(no subject)
I hate to get political on here (or religious for that matter), but perhaps those images of Pope Benedict morphing into Emperor Palpatine weren't so off the mark:
"Quoting a 14th-century Byzantine emperor on Prophet Mohammed, founder of the Muslim faith, the pope said: "He said, I quote, 'Show me just what Mohammed 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.'"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060915/ts_afp/vaticanpopeislam
he also called Istanbul Constantinople, the title the city had 500 years ago. before they were conquered by the Muslim Ottoman Turks. aka, when they were ruled by Christian emperors.
The man is a scholar, trained in the universities and a provoker of debate between his students, and he's dumb enough to say something like that??
I read the quote to Katelyn, and said we have a medieval pope. she responded that the idea to turn to violence over words is also medieval.
I think that misses the point. while I'm only three weeks into my history class on Radical Islam, and I will never purport to be an expert on anything, one thing I've learned is that Islam is not just a religion, it is a way of life. Christianity, for the most part, in this country is something that is practiced on Sundays and in the privacy of our own homes. not so in Islam. it is not just worshiping God, or Allah, five times a day, but it is living by the rules that were set down. our pope calling Islam evil and inhuman, even if he was only decrying the use of violence in jihad, was essentially calling all Muslims evil and inhuman. now *that* is something to protest. yes, riots are not the best way to handle things, but riots occur when people have deep feelings on a topic, and we in the West a)show it other ways and b)have a strong enough government to quel any riots. not so in the Middle East. we can't look at the situation with Western eyes if we want to understand it.
now don't misunderstand me and think I'm agreeing with terrorists or anything. absolutely not. but for the head of the Catholic Church, the most public symbol of Western religion, to say something like that is abhorrent, and he should be made to apologize. we do not need to regress any in our relations with the Middle East- they've been terrible enough over the centuries. considering they didn't pardon Galileo for his views until about a decade ago or allow vernacular services to be held until the 1960s, I think we'll be waiting a long time for that one.
if there is one thing above all else that I can't stand, it is ignorance.
(well, ignorance combined with narrowmindedness is worse)
"Quoting a 14th-century Byzantine emperor on Prophet Mohammed, founder of the Muslim faith, the pope said: "He said, I quote, 'Show me just what Mohammed 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.'"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060915/ts_afp/vaticanpopeislam
he also called Istanbul Constantinople, the title the city had 500 years ago. before they were conquered by the Muslim Ottoman Turks. aka, when they were ruled by Christian emperors.
The man is a scholar, trained in the universities and a provoker of debate between his students, and he's dumb enough to say something like that??
I read the quote to Katelyn, and said we have a medieval pope. she responded that the idea to turn to violence over words is also medieval.
I think that misses the point. while I'm only three weeks into my history class on Radical Islam, and I will never purport to be an expert on anything, one thing I've learned is that Islam is not just a religion, it is a way of life. Christianity, for the most part, in this country is something that is practiced on Sundays and in the privacy of our own homes. not so in Islam. it is not just worshiping God, or Allah, five times a day, but it is living by the rules that were set down. our pope calling Islam evil and inhuman, even if he was only decrying the use of violence in jihad, was essentially calling all Muslims evil and inhuman. now *that* is something to protest. yes, riots are not the best way to handle things, but riots occur when people have deep feelings on a topic, and we in the West a)show it other ways and b)have a strong enough government to quel any riots. not so in the Middle East. we can't look at the situation with Western eyes if we want to understand it.
now don't misunderstand me and think I'm agreeing with terrorists or anything. absolutely not. but for the head of the Catholic Church, the most public symbol of Western religion, to say something like that is abhorrent, and he should be made to apologize. we do not need to regress any in our relations with the Middle East- they've been terrible enough over the centuries. considering they didn't pardon Galileo for his views until about a decade ago or allow vernacular services to be held until the 1960s, I think we'll be waiting a long time for that one.
if there is one thing above all else that I can't stand, it is ignorance.
(well, ignorance combined with narrowmindedness is worse)