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Gold9472
09-16-2006, 11:25 AM
Muslims demand apology from pope

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/09/15/pope.reax.reut/

POSTED: 5:21 a.m. EDT, September 15, 2006

JAKARTA, Indonesia (Reuters) -- Pope Benedict XVI's comments about Islam could hurt religious harmony, government and religious leaders in the world's most populous Muslim countries, Indonesia and Pakistan, said on Friday.

A growing chorus of Muslim leaders have called on the pope to apologize for the remarks he made in a speech in Germany on Tuesday when he used the terms "jihad" and "holy war."

Pakistan's National Assembly, parliament's lower house, unanimously passed a resolution on Friday condemning the pope's comments.

"This statement has hurt sentiments of the Muslims," the resolution said. "This is also against the charter of the United Nations. This house demands the pope retract his remarks in the interest of harmony among different religions of the world."

Islamic scholars say the pontiff's comments show how little he understands Islam and some have said Islamic countries should threaten to break off relations with the Vatican.

The Vatican issued a statement to say the pope had never meant to offend Islam.

In his speech at the University of Regensburg on Tuesday, Benedict quoted criticism of Islam and the Prophet Mohammad by 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who wrote that everything Mohammad brought was evil and inhuman, "such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

Benedict repeatedly quoted Manuel's argument that spreading the faith through violence is unreasonable, adding: "Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul."

"The pope's statements reflect his lack of wisdom. It is obvious from the statements that the pope doesn't have a correct understanding of Islam," said Din Syamsuddin, chairman of Muhammadiyah, the second largest Islamic organization in Indonesia.

Syamsuddin said the remarks could hurt "harmonious" relations between Muslims and Catholics and urged Muslims against reacting excessively.

"Whether the pope apologizes or not, the Islamic community should show that Islam is a religion of compassion," he told Reuters.

Fauzan Al-Anshori, spokesman for the radical Indonesian Mujahedeen Council, said the pope misunderstood Islam and jihad and challenged him to a dialogue.

"Muslims can't eliminate jihad from the Islamic discourse, the same way Christians can't do away with the doctrine of Trinity," he said.

The Vatican press office said in a statement the pope had not intended to carry out an in-depth study of jihad (Islamic holy war or struggle) and Muslim thinking about it, "even less to offend the sensitivity of the Muslim faithful."

Washington's response to September 11, invading Afghanistan and Iraq and tightening civil freedoms as part of a wider "war on terror," has created a widespread feeling among Muslims worldwide that their religion is under attack.

A row earlier this year over Danish cartoons that depicted the Prophet Mohammed deepened the sense of a divide between Islamic culture and the West.

Anshori said the recent surge in Muslim radicalism was a response to America's "crusade" against Muslims.

"We believe in respect for each other, freedom for Muslims to practice Islamic teachings and for Christians to practice their religion," he said.

Pakistan, the world's second most populous Muslim country, echoed Indonesia's sentiment.

"Anyone who says that Islam is intolerant or Islam is spread through use of force shows his ignorance. Islam is a very tolerant religion," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said.

"Statements of this nature are very unhelpful in the efforts that we are making to bridge the gap and promote understanding between different religions."

The head of the Egyptian-based Muslim Brotherhood called on Islamic countries to threaten to break off relations with the Vatican unless the pontiff withdrew his remarks.

A top religious figure in Turkey suggested the pope should reconsider a trip he is planning to Turkey later this year.

In Qatar, prominent Muslim scholar Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi rejected the pope's comments and said Islam was a religion of peace and reason.

Good Doctor HST
09-16-2006, 12:52 PM
What a world we live in. The Roman Catholic Pope can denounce Islam, call it "evil and inhumane", yet when a Protestant singer (Sinead O' Connor), while protesting the Catholic murders of Protestants in Ireland, tore a picture of Pope John Paul II in half on SNL, she becomes Public Enemy #1 and is ostracized. To this day, when that Saturday Night Live show is rerun, they put a picture of a smiling child in her hands instead of the Pope's picture and eliminate the protest altogether. Then, in 1998, she stood up to the Catholic Church again and spoke out on child abuse by Catholic priests in Ireland, and she was consequently shunned and ignored by America again. It's just unbelievable.

Gold9472
09-16-2006, 01:18 PM
Seems to me like he is the "War Pope."

Good Doctor HST
09-16-2006, 09:22 PM
Seems to me like he is the "War Pope."

He's just stepping in place of John Paul, his Holiness, who denounces popularism and supports the Roman Catholic Church whether their priests molest kids, or the U.S. makes any step against Communism or any social plan where the majority of the citizens make decisions....

Partridge
09-17-2006, 12:45 PM
What a world we live in. The Roman Catholic Pope can denounce Islam, call it "evil and inhumane", yet when a Protestant singer (Sinead O' Connor), while protesting the Catholic murders of Protestants in Ireland, tore a picture of Pope John Paul II in half on SNL, she becomes Public Enemy #1 and is ostracized. To this day, when that Saturday Night Live show is rerun, they put a picture of a smiling child in her hands instead of the Pope's picture and eliminate the protest altogether. Then, in 1998, she stood up to the Catholic Church again and spoke out on child abuse by Catholic priests in Ireland, and she was consequently shunned and ignored by America again. It's just unbelievable.

Sorry man, but I gots to correct you on a couple of points here.

1) Sinead is nor never was a Protestant. She has always been a Catholic of one sort or another. At the time of the Pope ripping incident she was still a member of the Roman Catholic Church. As she said her herself - five years later - when asking forgiveness from the Pope, "I was in rebellion against the faith, but I was still within the faith." A little later she became ordained in the Indpendent Catholic Church as a female priest, and was then excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church - which does not allow women priests.

2) The ripping had nothing to do with the violence in Northern Ireland. It was a protest against child abuse within the Catholic Church - these revelations were only beginning to come out in Irish society in the early 1990s. The reason for her 'second shunning' in the late 1990's is outlined above (becoming ordained). It should also be noted that the Catholic Church never endorsed the actions of the IRA or any other violent nationalist grouping in Ireland - in fact, the Church was virulently anti-republican.

thumper
09-17-2006, 12:55 PM
What a world we live in. The Roman Catholic Pope can denounce Islam, call it "evil and inhumane", yet when a Protestant singer (Sinead O' Connor), while protesting the Catholic murders of Protestants in Ireland, tore a picture of Pope John Paul II in half on SNL, she becomes Public Enemy #1 and is ostracized. To this day, when that Saturday Night Live show is rerun, they put a picture of a smiling child in her hands instead of the Pope's picture and eliminate the protest altogether. Then, in 1998, she stood up to the Catholic Church again and spoke out on child abuse by Catholic priests in Ireland, and she was consequently shunned and ignored by America again. It's just unbelievable.fuck off with that liberal bullshit.

Every day some Cleric or Muslim religious leader says kill jews or kill christians or whatever they want and nothing is really said about it as it has really become the norm. And a lot of the time the ones preaching destruction to a particular nation are living in said host European country, while on welfare, while receiving police protection, while probably receiving government subsidies for their mosque too.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/britain_prophet_drawings_llp117.jpeg (http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/wl/020106danishcartoons/im:/060203/481/llp11702031645)

I knew as soon as the Pope's statements were made no matter how many times he apologizes there will be violence.