Some Things Never Change
You may have notice that for awhile there I stopped making postings, but I can't help but think that some things just never change. Back in March the story of the day was the Muslim protests of editorial cartoons, today the story is that the same people are protesting the remarks of Pope Benedict XIV.
What amazes me that the lazy mainstream media has allowed the Muslim world to characterize the Pope's remarks, rather than informing the public what he actually said. I have read news report after news report to find out exactly what words the Pope used. Not one story quoted the Pope directly nor has any major news agency try to accurately represent the Pope’s intent. I personally think that it is important to try to understand the Pope in the proper context. Therefore, the following is an exerpt from the Pope's speech:
"In the seventh conversation (*4V8,>4H - controversy) edited by Professor Khoury, the emperor touches on the theme of the holy war. The emperor must have known that surah 2, 256 reads: "There is no compulsion in religion". According to the experts, this is one of the suras of the early period, when Mohammed was still powerless and under threat. But naturally the emperor also knew the instructions, developed later and recorded in the Qur'an, concerning holy war. Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the "Book" and the "infidels", he 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". The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. "God", he says, "is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably (F×< 8`(T) is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death...". The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature. The editor, Theodore Khoury, observes: For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement is self-evident. But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality. Here Khoury quotes a work of the noted French Islamist R. Arnaldez, who points out that Ibn Hazn went so far as to state that God is not bound even by his own word, and that nothing would oblige him to reveal the truth to us. Were it God's will, we would even have to practise idolatry.At this point, as far as understanding of God and thus the concrete practice of religion is concerned, we are faced with an unavoidable dilemma. Is the conviction that acting unreasonably contradicts God's nature merely a Greek idea, or is it always and intrinsically true?...."
Pope is merely stating that spreading faith through violence is an unreasonable thought and counter to the nature of God. The Pope's message is squarely targeted to the Islamic radicals calling for a jihad. The only thing offensive about these words is that they came out of the mouth of the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and not from a Mullah in
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