Evidently, by calling for Muslim leaders to train young Muslims in Islam, he believes that Islam is peaceful at its core. It's astounding: wishes are everywhere becoming facts. From AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
COLOGNE, Germany - Pope Benedict XVI decried the "cruel fanaticism" of terrorism Saturday and urged Muslims to join Christians in trying to combat its spread.In blunt remarks, he told a gathering of Muslim officials in Germany that Muslim leaders had a "great responsibility" in properly educating their younger generations.
"I am certain that I echo your own thoughts when I bring up as one of our concerns the spread of terrorism," Benedict told the Muslim leadership, mainly Turks, in his most extensive remarks on terrorism during his four-month papacy.
"Terrorist activity is continually recurring in various parts of the world, sowing death and destruction, and plunging many of our brothers and sisters into grief and despair."
Benedict did not mention specific attacks or assess blame, but it appeared significant that he chose a Muslim audience for his remarks on terrorism.
"Those who instigate and plan these attacks evidently wish to poison our relations, making use of all means, including religion, to oppose every attempt to build a peaceful, fair and serene life together," he said.
The meeting, during Benedict's four-day trip to Germany for World Youth Day, was part of the pope's outreach to non-Catholics to achieve common positions on social issues and world peace. There are some 3.5 million Muslims in Germany, one of the highest figures in western Europe.
Going into Saturday's meeting, he had been cautious about making any links between terrorism and Islam, rejecting the idea that the world faced a "clash of civilizations" and reportedly overruling an aide who wanted to brand the July 7 London bombings as anti-Christian.
But in warning Saturday that the world risked exposure to "the darkness of a new barbarism," he stressed that Muslim leaders must "guide Muslim believers and train them in the Islamic faith."
"Teaching is the vehicle through which ideas and convictions are transmitted. Words are highly influential in the education of the mind. You, therefore, have a great responsibility for the formation of the younger generation," the pontiff said.
By working together, Catholics and Muslims could "turn back the wave of cruel fanaticism that endangers the lives of so many people and hinders progress toward world peace," he said....
Benedict also alluded to another of his themes — the need for reciprocity in religious freedom for Christians and other minorities in some Islamic countries. He did not name any but said "the defense of religious freedom ... is a permanent imperative and respect for minorities is a clear sign of true civilization."
Will somebody PLEASE hand this man a Qur'an!!?! Let Pope Benedict XVI read Islamic teachings for himself-- THEN let him lecture on how Islam should be taught and what it teaches (... to Muslims no less).
As the leader of the Christian world, Pope Benedict absolutely needs to understand EXACTLY what Islam stands for, what its teachings are, and what role violence plays in Islamic ideology. There is no excuse for anything less than this or what happens as a conseqwence of NOT knowing these things.
The Christian Bible admonishes Christians to "KNOW THEIR ENEMY." Islam is a self-proclaimed enemy of Christianity, Judeism, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. But wouldn't you know it, our pope apparently is blithely unaware of this.
Somebody PLEASE educate Pope Benedict XVI as to what Islam really is (while we can still defend ourselves from it).
I agree with the Pope.
True to form, at least one major network billed this speech as Pope Benedict "Reaching Out to Muslims." He was doing something with Muslims. But he wasn't "reaching out."
Hugh,
Like Robert and you, I am astounded and very disappointed with this declaration of the Pope. Pope Benny, we thought we knew ye.
bummer,
Rebecca
>Like Robert and you, I am astounded and very
>disappointed with this declaration of the Pope.
>Pope Benny, we thought we knew ye.
Just wait for it. Ratzy is slowly building up momentum, but he has to reckon with the catholic world at large, who on the whole, like all major groups of citizens, aren't yet ready and/or willing to face up to the reality of Islam. If he'd come out and denounce Islam like we all wished he would, 90% of the catholic world would think he'd gone of his rockers (and 90% of the vatican would seek to break the record of shortest papacy, no doubt).
But let's put things in perspective:
0) (Because this is before he became Pope) Benedict (when he was still cardinal Ratzinger) published several papers in which he warned against emerging European dhimmitude and te therat of Islam. He has also expressed his displeasure and discomfort with John Paul 2's flirting with Islam.
1) A couple of weeks ago Benedict refused to name Islam a religion of peace when so encouraged by a journalist.
2) He got an invite (and accepted) to a service in the synagogue of Cologne.
2a) He warned specifically about the resurgent antisemitism in Europe, calling for increased vigilance against it (and in Europe it is pretty much understood increased antisemitism isn't caused by bald-shaven 16-year-old white kids. It's muslims).
3) He got an invite to (and rejected) a service in a Cologne mosque.
