Pope’s personal apology to Muslims fails to placate angry critics

-19/09/06

Despite a


Pope’s personal apology to Muslims fails to placate angry critics

-19/09/06

Despite a personally reiterated papal apology for the impact of recent his remarks in Germany, and a clarification that he did not endorse the words of the Christian emperor he cited, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that recent comments by Benedict XVI on Islam were in line with a “crusade” against Muslims.

Behind the controversy, the Iranian leader declared, was the “wish of [western] powers whose survival depends on creating crises” and the Popeís views were the “latest link” in “the chain of a conspiracy to set in train a crusade”.

He also cited cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad and “the insulting remarks of some American and European politicians and newspapers about Islam”.

Added Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: ìEuropean clerics used to say these things about Islam – we imagined that these kinds of utterances had ended in recent times.î Observers have noted that this indicates that the Iranian leader has not yet appreciated that the Pope was quoting an ancient source (Manuel II Paleologos of the Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire) precisely to highlight these past tensions ñ and to move away from them.

Khameini also said: “We do not expect anything from [US President] Bush, because he works for global, plundering companies and powers. But these remarks are very much a cause for regret and surprise from a senior Christian official.”

Influential Qatari Muslim scholar, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, has also condemned the Pope and has called for a ëday of angerí on Friday 22 September 2006. Critics have pointed to his own avowedly anti-Jewish remarks as undermining his stand.

Other Muslim clerics have said that the pontiff should retract his whole speech, and that an apology for its impact is not sufficient.

A spokesperson for the governing Palestinian party Hamas, Sami Abu Zuhri, declared: “We do not view the statement attributed to the Pope as an apology.”

However, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood described the Pope’s remarks as a “sufficient apology” and Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said the Pope’s visit to his country was still expected to go ahead in November 2006.

In the Somali capital Mogadishu, an Italian nun has been shot dead by gunmen. It is believed the shooting may have been connected to incendiary criticism of the speech by a radical Somali cleric.

Seven churches, one Catholic, were attacked in Gaza on Sunday. Protests have included a Muslim demonstration outside Westminster Cathedral in London, where one speaker announced that Sharia law pronounced death on those who instead the Prophet.

The 14th Century Christian emperor, quoted by the Pope in his address calling for an end to religious violence, said that the Prophet Muhammad had brought the world only evil and ìinhuman things.î

In his own further statement at yesterdayís Angelus, Benedict declared: ì[T]he true meaning of my address Ö in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with mutual respect.î

He said: “I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims. These in fact were a quotation from a medieval text, which do not in any way express my personal thought.î

In his address in Germany, the Pope said violence was “incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul”.

New Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said the Pope’s position on Islam was in line with Vatican teaching that the Church “esteems Muslims, who adore the only God. The Holy Father is very sorry that some passages of his speech may have sounded offensive to the sensibilities of Muslim believers.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is among those who have come to the pontiff’s defence, saying the aim of the speech had been misunderstood. In Britain, religious affairs journalists Andrew Brown and Stephen Bates have made similar comments. But Karen Armstrong (a scholar and commentator) and Giles Fraser (vicar of Putney and a philosopher) believe that Benedictís views amount to a whiff of triumphalism.

Overcoming the split between faith and reason is the key to overcoming both ëholy warí and a version of secularism which refuses dialogue with religion, Pope Benedict said in a wide-ranging lecture at the University of Regensburg, Germany, on Tuesday 12 September.

During his lecture in the place where he taught theology from 1969-1977, the pontiff cited criticisms of the Prophet Mohammed by a 14th century Byzantine Christian emperor who was debating a learned Persian.

“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,” Benedict quoted him as saying.

“The emperor goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable,” the Pope said, adding: “Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul.”

There are “many different positions” within the Islamic world, observed Fr Federico Lombardi, the Vatican press officer, including support for non-violence. When he argued that violence contradicts religious faith, the Pontiff was not issuing a blanket condemnation of Muslim beliefs.

The most important aspect of the Pope’s speech, Fr Lombardi continued, was the plea for an end to the split between faith and reason. He said the Pope was tracing the same arguments put forward by John Paul II in his 1998 encyclical Fides et Ratio, in opposing “the marginalisation of faith by modern rationalism.”

That same message, Fr Lombardi continued, was evident in the Pope’s address earlier on the same day, during a homily at Mass in Regensburg, when he underlined the “reasonable character of belief.” The Pope, he said, was making a “clear and linear” exposition of the Christian understanding of God.

In the speech at the University of Regensburg, the Vatican spokesman said, the Pope “did not want to give a lecture interpreting Islam in a violent sense, but affirming that when there is a violent interpretation of religion, we see a contradiction with God’s nature.”

In discussing the concept of jihad, he declared, the Pope was using a rational analysis to criticise the use of faith to incite violence.

Later in his lecture, the Pope also criticised trends in philosophy dating back to the 16th century which began a process of “dehellenisation” that Pope Benedict says has gradually cut modern Christian theology and philosophy from its roots in ancient Greek thought.

Only by restoring our comprehension of reason as understood by the Greek philosophers and of the ëlogosí (divine wisdom) of St John can we hope to overcome the split between belief and reason that underlies both religious fundamentalism and some narrow accounts of scientific culture, the Pope declared.


