http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=94748
Pope Benedict XVI
I was reminded of all this recently, when I read the edition by professor
Theodore Khoury (Muenster) of part of the dialogue carried on -- perhaps in
1391 in the winter barracks near Ankara -- by the erudite Byzantine emperor
Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity
and Islam, and the truth of both.
It was probably the emperor himself who set down this dialogue, during the
siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402; and this would explain why
his arguments are given in greater detail than the responses of the learned
Persian. The dialogue ranges widely over the structures of faith contained
in the Bible and in the Koran, and deals especially with the image of God
and of man, while necessarily returning repeatedly to the relationship of
the "three Laws": the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Koran.
In this lecture I would like to discuss only one point -- itself rather
marginal to the dialogue itself -- which, in the context of the issue of
"faith and reason," I found interesting and which can serve as the starting
point for my reflections on this issue.
In the seventh conversation ("diálesis" -- controversy) edited by professor
Khoury, the emperor touches on the theme of the jihad (holy war). The
emperor must have known that sura 2:256 reads: "There is no compulsion in
religion." It is one of the suras of the early period, when Mohammed was
still powerless and under [threat]. But naturally the emperor also knew the
instructions, developed later and recorded in the Koran, concerning holy
war.
Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded
to those who have the "Book" and the "infidels," he turns to his
interlocutor somewhat brusquely with the central question on the
relationship between religion and violence in general, in these words: "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."
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Brooks Isoldi, editor
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