Were the Pope’s comments divinely inspired?
Were the Pope’s comments divinely inspired? We are not usually given to such thoughts, as quaint and anachronistic as they seem in the 21st century West. However, when you think about it, the situation has large, dramatic, and tragic elements, far beyond the importance of one man. Is it too strange to ask today if there is a hidden hand at work?
In the course of a long, obscure uinversity speech, called “Three Stages in the Program of De-Hellenization“, the Pope made a comment quoting a Byzantine emperor’s debate with a Persian scholar to the effect that it was this emperor’s view that Mohammed’s “command to spread by the sword the faith he preached” was notably “evil and inhuman.” These comments dated from the siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402, half a century before Muslims conquered that city and ended the Byzantine empire.
Think about the substance of that particular statement of the Pope. There may be no single matter in the entire world on which Christians and secular Westerners could agree on more than that spreading any religious faith by the sword is evil and inhuman. The comment in that sense is banal and totally unexceptional.
Now think about the reaction: calls for killing the Pope, widespread violence, and the actual killing and kidnapping of priests and nuns. Indeed, the Pope’s comments, if they can be read as a repudiation of the idea of holy war, sparked a spirited defense of the idea from some Islamic quarters: “We shall break the cross and spill the wine….God will (help) Muslims to conquer Rome….(May) God enable us to slit their throats, and make their money and descendants the bounty of the mujahideen.” Or in a different translation: The group said Muslims would be victorious and addressed the pope as “the worshipper of the cross” saying “you and the West are doomed as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere. … We will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose head tax, then the only thing acceptable is a conversion (to Islam) or (killed by) the sword.”
Most Muslims are no doubt good people and peaceful. But those who preach violent Jihad seem to be sitting in the captain’s chair of the religion, do they not? There are no demonstrations in favor the Pope or even of dialogue in the Islamic world, just as there were no counter-demonstrations about the Nigerian beauty pageant or the Cartoon Riots. Instead there is killing and talk of killing. All the emotional energy is on one side — and you are not telling the truth of you deny this.
There has been a best seller in Turkey, even before than this controversy, called “Attack on the Pope,” in which the Pope is assassinated in Istanbul. Here’s our question: the Pope is a learned man who probably knew that his citing the words of the Byzantine emperor might stir up a hornet’s nest. Was he inspired, consciously or otherwise, to offer himself as a possible martyr and inspiration to the sleeping Christians and secularists of the West?
September 20th, 2006 at 7:12 pm
Sir,
It is an irony that Pope chose to deride the prophet of Islam for his concept of Jehad as “evil and inhuman” which is a form of self defense – both spiritual and physical.Pope the infallible being the vice regent of god on earth had to apologise later, which belittled his own stature.
Before accusing the prophet Pope should have read the history of Christianity which it self is filled with blood shed and arson. During the Spanish Inquisition in 1478 AD the invasion of Moorish Spain, tens and thousands of Muslims and Jews were butchered as they refuse to convert to Catholicism. In North America they annihilated the whole race of Red-Indians. In South America and Australia the Aborigines were reduced to a miniscule minority due to systematic purging. When the Catholics regained Jerusalem in 1099AD about 70,000 jews and muslims were beheaded. In India after the failed mutiny of 1857 the roads of Delhi, Meerut, Lucknow in India saw the blood bath of Hindus and Muslims for months together. In contrast to this when Mohammed the jehadi, invaded Mecca in 630AD about 10,000 Jews, Christians and pagans inhabitants who for 20 years had prosecuted, tortured and driven him out to Madina were all pardoned without any blood shed. Instead of reading evangelical literature and medieval king’s distorted history Pope may read “Rise and fall of Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon” the famous European historian to get the true history of Islam and Christianity.
Yours truly,
M.Abdaal Akhtar
36/2 Ashoknagar
Bhubaneswar-500-017
Tel- 2530050
September 20th, 2006 at 8:54 pm
I am growing increasingly intolerant of Muslims and all the derivations who seek to maintain the unrest in the world. I cannot imagine a “g_d” that would have us killimg each other for any reason, especially religious opinions. There can be no more frail reason for killing humans. Let us all step back, take a breath, and listen closely to the words of Jon Lenon.
G_d bless.
September 21st, 2006 at 6:43 am
I, like Kenneth, am becoming tired of having to tolerate a religion of hate and intolerance. We are required by social and political pressure to tolerate Islam as they kill and bomb across the world, however, this is a religion of total intolerance. They hide behind the name of Muhammad and Allah when they call us infidels and blast the world as dogs and sinners, but as soon as we say anything derogatory against them they resort to blowing something or someon up. Where is their tolerance, it doesn’t exist. Everything in Islam is right and they won’t hear anything else.
September 21st, 2006 at 6:21 pm
New Pope Shows Spine
Islamonazi CAIR Is Not Impressed
http://www.terrorfreeoil.org/videos/MS091506.php – video
Please Call The Vatican Embassy In Washington, DC at (202) 333-7121 to Express Your Support!
September 26th, 2006 at 7:39 pm
So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? 13: Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. 14: If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15: For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. 16: Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. 17: If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. 18: I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. 19: Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he. 20: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. John 13:12-20
November 25th, 2008 at 5:30 am
A lot of words pour from the prostrating lock-steppers of Islam. Two things should be remembered – this was the only religion founded by someone who was himself a warrior. Next, look how they treat women, like chattel (property). This is an ignorant philosophy and a dangerous one. They continually fight and kill each other (Shia and Shiite) over who deserved to take over after Mohammad died. Every culture and country they butt up against, they cause strife and unrest. I’m over the “ah, but there are peaceful Muslims.” Where?