Brusque

Yesterday I posted on the current Pope's commentary about rationality and religion. I specifically avoided the portion of his speech that was supposedly about Islam because I wanted to see what kind of response it would solicit. I was sure that there would be numerous people condemning the Pope's commentary as defamatory to Islam, etc. ad-neuseum. I was not to be disappointed. The NY Times ran an article that featured the following:

“I do not think any good will come from the visit to the Muslim world of a person who has such ideas about Islam’s prophet,” Ali Bardakoglu, a cleric and chief of the Turkish government’s directorate of religious affairs, said in a television interview there. “He should first of all replace the grudge in his heart with moral values and respect for the other.”...

“I don’t think the church should point a finger at extremist activities in other religions,” Aiman Mazyek, president of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, was quoted as saying in the newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Thursday, pointedly recalling the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition and the Vatican’s relations with Nazi Germany.

The French Council for the Muslim Religion demanded that Benedict clarify his remarks. “We hope that the church will very quickly give us its opinion and clarify its position so that it does not confuse Islam, which is a revealed religion, with Islamism, which is not a religion but a political ideology,” Dalil Boubakeur, the council’s president, told Agence France-Press. [back to this in a moment -editor]

In Kuwait, the leader of the Islamic Nation Party, Haken al-Mutairi, demanded an apology for what he called “unaccustomed and unprecedented” remarks.

“I call on all Arab and Islamic states to recall their ambassadors from the Vatican,’’ Mr. Mutairi told A.F.P., until the pope “says he is sorry for the wrong done to the prophet and to Islam, which preaches peace, tolerance, justice and equality.”

“The pope’s statement is highly irresponsible,” said Javed Ahmed Ghamdi, another ranking Muslim, and an Islamic scholar, in Pakistan. “The concept of jihad is not to spread Islam with the sword.”

The Pope's comments were:

Citing historic Christian commentary on holy war and forced conversion, the 79-year-old pontiff quoted from a 14th-century Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologos.

"The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," the pope said. "He said, I quote, '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 the sword the faith he preached."'

Clearly aware of the sensitivity of the issue, Benedict added, "I quote," twice before pronouncing the phrases on Islam and described them as "brusque," while neither explicitly agreeing with nor repudiating them.

"The emperor goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable," Benedict said. "Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul," the pope said, issuing an open invitation to dialogue among cultures.

Now for those of you without a dictionary handy "brusque" means: abrupt and offhand in speech and comes from the Italian word meaning "rude". Therefore while the Pope was quoting a Christian Emperor, he had already noted that the quote was rude. Now if we look at the comment in the context in which it was spoken, then the Pope is condemning two items. Firstly he is condemning the idea that religion is an excuse or valid reason for violence. Secondly he is condemning the blanket statement made by the emperor. On this basis alone, the individuals and organizations in the preceding quotes are basically full of the proverbial bovine excrement.


However; what is also evident here is that there continues to be a historical ignorance and amnesia regarding Islam and it's spread in various parts of the world. Many Muslims are in a state of denial regarding the numerous Jihads (not the internal spiritual kind) that have happened and happen to this day. That not all Muslims do not engage in physical Holy War does not mean that it does not exist nor that it was at any time seen as a valid means to propagate the faith. Therefore the critics want us to believe that the emperor though being rude was making up the whole Jihad thing.

The second thing I noted was the person who attempted to divorce the political aspect of Islam from it's religious aspect. That was clearly an error. Since Islam is conceived as a way of life politics is also the business of Islam. That political Islam stares us in the face in the form of Sharia. Law is by its nature is synonymous with policy. Thus Islamic law is in fact a political arm of Islam and therefore it is incorrect to say that you can separate politics from Islam. That there are Muslims who do not follow or live under Sharia does not negate that Islam has a political expression. So the preceding quote in which a critic wanted to separate Islam from "Islamism" is also full of bovine excrement.

I think that the Popes message regarding the need for rationality in the dialogs between religions and indeed between the religious and the non-religious is on target. I think that there are many people in the Islamic world who are simply uncomfortable with the idea that someone would even question the faith and it's practices. They live in places where other religions are in some cases forbidden by law to proselytize and in other cases where armed "faith minders" can stop people who they deem not adhering to the faith properly.

All in all I think that some Muslims need to chill the hell out. And I say the same thing to over-sensitive Christians who can't take criticism either. Ask yourself this: How many derogatory comments do you hear about Buddhists? Why is that? Can't talk about that which hasn't happened.

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