Pope’s personal apology to Muslims fails to placate angry critics

-19/09/06

Despite a personally reiterated papal apology for the impact of recent his remarks in Germany, and a clarification that he did not endorse the words of the Christian emperor he cited, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that recent comments by Benedict XVI on Islam were in line with a “crusade” against Muslims.

Behind the controversy, the Iranian leader declared, was the “wish of [western] powers whose survival depends on creating crises” and the Popeís views were the “latest link” in “the chain of a conspiracy to set in train a crusade”.

He also cited cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad and “the insulting remarks of some American and European politicians and newspapers about Islam”.

Added Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: ìEuropean clerics used to say these things about Islam – we imagined that these kinds of utterances had ended in recent times.î Observers have noted that this indicates that the Iranian leader has not yet appreciated that the Pope was quoting an ancient source (Manuel II Paleologos of the Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire) precisely to highlight these past tensions ñ and to move away from them.

Khameini also said: “We do not expect anything from [US President] Bush, because he works for global, plundering companies and powers. But these remarks are very much a cause for regret and surprise from a senior Christian official.”

Influential Qatari Muslim scholar, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, has also condemned the Pope and has called for a ëday of angerí on Friday 22 September 2006. Critics have pointed to his own avowedly anti-Jewish remarks as undermining his stand.

Other Muslim clerics have said that the pontiff should retract his whole speech, and that an apology for its impact is not sufficient.

A spokesperson for the governing Palestinian party Hamas, Sami Abu Zuhri, declared: “We do not view the statement attributed to the Pope as an apology.”

However, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood described the Pope’s remarks as a “sufficient apology” and Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said the Pope’s visit to his country was still expected to go ahead in November 2006.

In the Somali capital Mogadishu, an Italian nun has been shot dead by gunmen. It is believed the shooting may have been connected to incendiary criticism of the speech by a radical Somali cleric.

Seven churches, one Catholic, were attacked in Gaza on Sunday. Protests have included a Muslim demonstration outside Westminster Cathedral in London, where one speaker announced that Sharia law pronounced death on those who instead the Prophet.

The 14th Century Christian emperor, quoted by the Pope in his address calling for an end to religious violence, said that the Prophet Muhammad had brought the world only evil and ìinhuman things.î

In his own further statement at yesterdayís Angelus, Benedict declared: ì[T]he true meaning of my address Ö in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with mutual respect.î

He said: “I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims. These in fact were a quotation from a medieval text, which do not in any way express my personal thought.î

In his address in Germany, the Pope said violence was “incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul”.

New Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said the Pope’s position on Islam was in line with Vatican teaching that the Church “esteems Muslims, who adore the only God. The Holy Father is very sorry that some passages of his speech may have sounded offensive to the sensibilities of Muslim believers.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is among those who have come to the pontiff’s defence, saying the aim of the speech had been misunderstood. In Britain, religious affairs journalists Andrew Brown and Stephen Bates have made similar comments. But Karen Armstrong (a scholar and commentator) and Giles Fraser (vicar of Putney and a philosopher) believe that Benedictís views amount to a whiff of triumphalism.

Overcoming the split between faith and reason is the key to overcoming both ëholy warí and a version of secularism which refuses dialogue with religion, Pope Benedict said in a wide-ranging lecture at the University of Regensburg, Germany, on Tuesday 12 September.

During his lecture in the place where he taught theology from 1969-1977, the pontiff cited criticisms of the Prophet Mohammed by a 14th century Byzantine Christian emperor who was debating a learned Persian.

“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,” Benedict quoted him as saying.

“The emperor goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable,” the Pope said, adding: “Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul.”

There are “many different positions” within the Islamic world, observed Fr Federico Lombardi, the Vatican press officer, including support for non-violence. When he argued that violence contradicts religious faith, the Pontiff was not issuing a blanket condemnation of Muslim beliefs.

The most important aspect of the Pope’s speech, Fr Lombardi continued, was the plea for an end to the split between faith and reason. He said the Pope was tracing the same arguments put forward by John Paul II in his 1998 encyclical Fides et Ratio, in opposing “the marginalisation of faith by modern rationalism.”

That same message, Fr Lombardi continued, was evident in the Pope’s address earlier on the same day, during a homily at Mass in Regensburg, when he underlined the “reasonable character of belief.” The Pope, he said, was making a “clear and linear” exposition of the Christian understanding of God.

In the speech at the University of Regensburg, the Vatican spokesman said, the Pope “did not want to give a lecture interpreting Islam in a violent sense, but affirming that when there is a violent interpretation of religion, we see a contradiction with God’s nature.”

In discussing the concept of jihad, he declared, the Pope was using a rational analysis to criticise the use of faith to incite violence.

Later in his lecture, the Pope also criticised trends in philosophy dating back to the 16th century which began a process of “dehellenisation” that Pope Benedict says has gradually cut modern Christian theology and philosophy from its roots in ancient Greek thought.

Only by restoring our comprehension of reason as understood by the Greek philosophers and of the ëlogosí (divine wisdom) of St John can we hope to overcome the split between belief and reason that underlies both religious fundamentalism and some narrow accounts of scientific culture, the Pope declared.