The problem is though that Islam is not just another religion, it’s an ideology. It has it’s own laws for example. Is such a thing as the Christian law? English common law and the Napoleonic code are vastly different.
Radical Islam doesn’t want to just kick the Americans out of Iraq, they want to turn Europe into a Caliphate, and they are well on their way.
All the above may be true. But that’s Muslim politics. The Church makes a fine distinction between politics and theology. When the Church expresses admiration or respect for Islam’s theology of God, she is not endorsing Muslim politics. She has made it very clear that she condemns all acts of violence.
The Church does not endorse Israeli politics either. In fact, John Paul II called for the creation of a Palestinian State, because it is the Church’s position that it is only just that every nation have their own state. This was not an endorsement of Palestinian politics. It was an endorsement of justice.
In the case of Islam’s teaching on Allah, the Church agrees that Islam, Judaism and Christianity worship the same God-Head, even though the application in daily life is often very distorted. One has to separate the theological from the political.
A good example was the war in Northern Ireland. The Church never condemned Protestant’s beliefs. It condemned the violence on both sides. As human beings and Catholics, we must condemn all forms of violence, no matter who is guilty. The actions of a believer don’t always reflect the core of the faith.
Catholics have also committed great sins, but that is not a reflection on our theology. It is a reflection on individual’s who either do not fully understand our theology or who are determined to interpret it to support their agenda.
The same happens with Islam and other faiths. What the Church does is speak to the truths that are found in Islam while condemning the violence and the spread of hatred and anger. But at the same time, the Church has also called on the Western world to hold back on its prejudice and injustice. Very few Catholics ever mention this. I don’t know if that’s because the West is predominantly Christian that we feel immune to moral correction or because we have our own agenda and therefore ignore moral correction.
It seems that the correct response is to acknowledge what the Church has already acknowledged about Islam’s teaching on the nature of Allah and denounce all forms of violence in the name of God by any party.
Fraternally,
JR
