ninme

The Telegraph - Islam, like Christianity, is not above criticism

The combination of grievance-nurturing multiculturalism and instant headlines is having a disastrous effect on the worldwide Muslim community. There seems to be no limit to its spokesmen’s willingness to voice outrage; and their messages are then picked up by fanatics who mount appalling attacks on Christians in Muslim countries. When was the last time a Muslim leader apologised for such atrocities?

The truth is that barbaric attacks happen weekly. No wonder that Benedict favours an urgent dialogue with Muslims on the subject of religious violence, rather than the usual touchy-feely exchange of compliments.

Well, he has started a dialogue now, albeit not quite in the way that he intended. And it is essential that it continue. A self-abasing apology from the Pope would have postponed that discussion yet again.

We suspect that Western public opinion is not displeased that Benedict has said the unsayable. Now it is time for other churchmen to tell their Muslim counterparts that, in addition to dishing out criticism, they must learn how to take it.

There’s a rant inside me that ties all this in with John McCain and his whole little torture thing, but all I can do at this point is sputter with rage, so it’ll have to wait.

Update:

LGF - Video: British Islamists Call for Pope’s Execution

I mean, the whole point is to get them to like us, right? Well, why should we want them to like us? Okay, back to sputtering.

Update II:

ABC (Oz) - Pell angers Muslims with defence of Pope’s comments

Nada Roudee, spokeswoman for the Islamic Council of NSW, says Cardinal Pell should look at world history.

“And consider that violence has been a universal phenomenon, it’s not confined to a particular faith,” she said.

Ooh! Good comeback!

Update III:

Sorry, here’s Pell’s actual statement:

Herald Sun - Pope protests ’show violence’ in Islam

(Why does Cardinal Pell get quoted so much in Aussie newspapers? Is it just because the sort of stuff he comments on is more likely to find itself on my screen? In which case, why is it always Cardinal Pell? I’ve never seen anything from any American or Canadian Cardinals, and only the smallest little amount from Cormac Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor.) (I mean, can he really be that fabulous?)

SYDNEY’S Catholic Archbishop has hit out at Muslims protesting over comments by the Pope, saying their reaction shows the link in Islam between religion and violence.

Cardinal George Pell has also labelled the response of some Australian Muslim leaders to the issue as “unhelpful”. …

But Cardinal Pell today backed Pope Benedict, saying the violent reaction to his comments on Islam and violence illustrated his fears.

“The violent reactions in many parts of the Islamic world justified one of Pope Benedict’s main fears,” Cardinal Pell said in a statement.

“They showed the link for many Islamists between religion and violence, their refusal to respond to criticism with rational arguments, but only with demonstrations, threats and actual violence.

“Our major priority must be to maintain peace and harmony within the Australian community, but no lasting achievements can be grounded in fantasies and evasions.”

Dr Pell said it was a “sign of hope” that no organised violence had flared in Australia following Pope Benedict’s comments.

But he said the responses of Australia’s mufti, Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali, and of Dr Ameer Ali, of the prime minister’s Muslim reference group, were “unfortunately typical and unhelpful”.

Good for him. And:

Wheat & Weeds - The Pope Seems To Be Getting What He Wanted

I’m impressed. More “moderate Muslims” have come out of the woodwork in the past 48 hours than in the previous 5 years. Could the press just not find them previously, or are we witnessing the opening of the first chink of debate in the apparently monolithic wall of Islam? Open book has collected dozens of links here and here. I liked this from the rector of a mosque in Marseilles: He’s the Pope.

What do they want him to do? Why would he preach Islam over Christianity?” “Benedict XVI,” he said, “stands up for who he is. Now why can’t Muslims say, ‘”All right, and this is who we are,’ but there’s no need to go into all the polemics.”

Hehe.

Good gracious, even on CBS:

CBS Evening News - freeSpeech: Irshad Manji
Best-Selling Muslim Author Says Pope Was Calling For A Dialogue With The Muslim World

As a faithful Muslim, I do not believe the pope should have apologized. I’ve read what’s been described as his inflammatory speech. Actually, he called for dialogue with the Muslim world. To ignore that larger context and to focus on a mere few words of the speech is like reducing the Koran, Islam’s holy book, to its most bloodthirsty passages. We Muslims hate it when people do that. The hypocrisy of doing this to the pope stinks to high heaven.

Heh.