through violence is unreasonable and, therefore, incompatible with the nature of God.
"'The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature,' he said.
"Think fast: Who wants to spread faith with violence? Not missionary nuns in Somalia. Who wants to slit the throats of infidels? Not the Southern Baptist Convention.
"Contrary to what fanatics have insisted, the pope was as critical of the West as of Islam, if not more so. While Islam suffers faith without reason, he said that Western culture suffers from reason without faith.
"His point was that the two cultures cannot enter into a productive dialogue unless they both recognize that faith and reason are inextricably bound. Islam has to drop its sword and the West has to make room for the divine.
"Pope Benedict's view is that by ignoring faith, the West -- but especially Europe -- is ill-equipped to engage a culture that is so firmly entrenched in faith.
"'A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures,' he said. Likewise, a faith-based culture that abhors reason cannot engage in civilized discourse or advance the goal of harmony.
"In a nutshell, those are the central points of the pope's lecture. How interesting that the emperor and the Persian could debate these issues several centuries ago, but 21st-century man is driven mad by ideas that challenge him.
"Now, one can decide that the pope is full of business, or that he's lacking in diplomatic skills. Or, one could conclude that he is the bravest man on Earth.
"By speaking truth to madness, he has invited the wrath of both worlds and -- if Islamist jihadists are to be believed -- placed his life on the line. Monday, the same chap who last year called for the murders of Danish cartoonists for drawing Muhammad called for the pope's execution.
"In Iraq, al-Qaeda warned Pope Benedict that its war on the West will continue until Islam takes over the world. Iran's supreme leader called for more protests. Egypt's religious affairs minister wrote in a newspaper column: 'The pope's words have caused a deep wound in the hearts of Muslims that won't heal for a long time, and then only after a clear apology to Muslims.'
"Pope Benedict did apologize for offending Muslims, but he stopped short of apologizing for his message. He apparently said what he meant to say.
"Thus far the Muslim world has responded only by proving the pope's point. Where is the educated Persian to debate him?"
Thought I'd share it with you.
Thanks Doc. I love the WSJ's Oped pieces that are excellent and right to the point.
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