3a) When meeting the muslim leaders he chose that particular meeting to challenge the muslim leadership to amend their ways.
I'd say that during his visit to Germany he's made it abundantly clear where his sympathies and antipathies lie. The fact it is all so circumspect has IMHO to do with easing the vatican and the entore catholic world into the idea all religions are *not* equal and some are decidedly less benign then others.
Given the state of the western worlds thinking (as opposed to regular Jihadwatch readers thinking) what Benedict did today is a major signal. And given he's been Pope for less then 150 days, I really can't accuse him of biding his time either.
The points made by EJ above are convincing. I don't think the Pope was "reaching out" but trying, most courteously, but sternly, to lay down the law -- the law of simple morality that ought to be, but is not, as he and hundreds of millions of other non-Muslims are discovering, universal. His attitude was clear. He cannot be expected to speak directly and fully about the menace of Islam, in the matter of Sandro Magister or Cardinal Biffi. And he will never speak about Islam, or anything that can be called a "religion," in the way that Ibn Warraq and Bat Ye'or and Ali Sina can allow themselves to talk. But all in all -- despite the terrible moral lapse of omitting Israel from the list of countries affected by terrorism, when it has been its chief victim -- his statement to the assembled Muslims could not have pleased them.
Possibly one is indulgent (a history-laced word to use in this context) because his keen writings, in the pre-papal period of his existence, show that he is thinking about what ails the Western world, and has a grasp of certain matters that need to be grasped. One does not have to embrace all of his views, or the Vatican itself, or Catholicism, or Christianity, or religion, one can even remain an unshakable atheist, and still find most appealing the Pope's civilizational forebodings. He is like Miss Clavel, in Bemelmans' "Madeline," who rushes to the room where Madeline is sitting up in bed, because Miss Clavel senses "that something is not right." And it isn't. Not for Miss Clavel. Not for Pope Benedict. And not for us.
Pope Benedict is on it. He's already handled this issue completely differently than his predecessor Pope John Paul, and pretty deftly too. He wouldn't even meet these Muslim leaders in a mosque, as they requested. Pay attention to what he does!
I'm not aware that John Paul ever publicly brought up the issue of religious persecution of Christians in Muslim countries. Benedict sure has. I hope the Church tackles this one instead of ignoring it or -worse- accepting it (redemptive power of suffering, persecution complex, and all that).
Just because he doesn't use Robert's forthright language doesn't mean he's a clueless ninny.
Considering the cataract of p.c. he has to contend with, a decent beginning.
Unlike the well-known Islamic 'preachers', no ranting, no hatespeech, no conquest-laced venalities. Just a christian call for reason. And a reminder that the Muslim leaders need to encourage their faithful to behave like human beings not human bombs.
Quite decent.
Unfortunately sterner measures are required as the Pope's call for reason can not turn back the tide of this onslaught.
One more remark of Pope Benedict to this audience of self-selected (many Muslims would refuse to meet the Pope) and Turkish Muslims, a remark that deserves to be noted:
"Respect for minorities is a clear sign of true civilization," he said in German.
(The New Duranty Times, August 21, p. 6).
We all know how Muslims are taught to treat non-Muslim minorities. And even if the Pope has not yet read "The Dhimmi," and "Islam and Dhimmitude," and "The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam," all by Bat Ye'or, he, and others around him, will be doing so.
The truth may be suppressed within totalitarian Islam, but it cannot be suppressed outside. And the Internet may help to bring it, in the manner of Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe, deep within dar al-Islam, and to Muslims even more accessible in the Bilad al-kufr. Most will reject that truth, but not all -- and those defectors, one by one, will lend authenticity and legitimacy to those Infidels who from the start were clear-sighted about Islam.
Of course the Muslims in attendance all focused on the need for more "dialogue." They seem not to realize, or would like to pretend that it is not so, that the days of that phony "dialogue" are over. The Pope was speaking to Muslims about what they, Muslims, have to do -- if they can. He spoke of the Muslims' "great responsibilty." He spoke of terorrism as "the darkness of a new barbarism" -- and it was clear that he did not think that terrorism was an equal-opportunity tactic, but rather a specifically Muslm one.
The phoninss, the wilful misreading, of the presumably "moderate" Muslims in attendance was telling.
