[MLUG - DISCUSSION] the Pope's remarks and Muslim response

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

I resent with an appropriate Subject line...

On Sat, 16 Sep 2006, Stephen Montgomery-Smith wrote:

> Apparently this is an interview on Al Jazeera that has had over a million 
> hits in the Middle East.
>
> http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ai=214&ar=1050wmv&ak=null

You picked a good time to bring this up.  What did you think about what 
the Pope said the other day?  Text of his speech:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,,1873277,00.html

Text of the Vatican response to Muslim anger at the speech:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4191825.html

Some reports inaccurately state that the Pope spent 3 paragraphs on Islam 
-- it was actually much more than that.  He suggests that Christian and 
Muslim differ fundamentally in their view of the nature of God (with the 
superior Christian view derived from the Greek notion that God is 
rational).  He also suggests that "holy war" is wrong and that "spreading 
the faith by the sword" is wrong.  The thing that pissed people off the 
most was this quotation from Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus:

   [Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus] addresses his interlocutor
   with a startling brusqueness on the central question about the
   relationship between religion and violence in general, saying: "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".

For some reason, many Muslims are protesting the speech through 
threatening, violent or destructive acts.  How do they expect the 
non-Islamic world to react to that?

The Muslim Brotherhood is not happy.  This is the group that Sayyid Qutb 
promoted -- Qutb also inspired the founders of al Qaeda.

Mike

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