Posted by
Aaron on Saturday, September 16, 2006 1:35:10 PM
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pope13sep13,0,3311596.story?coll=la-home-world
Pope Benedict's speech at the University of Regsensburg caused an outcry from Muslims in the Middle East. What
caused this? He must have said something horrible and ignorant
about the Islamic faith. Guess again. In a long drawn out
speech about religious theology and reason, Pope Benedict quoted
Byzantine Emperor Manuel II conversion to a Persian in which he stated "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." One might expect Middle Eastern Muslims to engage
in a dialogue about why Islam does not command its followers to spread
the faith by the sword, but instead they took out their AK-47s and hit
the street in protest. However, leaders of the Islamic faith around the
Middle East did participate in some dialogue, calling the Pope a
'bigot,' 'Hitler,' and even a 'Zionist.' Oh.
In the same speech the Pope also stated that "Violence is incompatible
with the nature of God and the nature of the soul," and "Not to act
in
accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature." This
statement should make one think about the riots that occurred in
the Middle East over Danish cartoons that depicted Muhammad, some of
them in association with violence. Ironically, these cartoons
that associated Islam with violence, caused violence. During
these riots many people died, embassies were set on fire, and over
what? This is definitely not 'acting in accordance with reason,'
and killing innocent people over cartoons is definitely 'contrary to
God's nature.' This ideology also teaches and calls individuals from the Jewish faith
descendants of pigs and monkeys. These are not reasonable
comments, however, are taught as fact all over the Muslim world.
Comments that call out Islamic fanaticism for the evil that it is,
should not be met with more evil from fanatical Muslims. Comments that call out extreme
factions of Islam for preaching and encouraging violence, should
not be met with more violence from Muslims. When unreasoned violence does occur, the civilized world should not reduce its freedom of press. These ironies, time and time
again, only prove the points the comments are making in the first
place. The civilized world has a responsibility to point
out these flaws in human reason that exist within the fanatical
ideological faction within Islam. Hopefully by doing this, it
will cause meaningful, productive, and peaceful dialogue to occur.
And remember, the Iranian government just sponsored a cartoon contest
where people from all over the world could summit Holocaust cartoons, in order to offend people of the Jewish
faith. This contest caused no violent response from the Jewish
people. They have reason, and are civilized.