To Pope Benedict XVI
Challenge Islam and Don’t Back Down
By D.W.

Pope Benedict XVI (formerly Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger) ignited a controversy that reverberated throughout the Islamic world and in Western Muslim communities. Members of the “religion of peace” have predictably responded in stereotypical fashion with random violence and kooky demonstrations laced with plenty of inflammatory incendiary chants.

These protesters simply don’t understand that they are in fact confirming some of the Pope’s remarks and prejudices in the minds of many Westerners.

Unfortunately, the Pope vacillated and is now pandering to the Islamists. This retreat is a great disservice to the Church in particular and to Western civilization in general because segments of the Islamic world appear incapable of an intelligent and meaningful response. The Muslim community needs to be challenged morally and intellectually by prominent people like the Pope who will get their attention.

This whole fiasco started with an academic lecture (not a religious sermon) by Pope Benedict XVI at Aula Magna in the University of Regensburg of his native Germany. He cited a quote from the 14th-century Christian Byzantine emperor Manuel II. It read:

“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.”

The Pope repeatedly emphasized that these were not his words but that doesn’t seem to matter; he said them.
 

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Now on a personal level I happen to agree somewhat with emperor Manuel II although I must admit that Islam improved and humanized the Bedouins. The Muslims did indeed convert nations and peoples mostly at sword point although there were exceptions. Christians did the same thing to by the way but not nearly as much and in a much different context. Think about it, Mohammed was both a religious leader and a general while Jesus was definitely not a soldier but was a thorough pacifist.

I think the Pope needs to stop being politically correct and stand up for what he believes.

I don’t know if he is more afraid of angry and violent Muslims around the world or of the cowardly spineless European liberals who always seem eager to appease every fascist and dictator. European countries also have large Islamic minority populations and they don’t like ethnic problems that highlight their failed socialist policies. But to heck with them, ignoring the problem doesn’t make it go away.

Perhaps what angers me the most is that Muslims constantly challenge the West and Catholicism over the Crusades. Well, what do you call the conquest of the Byzantine Empire and Spain; wasn’t that an Islamic crusade?

The Islamic community is being one sided as if they were pure and holy while everyone else is just evil.

The bottom line: if Muslims dish it out, they had better be able to deal with the return fire. However, allowing the hypocrisy of Muslim scholars and pundits to go unchallenged in their intellectual attacks only justifies their argument.

The West and the Catholic Church have acknowledged the wrongness of the Crusades and they have apologized for it. But has the Turkish government apologized for the invasion of the Balkans? Hell, they can’t even admit that they massacred plenty of Armenians about a hundred years ago.

Now I understand that the Pope may be concerned about retaliatory violence against Catholics in Muslim countries and about terrorist attacks against churches (which has already happened) thus it is probably not a good idea for him to be excessively aggressive in his challenges of Islam. However, basing one’s operations out of fear is a terrible way to do business and in the end is counterproductive.

The Islamic world needs to be challenged on an intellectual and moral level because they certainly challenge the West every chance they get.

But if the awful behavior and the threats of violence from the Muslim community goes unchallenged, they will never recognize and admit their own faults, thus how can they ever face up to them. Western societies have dealt with their mistakes, such as what Germany did for Nazism and what the U.S. did with slavery. As for colonialism, that was a bad idea too and European nations have apologized for it and today they provide generous foreign aid.

However, Islamic countries haven’t exactly admitted that they have ever done anything wrong.

When President Bush called Iran and Iraq the axis of evil, he was stating an unpleasant truth, just as President Reagan did with the Soviet Union. We need to put and keep radical Islamic schools of thought on the defensive until they realize the hollowness of their typically violent responses and come up with something better.

These challenges need to come from somebody like the Pope because what he says gets noticed by the Islamic world.

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