Muslims Unhappy With Pope’s Address

[FrCorey]

Be Careful!! Jihad Extremists and Muslims do not adhere to the same interpretation of the Koran. What if we had some radical “Christian” interpret the bible passage literally that states,“an eye for an eye, or tooth for a tooth” and act on it for either politcal or personal motivation and gain. Remember, we are talking about the Holy Land, one Muslims also claim for themselves, and what appears to them to be an intrusion of the West on their Land.
You close all open lines of communication when you base extremist ideology behavior on an entire Muslim faith community. DO 1.1 billion Catholics speak out against the genocide in Darfour?? What about that responsibility!

I recall that Pope John Paul II was fully about forgiveness, peace, tolerance, and traversed the world to promote this Biblical Ideology. May we remember!
Peace,
Lisa.

Have you seen the Landover Baptists?
they worship the bible exactly word for word, literally.
landoverbaptist.org/
sort of christian militants?

 

[lrs]

Dear Fr Corey,
What a very odd website. Seems evil.

We can only pray for the greatest commandment to be our center. Love the Lord with all your heart, with all you mind, with all your soul. Love your Neighbor (Your enemies as well) as your self.

Peace,
Lisa

 

[jkatpc]

Have you seen the Landover Baptists?
they worship the bible exactly word for word, literally.
landoverbaptist.org/
sort of christian militants?

They are nuts! But they do exemplify the point I made earlier: they are marginalized by mainline Christians–almost a laughing stock. I showed their website to a Fundamentalist friend of mine, and he thought it was a spoof, like “The Onion.” While we may agree with bits and pieces of their “message,” we also realize that having any legitimate socialization with them would be tantamount to public relations suicide. We don’t, as Christians, want to support (actively or passively) any death to the infidel sect.

 

[jkatpc]

Yes, as Christians we do accept that violence begets violence.I will not for a minute accept that Muslims do not value human life regardless of stated religion of others. Remember we are talking about Extremis
In this nation, do we practice fully our Christian values? What Jesus taught. Think about the fact that we have accepted as part of our law the Death Penalty here, eye for eye concept.
War is not OK!
Peace, Lis

They may value their own lives, and those of their families, but where were the Muslim crowds demanding the release of Daniel Pearle? Where were the liberators of our brutally murdered soldiers? Oh, yeah, I remember. They were chanting their drivel about how Islam does not condone violence. Great. If all of those moderate peace lovers would go next door and drop the dime on the bad guys in their culture, then they would get a nod of approval from me.

 

[lrs]

Yes, they are nuts ( am referring to the Posts about the BaptistLandLovers group), but if they say they have 157 thousand members (if that is even truth) we should stop them. Shouldn’t We?!? Uhmm! What about white supremists, KKK, they have huge numbers. Committed huge crimes against Jews, Blacks, Gays.Torture and Murder, all the while claiming Christianity. What have we done, in pure outrage, to stop them.
I still go back to: What have we done to stop the genocide in various regions of Africa. This thread has really focused on what has the Muslim Faith Community done to stop these extremist. Number one, I am sure more than we know. Number 2, we can fault them for not putting their own lives, the lives of their families, and neighbors at risk by speaking out. But, How many of us Christians do the same!
Blessings,
Lisa

 

[Ridgerunner]

Some commentators have complained about Muslim sensibilities in this regard. But in my view, this sensitivity is a feature of postcolonialism. Muslims were colonized by Western powers, often for centuries, and all that period they were told that their religion was inferior and barbaric. They are independent now, though often they have gained independence only a couple of generations (less if you consider neocolonialism). As independent, they are finally liberated to protest when Westerners put them down

.

Western colonialism indeed. For how many centuries are you going to use that one to excuse the inexcusable? Western colonialism in the Middle East was a tiny moment in time compared to Arab Islamic colonialism of the Middle East and North Africa. “When Westerners put them down” indeed! And what of the deliberate destruction of Christianity in formerly Christian lands? Those people would have been grateful for domination by a group that only called their religion “primitive and barbaric”. What of it right now in Africa, in Palestine, in Lebanon, in Indonesia? Western colonialism was a tiny moment in time compared to your colonization for centuries by your brutal Islamic brothers, the Turks; something the West ended, a deed for which you are not the slightest bit grateful. You do not even acknowledge it. And you know what? I’ll bet you even find a way to excuse Turkish and Persian imperialism. I’ll bet you do.

Your Muslim brothers are blowing each other up at a rate that makes the worst the Western colonialists ever did look like child’s play, and yet you blame Western colonialism for everything and turn a blind eye to the barbarity that is exhibited every single day in the Muslim world and in that part of the world Islam is trying to colonize.

For how long were the Christian Balkans the colonies of Muslims? For how long Christian Spain? For how long southern Russia? Far, far, far longer than Muslim countries were ever the colonies of European powers.

