The Pope Plays Religious Politics
15 September 2006 6:44 am by Taylor Marsh
In the category of throwing a molotov cocktail into the middle of our already toxic Middle East political brew, I offer you the Pope. The Holy Father could use a little work on his timing.
Pope Benedict XVI came under a hail of criticism from the Islamic world Friday
for comments he made earlier in the week regarding the Prophet Mohammed and
the Muslim faith, in some cities provoking street protests.A growing chorus of Muslim leaders have called on the pope to apologize for
the remarks he made in a speech in Germany on Tuesday when he used the terms
“jihad” and “holy war.”Pakistan's National Assembly, parliament's lower house, unanimously passed
a resolution on Friday condemning the pope's comments.(snip)
“God,” the emperor, as the pope quoted, said, “is not pleased
by blood — and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature.” (Full
story)A transcript of the pope's remarks obtained by the Associated Press television
network reads: “In the seventh (sura, or chapter of the Quran), the emperor
comes to speak about jihad, holy war.“The emperor certainly knew that Sura 2, 256, reads: 'No force in matters
of faith'. It is one of the early suras, from a time — as experts say —
in which Mohammed himself was still powerless and threatened.“However, the emperor of course also knew the requirements about the
holy war that were later formulated in the Quran. Without going into details
like the handling of the owners of the scriptures, or non-believers, he (the
emperor) turned to his interlocutors — in a surprisingly brusque way — with
the central question after the relationship between religion and violence.“He said, I quote, 'Show me just what Muhammed 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.'”A Vatican statement said Benedict was not trying offend Muslims with his
remarks. …
