Last week I reported an incident [1] where it sounded a lot like the Pope was calling Islam "inhuman and diabolical" and comparing it unfavorably with the more reasoned and peaceful Christianity. My original source was an Israeli news source which interpreted the remarks of the Pope similar to the way many Muslims around the world were interpreting them.
Many wrote to defend the Pope's comments as quoting a Byzantine Emperor's remarks not as his own, as advocating reason, not violence, and not being hostile to Islam. The people who defended the Pope's comments are people I respect and in all honesty I tried seeing it their way. I couldn't. No matter how I read the Pope's comments I couldn't see them as being in any way disagreeing with the Byzantine Emperor's comments. That Emperor's comments were critical of Islam for spreading its faith by the sword and the Pope was arguing that religion should not be spread by the sword but rather by reason. This Jesuit-like argument is fine in itself, but my reading of the Pope's comments still sounded like he was saying Islam is a backwards, evil religion because it inherently spreads its faith by violence while the more enlightened Christianity doesn't. I still feel that the Pope's speech was insulting to Islam.
But that still leaves the question of what the Pope INTENDED. There is the possibility that his speech, intended, as one person pointed out, as a rather bookish lecture to a specific audience, intended a more respectful tone to Islam but the Pope's gloss over of the Byzantine quote did not convey that.
The Pope's most recent comments on the incident seem to suggest his intent was better than the results would suggest. From Salon.com [2]:
Pope Expresses 'Deep Respect' for Islam
By DANIELA PETROFF Associated Press Writer
September 20,2006 | VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI said Wednesday that he has "deep respect" for Islam and that he hopes his recent remarks that sparked anger from Muslims lead to dialogue among religions.
Speaking last week at the University of Regensburg in his native Germany, Benedict cited a Medieval text that characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith."
"This quote unfortunately lent itself to be misunderstood," the pontiff said in comments that he repeated in several languages.
"In no way did I wish to make my own the words of the Medieval emperor," he said. "I wished to explain that not religion and violence, but religion and reason go together," he added, drawing applause from the crowd.
On Sunday, Benedict said that he was "deeply sorry" over the reactions to his remarks and that they did not reflect his own opinions. But many in the Islamic world were not satisfied.
I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. However, at a time when religious tensions are at a high point, public figures like the Pope really do have to be careful what they say. When Bush calls the war in Afghanistan a "Crusade," he is, in essence, mirroring al-Qaeda's call for a "Jihad," further inflaming tensions. Similarly, when the Pope quotes someone who calls Islam "inhuman and diabolical," he had better add far more qualifiers on the statement than he did in his original speech. For the record, I do not feel the Muslim anger at the Danish cartoons was justified and was, in fact, largely based on ignorance of the actual cartoons. But Muslim anger at what appeared to be a direct insult, never overtly mitigated in the Pope's original speech, seems justified to me and the Pope's clarification very much necessary.
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