The quotation that caused all the furor involves a 14th-century dialogue between a Byzantine emperor and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam. The pope quotes the emperor, who says: “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by sword the faith he preached.” Fighting words to be sure, but the pope does not quote them favorably. Rather, Benedict uses the quote to illustrate his deeper point. For Christians, it is always wrong to spread the faith through violence, precisely because of what the Christian faith claims about God. The pope says that “violence is incompatible with the nature of God” because acting against reason is contrary to God’s nature. God is reasonable, not willful or arbitrary.
This may seem like an abstract theological point, but much of our common life hangs on it. By analogy, what if the people who ruled our country were willful and arbitrary? What if they said they were above reason or even acted contrary to it? If they made no pretension to being reasonable, there would be no reason for them to shirk away from threats and violence. —Thomas W. Smith —Pope’s focus: Reason — Its relationship to the divine was the subject of a recent speech that upset some Muslims. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
In my Media Lab class yesterday, I said that I thought journalism wasn’t doing a very good job of covering the reaction in parts of the Islamic world to Pope Benedict’s use of a quotation that contained statements highly critical of Muhammad.
This article, which includes a link to the full text of Benedict’s speech, offers much-needed context and balance. The content of this article is far less striking than photos of livid Muslims burning effigies, but it’s far more important to our understanding of the nature of the issue at hand.
I can no longer find the Philadelphia Inquirer article, but Islamicity linked to the full text of the Pope’s remarks:
https://www.islamicity.org/7702/popes-speech-on-faith-and-reason/
NPR covered the story:
https://www.npr.org/2006/09/15/6084194/popes-remarks-on-islam-violence-spur-anger
This articles covers differences between Benedict (the pope whose speech caused the fuss) and Francis (the current pope).
https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/05/03/why-pope-francis-approach-islam-breaks-mold-benedict-and-previous-popes
“This personal approach has been bolstered by Francis’ consistent refusal to link the Islamic faith per se to terrorism, and has made the Islamic world take notice. | It also meant that when Francis issued one of his strongest and most detailed condemnations of religious violence during his Al-Azhar address, his speech was welcomed and frequently interrupted with applause.”
Yes, that sort of thing makes one’s head hurt!
The first time I saw an article about this, I seriously checked twice to make sure it wasn’t an Onion article. I mean, the headline is something like:
“Pope makes remarks equating muslim religion with violence…muslims threaten violence if he doesn’t apologize.”
This is an example of how people with power and influence must choose their words carefully. I read the speech and at first glance of the quote, even I was offended (granted, not to the point of openly expressing my anger). The Pope had centuries upon centuries of theological tradition to draw upon and he chose this quote to illustrate his point.
Such actions strike me as careless and insensitive. I’m sure the Pope was not intending such interpretations. This reminds me of a point I tried to illustrate (that it’s okay to say unfavorable things about a group of people, but it’s libel if you speak of an individual in the same way).
I wonder how the people who accused me of being unfair for juxtaposing two completely different phenomena would feel about this juxtaposition (which is, by the way, contextually even more unfair).
I’m sure it would be okay because this is the Pope, after all! Who else can call gay marriage a huge “folly” (I see a play on the derogatory French word “folle,” which is almost equivalent to “fag”) without offending anyone? I guess I’m a fool for wanting gays to suffer marriage like everyone else… I want to be a Pope or even just a minister so that I can speak out against anything I want (abortion rights, reproductive rights, gay rights) without fear of criticism. After all, who can argue against someone with power over your afterlife?