Manufactured Indignation

Several members of the modern ummah have decided to throw another temper tantrum, this time directed at Pope Benedict. These select Muslims apparently feel that the manufactured furor last seen in reference to the Danish Muhammed cartoons needs to be resurrected.

According to CNN:

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

The cited words, taken out of context of a longer speech, are nothing more than a quote of a 14th Century Emperor who was speaking with a Persian during the siege of Constantinople.  In citing this passage, the Pope clearly did not purport to represent his own view of Muhammed. Rather, this story was told in the context of explaining the role of faith in philosophical reason and the role of reason in the Christian faith.  It was also told to explain how discourses on reason prior to the 20th Century necessarily had a faith component; whereas in the modern era, many scholars discuss reason in the absence of faith.

Following the supposedly offensive reference, the Pope follows up with a quotation from Theodore Khoury, the person who translated the discourse of the 14th Century Emperor:

Theodore Khoury, observes: "For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement [that leaders in faith must also be able to lead by reason] is self-evident. But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality."

This quotation by the Pope in his speech might be considered far more offensive to Muslim sensibilities.  It essentially states that while Christianity and Christians are grounded in reason and rationality, Islam, and its conception of Allah, has no connection with reason and is potentially irrational.  However, once again, this is merely a quotation by the Pope in an attempt to define the role of logic and reason in faith and vice versa.  The Pope's speech does not adopt this conception of Islam as his own. 

Despite the fact that Pope Benedict did nothing to criticize Islam or even express any opinion of his own regarding Islam, many Muslims are up in arms (in some cases, literally.) The CNN story notes:

At least one Muslim leader, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the chief cleric of New Delhi's historic Jama Masjid, India's largest mosque, extolled Muslims to "respond in a manner which forces the pope to apologize." He did not elaborate.

Other Muslims have similarly expressed the predictable indignation without obviously having read the speech.  Via Dean's World:

Turkey's ruling Islamic-rooted party joined a wave of criticism of Pope Benedict XVI on Friday, accusing him of trying to revive the spirit of the Crusades with remarks he made about the Muslim faith. A Turkish lawmaker said the pontiff would go down in history "in the same category as leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini" for his words.

Muslim leaders elsewhere in the world also expressed dismay, with Pakistan's parliament unanimously condemning the pope.

I hope and pray that Pope Benedict does not feel any compulsion to apologize.  He clearly did nothing wrong and the more that those in the West refuse to compromise their fundamental beliefs in free discourse and free exercise of religion, the better we'll be in the long term.  Otherwise, we will probably see the following scenario spelled out in The Jawa Report

Next thing you know, they will protest the Pope for stating that Jesus is the Son of God, a blasphemy in the view of Muslim scholars.

There is a certain irony in the Muslim reaction.  The scholar quoted, but not necessarily approved of, by Pope Benedict, believed that the Islamic conception of their religion, unlike Christianity, is not rooted in rationality and reason.  The reaction of some Muslims to the Pope's speech seems to prove the scholar's belief.

-Matthew

Comments

[Brian]

If you call me violent and irrational I am going to F-in kill you!....so goes the discourse on the Muslim side of this "debate"......