ROME - Pope Benedict XVI flew back to Rome on Thursday to face an international flurry of protest over comments he made critical of historical Islamic violence during a six-day trip to his native Germany. Muslim clerics and community leaders from Europe to the Middle East and beyond condemned the pope's comments made earlier this week. In Turkey, the first Muslim country that the pope is scheduled to visit, the leading religious official demanded an apology and told the pontiff to "look in the mirror" when he assails religious violence. The furor may jeopardize Benedict's trip, scheduled for Nov. 28, in what would be an embarrassing contretemps for the Vatican.
The Pope always chooses his words carefully, so my question is why did he say what he did?
It has been suggested that he wanted to provoke debate in Islam itself about the contradiction between between violent Jihad and the statement by Mohamed about religion should not be forced on anyone. If you have any suggestion it would be glad to have it?
7 comments:
Our Lord told St Peter to put his sword away when he was being arrested, saying, "He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword."
All our Pontiff is doing is reiterating the message of the Word of God. +
At last a Pope who will not kao tao to either the secular or pc agenda.If there is to be any meaningful dialogue between Christianity & Islam then the Truth has to be spoken.When will a Christian Church be allowed in Mecca?
Reflecting on why he said what he said, I think that he intended that he should draw attention to the essential difference between Christianity and Islam, as he did in Dominius Deus with the difference between Catholicism and other Christian groupings.
There has been a lot of talk about Chrisitianity being equally bloody, especially with regard to the Crusades. Well, the Crusades were wars of liberation.
I don't agree, Maureen, that the Crusades were wars of liberation. The 'just war' theory can surely never be condoned.
Manadatum,
Did Christians ever invade Muslim lands? The Crusades were to liberate Christians.
Anonymous, when the passage that says he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword begs the question of who owns the sword by which he will die.
The answer is in Romans 13:1-7. The State is God's minister, wielding the sword against evildoers. The Fathers taught that for the State to use the sword on evildoers is, in its object, morally good. This is what makes soldiering in the service of the State a lawful vocation for a Christian.
The Crusaders were not a rabble of private warlords - they were professional soldiers enlisted in the service of Christian princes.
Whether a man is a Christian or not, he may bear the sword only as an agent of the State. The sword is not given to the Christian in baptism.
Islam on the other hand places the sword in the hands of the individual believer, to be used on his own authority when he judges Islam to be under attack, and for offensive jihad on the authority of the Caliph.
Political Islam sees itself as having a mission to cause the whole world to convert to itself, or at least to acquiesce in Islamic rule. Jihad (whether armed or not) is a perpetual obligation until this end is reached.
Islam cannot come to terms indefinitely with a political order structured otherwise than by shari'a. It cannot really accept the legitimacy of non-Islamic government.
Christians on the other hand insist that the powers that be are ordained of God, whether Christian or not, and will always seek to be the best citizens of a pagan polity. When pagan rulers persecute Christians they always do it pragmatically, on the pretext that Christians disturb public order. When Christians disabuse them of these concerns by their conduct, pagans are more likely to favour them.
Bearing up under persecution by an Islamic regime will not have this outcome, because Islam persecutes by divine command. A newly conquered people has the choice between Islam or death, while Christians and Jews have the third alternative of dhimmitude.
But Christians and Jews must agree to a pact of protection (dhimma) and scrupulously keep it, otherwise the jihad will be resumed against them. This is what happened when the Armenians and the Assyrians were put to genocide during the First World War.
This is why no land has ever been liberated from Islamic rule by anything short of the sword.
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