[whataretheysaying] Mary Madigan: Here we go again

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Posted by Mary Madigan:
Here we go again
http://whataretheysaying.powerblogs.com/posts/1158330237.shtml


   [1]popeprotest 

   In a speech requesting tolerance and understanding of religious
   beliefs, Pope Benedict quoted from a book recounting a conversation
   between 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II
   and a Persian scholar on the truths of Christianity and Islam.

     "The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war,"
     the pope said. "He said, I quote, 'Show me just what Mohammed
     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.'"

   The Pope didn't explicitly agree with the statement nor repudiate it.
   Basically, he tolerated it within a speech about tolerance.

   [2]al Jazeera reports:

     The pope provoked anger after criticising Islam and its concept of
     jihad on Tuesday during a six-day visit to his native Germany,
     citing a 14th-century Christian emperor who said that Prophet
     Mohammed had brought the world "evil and inhuman" things.

     A statement issued by the Vatican on Thursday, saying the pope had
     never meant to offend Islam, failed to resolve the furore.

   The Moroccan daily [3]Attajdid concludes:

     "The Pope of the Vatican joins in the Zionist-American alliance
     against Islam,"

   [4]Turkey's response

     Turkey's ruling Islamic-rooted party joined a wave of criticism of
     Pope Benedict XVI on Friday, accusing him of trying to revive the
     spirit of the Crusades with remarks he made about the Muslim faith.
     A Turkish lawmaker said the pontiff would go down in history "in
     the same category as leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini" for his
     words.

     Muslim leaders elsewhere in the world also expressed dismay, with
     Pakistan's parliament unanimously condemning the pope.

   Sheikh Youssef Al-Qardawi [5]Qatari Muslim Cleric and Head of the
   Islamic Scholar's Association says:

     Our hands are outstretched and our religion calls for peace, not
     for war, for love not for hatred, for tolerance, not for
     fanaticism, for knowing each other and not for disavowing each
     other.

     We condemn this and we want to know the explanation of this and
     what is intended by this. We call on the pope, the pontiff, to
     apologise to the Islamic nation because he has insulted its
     religion and Prophet, its faith and Sharia without any
     justification."

   David T. at Harry's place remembers al Qardawi [6]as the scholar who
   provided the religious ruling which allowed female suicide murderers
   to travel unchaperoned if necessary to murder civilians:

     When Jihad becomes an Individual Duty, as when the enemy seizes the
     Muslim territory, a woman becomes entitled to take part in it
     alongside men. Jurists maintained that: When the enemy assaults a
     given Muslim territory, it becomes incumbent upon all its residents
     to fight against them to the extent that a woman should go out even
     without the consent of her husband, a son can go too without the
     permission of his parent, a slave without the approval of his
     master, and the employee without the leave of his employer...

     ...To conclude, I think the committed Muslim women in Palestine
     have the right to participate and have their own role in Jihad and
     to attain martyrdom.â

   Arms outstetched in peace indeed. Who, exactly, should be apologizing
   here?

   The full text of the Pope's [7]speech is here, including this part of
   the conclusion:

     In the Western world it is widely held that only positivistic
     reason and the forms of philosophy based on it are universally
     valid. Yet the worldâs profoundly religious cultures see this
     exclusion of the divine from the universality of reason as an
     attack on their most profound convictions. 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.
     At the same time, as I have attempted to show, modern scientific
     reason with its intrinsically Platonic element bears within itself
     a question which points beyond itself and beyond the possibilities
     of its methodology.

   Now that's provocation.

References

   1. http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/09/15/pope.islam/
   2. http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5D2B8367-5315-4D52-B544-EE402F4F4C16.htm
   3. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/15/AR2006091500136.html
   4. http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/09/15/pope.islam/
   5. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5348436.stm
   6. http://hurryupharry.bloghouse.net/archives/2006/09/15/al_qaradawi_and_the_pope.php
   7. http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=46474