An increasing number of idiots are coming out of the wood-work to make fools out of themselves over the issue of Pope Benedict's remarks last week. Even amongst other Christians, individuals such as the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Coptic Pope in Egypt are failing to point out that Benedict XVI was not espousing the statement by Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus that vilifies Islam and Mohammed, but rather he was analyzing it and using it as a context within which to start a discussion.
To make matters increasingly disgusting, the Coptic Pope is trying to use this idiotic debacle as an example to demonstrate some form of religious one-upmanship where his denomination is better at reaching out to Muslims than is Roman Catholicism. Even more bizarre perhaps is the response of militant Muslims.
As a response to allegedly having their religion referred to as "evil and inhuman" (the Byzantine Emperor's historic words), a number of hateful and threatening statements have emerged. From the Mujahideen Shura Council (a segment of al-Qaida's Iraqi branch): “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.” There are also a number of reports of militants attempting to show the pope how wrong he is by killing nuns in Somalia, burning churches in the West Bank, chanting "death to the Pope" in Kashmir, and the issuing of this statement on an al-Qaida bulletin board: "We shall break the cross and spill the wine ... God will (help) Muslims to conquer Rome ... (May) God enable us to slit their throats, and make their money and descendants the bounty of the mujahideen."
Now, it should be noted that these are extremists who aren't exceptionally noted for their historic tendency towards rational response. That said, the ironic idiocy of militants taking umbrage at allegedly being referred to as members of a violent religion and responding to this perceived offense by engaging in violence is starting to drive me insane. Obviously, there are intelligent and rational members of both Christian and Muslim communities... they're the ones who are waiting for the controversy to blow over before resuming the dialogue that was happily taking place before the media and the militants showed up.
Posted by Vengeful Cynic at September 18, 2006 04:43 PM | TrackBack