Excuse me?

[mdlbear]

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Muslim world divided over Pope's apology

Pope Benedict's admission that he was "deeply sorry" for offending the sensitivities of Muslims does not necessarily mean that the worst crisis of his papacy is over yet. Speaking in Rome yesterday, the Pope said that the views of the 14th-century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaeologus that he quoted last week - describing Islam as "evil and inhuman" - were not his own.

...but presumably he wouldn't have quoted them if they didn't say what he wanted to say.

Now, it is possible to argue -- and I've seen several attempts over the last couple of days -- that Muslim terrorism has a higher bodycount during the last couple of centuries than Christian. Possibly even if you omit 09/11 and the IRA. I'm not sure about the crusades. But the former head of the organization once known as the Inquisition is hardly in a position to cast stones, and he damned well ought to know better.

Comments

[thefrugalgamer.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, I did read the entire introduction to the speech, where the "offensive" quote was located, and I also have some (very minor) experience as a "theologian," if not quite on the level of the the former Cardinal Ratzinger. Taken in context (something not likely to happen, of course) the quote appears to be limited to the injunction in the Koran to spread Islam by the sword, and in that context (i.e., the mixture of violence and religion), the Byzantine Emperor quoted stated that Mohamed didn't help matters any, and in fact seriously screwed up. This is a sentiment with which I personally agree wholeheartedly, as does the Pope, presumably. Bear in mind also that this was as the Turks were besieging Constantinople. And we all know how that turned out, at least those of us that are They Might Be Giants fans.

So: I gotta side with the Pope on this one. The Muslims don't really appear to need any real justification to go of. They're in a permanent state of agitation, kept that way, IMHO, by their own tribal mentality and the lack of anything approaching a modern, universal education system. On the other hand, any change has got to come from them internally (again, IMHO), so we've just got to bear with this nonsense when it occurs. There's just not a whole hell of a lot we can do about it. I am not, however, going to fault the Pope for making the self-evident point that mixing religion and violence is a bad thing, and Mohamed was not only wrong, but evilly wrong to embrace it. I will not concede that we in the West may not criticize Islam or Mohamed, regardless of the frothing-at-the-mouth and idiotic violence by the "Arab street."

Wow, this was more of a rant than I had intended, but what the hey.

[mdlbear]

You're certainly right about the permanent state of agitation. Um, isn't that what Bush and Cheney are trying to do on this side?