The Cardinal’s point is well-taken, and one we have made many times here: violent jihad and Islamic supremacism are deeply rooted in the Qur’an, so the only way Muslims could possibly reject them would be to reject Qur’anic literalism — and that is extremely unlikely. And unfortunately, when he says, “There is no worldwide authority who can interpret the Qur’an, so it depends on the person you have in front of you,” he is perhaps unaware that there is a broad consensus (ijma, إجماع, which is a very important concept in Islamic theology) among the schools of Islamic jurisprudence that it is part of the responsibility of the Islamic umma to wage war against and subjugate unbelievers.
“Cardinal urges Muslim leaders to oppose violent jihad,” by Riazat Butt for The Guardian, May 29 (thanks to all who sent this in):
Muslim leaders must be more outspoken about violence in the name of religion, a senior Vatican official urged yesterday.
Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the Pope’s principal adviser on Islam, said that while the majority of Muslim clerics condemned acts of terrorism, they needed to be more vocal about jihad, especially because of its frequent appearances in the Qur’an.
The cardinal made the remarks after a lecture, given in London to an audience of students, Catholic clerics and figures from other religions. It was one of several public appearances during a rare visit to the UK.
He said: “In the Qur’an you have several interpretations of jihad – violent and holy. Most Muslims are condemning war made in the name of religion. The problem is that in the Qur’an you have good and bad jihad, so you choose.
“There is no worldwide authority who can interpret the Qur’an, so it depends on the person you have in front of you. Sometimes you should like religious authorities to be more outspoken about violence in the name of religion. But Muslims believe the Qur’an is the divine word of God, so it is a problem.”
Indeed it is.