Ridvan Cakir, president of the Turkish Islamic Committee in Europe, said, rather bizarrely, that "Terrorism is not only a problewm that comes up n countries where there are Christians." This presumably is one way of saying "well, Muslims suffer too from terrorism, just like people in Christian countries." Yes, they do. But in both cases the terrorism is by Muslims pursuing aims prompted by, taught by, Islam. So the remark is pointless, except as a way to deflect attention, just as in London the fact that some Muslims were killed in the subway bombing somehow is used to suggest that terrorism is not just a "Muslim thang." But it is, save for the odd Tamil Tiger or ETA member, whose goals are most limited, whose means tiny, and who, in any case, cannot be said to be prompted by any sacred text or texts.
Cakir, speaking before the Pope's address, gave us more of that "need for dialogue" nonsense that the Pope simply ignored:
"If we can continue to coexist in dialogue, it will send a signal that the theory of a 'clash of cultures' is baseless," he said. "The more religious and cultural communities can learn about one another, the more they will realize that there is no reason for hostility."
This is taqiyya. He cannot be serious. He cannot believe that if non-Muslims really becoe thoroughly acquainted with the contents of Qur'an, Hadith, an dSira, that they will discover that there is "no reason for hostility." The more they learn about Islam -- unmediated and undistorted by apologists, whether Muslim or non-Muslim -- the more Infidels will be horrified by what they learn. The more they study the history of Islamic conquest, and of the subsequent subjugation of non-Muslims, the more horrified they will become. The more they study, even, the Islam-prompted attacks on minorities -- such as the Armenians -- in the Ottoman Empire, the more horrified they will become.
Yet this Turkish Muslim, Mr. Cakir, dared to add a special plea for the admission of Muslim Turkey into the E.U. as part of his little homily before the Pope spoke:
"TRhe process of Turkey's accession toi the European Union is also an important occasion, one that hsould bve judged in this context."
A little geopolitical blackmail, anyone? Let Turkey in, show lack of mistrust for Islam -- otherwise, who knows what will happen, how Muslims will react? Well, Turkey will never ever be admitted into the E.U., as long as Muslim migration is stopped and reversed, so that Muslims within Europe cannot begin to call the political tune. If Mr. Cakir does not understand this, and if furthermore the secularists in Turkey do not understand this, and prepare to blame, not the Christian West, but the insufficient distancing of Turkish "Islam" from the bad old Arab variety (a phony distinction, but one useful in directing popular Turkish rage at Arab and other non-Turkish Muslims in order to bring Islam into greater disrepute, and to further the Kemalist secularizing train that had been derailed, and needs to be put, that choo-choo, back on track).
No, don't worry yet about the Pope. His speech was telling. And so were the comments of the Muslims present.
I agree with Hugh and the rest that Benedict XVI knows very well what the history of Christian and Moslem interaction are. He has studied history. He has had easy access to the Vatican Library for 40+ years. He knows how Arab raiders terrorized and overran Syria, Judaea, Egypt, Spain and Greece, which were all the heartland of Christianity before it retreated to Western Europe under the leadership of Rome. He doesn't need to read Bat Y'eor or Robert Spencer to understand this. Like JP2 he does not hesitate to rebuke those who do wrong. But while JP2 tended to see capitalism and communism as opposite sides of the same coin of exploitation, and restrict his rebukes to representatives of the US and USSR, Benedict XVI seems to also realize that Islam itself has problems, is a problem.
I saw the Pope's meeting on TV. From his body language it was clear that he was simply laying the law for Islam to be considered a civilising force. And there will be no more koran kissing gestures either - a koran was proffered and was promptly taken away by the one of the Pope's aide, the Holy Father didn't even seem to notice. Pretty sly that one hee hee.
EJ, has expressed my sentiments, I have been to Cologne from Spain, I am happy for that. And like they said, the church moves in a good direction, slow that we want, someone, but moves it. And in addition, for solutioning this problem, we must begin, how we have to convert muslims in Europe, where the people majoritily things that all religions are the same, and they´re very tolerant.
Without relativism, islam wouldn´t be a problem, why wahabbism is spreaded now, for the western money that preferred sold his soul.
The Pope is a shepherd for us, the Christ´sheeps. And he needs help. In Bosnia and Ethiopia many places converted to islam because there aren´t priests. It could happen in Europe in the future, in all Western and in Europe is necessary winning the relativism and having more families to having vocations and convert muslims. But without that, is very difficult.
I think that Pope Benedict's actions and comments need to be understood in terms of diplomatic relations - he is after all the head of a state (the Vatican), as well as the head of the Catholic Church.
Clearly his comments and actions have been understood as threatening by those pursuing jihad otherwise there wouldn't have been such an adverse reaction to them from certain Islamist organizations.
Additionally, given the nature of the office which he holds, it is essential that Pope Benedict does not alienate Muslims. Rather like Christ whom he represents, he invites mankind -including Muslims- to realise our full potential in building the civilization of love.