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

[Stephen Montgomery-Smith <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Mike Miller wrote:

> 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

I tried to read the Pope's words.  It looks like it is an interesting 
theological commentary, with the part below only meant to illuminate 
some wider point.  I confess that I did not understand a lot of the 
Pope's speech.  I think that for him an attack on Islam was not what he 
was intending.  (For example, in a later part of his speech he seems to 
be criticising the Reformation - its a good thing those Lutherans and 
Calvinists aren't burning effegies of the Pope.)  As best as I can see, 
perhaps he is arguing that Christianity is the joining of Jewish and 
Greek (Hellenistic) thought.  Heck, it even might be construed as a 
pro-Orthodox speech (Catholics and Orthodox have been at odds with each 
other since the turn of the last millenium).  Thus my guess is that he 
is quoting Manuel II, not for the purpose of critcising Islam per se, 
but rather for the broader implications of his statements.

> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> discussion mailing list
> EMAIL:PROTECTED
> http://mlug.missouri.edu/mailman/listinfo/discussion


_______________________________________________
discussion mailing list
EMAIL:PROTECTED
http://mlug.missouri.edu/mailman/listinfo/discussion