Comments on: Respectfully, the Pope is Not a Muslim http://bendaniel.org/?p=47 Left Coast Lion's Den Mon, 06 Sep 2010 01:26:59 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Ben http://bendaniel.org/?p=47&cpage=1#comment-1664 Ben Fri, 01 Dec 2006 20:31:55 +0000 http://bendaniel.org/?p=47#comment-1664 Bill, One of the tragedies of the Pope's choice to include the offending quote ("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.") is that it ended up overshadowing the rest of the lecture, much of which was quite good. However, I'm not sure we reasonably can expect Muslims not to be offended by a statement like the one quoted. Ben Bill,

One of the tragedies of the Pope’s choice to include the offending quote (“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.”) is that it ended up overshadowing the rest of the lecture, much of which was quite good. However, I’m not sure we reasonably can expect Muslims not to be offended by a statement like the one quoted.

Ben

]]> By: Bill L. http://bendaniel.org/?p=47&cpage=1#comment-1663 Bill L. Fri, 01 Dec 2006 16:39:22 +0000 http://bendaniel.org/?p=47#comment-1663 As a number of commentators have observed, the Pope's second quotatation of Manuel II Paleologus seems to have been studiously ignored by the Muslim world: "God is not pleased by blood, and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature." The Muslims, including the self-appointed divines (because Islam proudly claims no formal clergy) who signed the letter might well stop being aggrieved at everything not Islamic at least long enough pay attention to the second quote. Interfaith dialogue is fine, but if it's always on one side's set of terms -- i.e., Islam may not be criticized -- then it's not much of a dialogue. As a number of commentators have observed, the Pope’s second quotatation of Manuel II Paleologus seems to have been studiously ignored by the Muslim world: “God is not pleased by blood, and not acting reasonably is contrary to God’s nature.”

The Muslims, including the self-appointed divines (because Islam proudly claims no formal clergy) who signed the letter might well stop being aggrieved at everything not Islamic at least long enough pay attention to the second quote. Interfaith dialogue is fine, but if it’s always on one side’s set of terms — i.e., Islam may not be criticized — then it’s not much of a dialogue.

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