If you want to understand the barbarity of your world, look into your own hearts. Nobody “makes” anyone else evil. Evil is in the heart of the one who does evil, not the fault of some colonial mythology that no longer exists. And what your Islamic leaders are doing is, indeed, evil.

The Catholic Pope did not insult Islam. You know it, and I know it. Islamic clerics and leaders know it. And yet your leaders want to threaten, humiliate and oppress this most gentle man on the face of the earth and with him, all Christians for whom he stands. They want him to grovel to them and apologize for something he did not even do. When all the Muslim leaders publicly acknowledge that those who spoke against him and burned him in effigy are worthy of condemnation, and apologize for those actions, then, and only then, will I think Islam is not barbaric.

 

[Eden]

The Landover Baptist site is satirical. Read it here:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landover_Baptist_Church

Can we please not use satirical websites that supposedly illustrate “Christian extremism” as a distraction to the true danger to all decent people, which is radical Islam.

 

[amcalabrese]

What was the Pope’s point? I see two:

1. There should be no compulsion in religion.
2. Faith must also rely on reason.

If anything, his comments probably were directed at much at Christian fundamentalists here in the US (the folks who think the world is 6,000 years old or claim they have evidence the dinosures and humans lived together) as they were at Moslems.

One must ask the following – if someone is so insecure in their own religion that every real or preceived slight is enough to set off riots and threats of beheadings, maybe the problem is not with the supposed slightor, but with the adherents of that religion.

 

[Brian_C]

I fear as many Christians are taking the Holy Father’s words out of context as Muslims are. This was a simple discussion of the role of reason in the Christian faith, not a warning to Islam, not a call to arms to wake up Christianity, and not a generalization about an entire faith…

He was speaking to a university audience and most certainly wasn’t targeting this to the Muslim “street.” Ratzinger’s books are full of this stuff.

 

[MikeWM]

What was the Pope’s point? I see two:

1. There should be no compulsion in religion.
2. Faith must also rely on reason.

If anything, his comments probably were directed at much at Christian fundamentalists here in the US (the folks who think the world is 6,000 years old or claim they have evidence the dinosures and humans lived together) as they were at Moslems.

I was thinking that too. I unambiguously welcome the point of the Pope’s speech, it makes a lot of sense, and agrees exactly with my view of my faith. I just wish he’d not used such an inflammatory quote. There were less insulting ways of making his point.

Mike

 

[Thekla]

I was thinking that too. I unambiguously welcome the point of the Pope’s speech, it makes a lot of sense, and agrees exactly with my view of my faith. I just wish he’d not used such an inflammatory quote. There were less insulting ways of making his point.

Mike

I think you are correct. He didn’t have to put in such an inflammatory quote and then leave it open as to whether or not he agreed with it.

 

[Eden]

I just wish he’d not used such an inflammatory quote. There were less insulting ways of making his point.

That would be true if he were addressing a general audience but his speech was directed at academics and so the use of historical quotes is, in my opinion, warranted.

 

[Saint_Michael]

I was thinking that too. I unambiguously welcome the point of the Pope’s speech, it makes a lot of sense, and agrees exactly with my view of my faith. I just wish he’d not used such an inflammatory quote. There were less insulting ways of making his point.

Mike

What the Pope said was fine, at least 50 years from now the NY Times can’t write that the Pope was silent during the rise of Islamic facism. Anywhere take a look at the Al Qaida response, see what we’re dealing with:

“We tell the worshipper of the cross (the Pope) that you and the West will be defeated, as is the case in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya,” said an Internet statement by the Mujahideen Shura Council, an umbrella group led by Iraq’s branch of al Qaeda, according to the Reuters news agency.

“We shall break the cross and spill the wine. … God will (help) Muslims to conquer Rome. … God enable us to slit their throats, and make their money and descendants the bounty of the mujahideen," said the statement.”

Religion of peace indeed.

You gotta love these guys showing the world that the Pope spoke 100% truthfully.

 

[prv]

The Vatican are opposed to Turkey’s membership of the EU.

Could this latest speech ahead of his visit to Turkey be part of BXVI’s strategy to engineer responses from the Muslim world exemplifying their hostility and the essential differences between the Islamic World and Western, Christian (even if nominally in many countries these days) Society?

To put it another way, I don’t think this is just an incidental soundbite by Papa, I think this illustrates a change in the Vatican’s engagament with Islam and a determination to illustrate for the West the massive differences between Christ and Holy Mother Church’s message and mission and that of Mohammad and Islam.

I don’t have the article with me, but a few years back one of the Orthodox patriarchs also said something to this effect, “The Turks are barbarians. They should not be allowed to join the family of Christian nations” (circa 2003, by Associated Press, in regard to Turkey in the EU).