O ye who believe! Take not into your intimacy those outside your ranks: They will not fail to corrupt you. They only desire your ruin: Rank hatred has already appeared from their mouths: What their hearts conceal is far worse. We have made plain to you the Signs, if ye have wisdom.
(Al-Qur' an, 3:118 Aal-E-Imran [The Family of Imran])
Pope Invites Dialogue With Muslims
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer
Tue Sep 12, 5:17 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060912/ap_on_re_eu/germany_pope_visit
REGENSBURG, Germany - Pope Benedict XVI said Tuesday that Islamic holy war was against God' s nature and invited Muslims to
join in a peaceful cultural dialogue. In a speech at Regensburg University, Benedict made an unusual reference to jihad, or holy war a concept used by today' s Islamic extremists to justify suicide bombings and other attacks.
Benedict' s address was about faith and reason, and how they cannot be separated and are essential for "that genuine dialogue of cultures and
religions so urgently needed today."
Citing historic Christian commentary on holy war and forced conversion, the 79-year-old pontiff quoted from a 14th-century Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologos.
"The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," the pope said. "He said, I quote, ' Show me just what Muhammad 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.' "
Clearly aware of the sensitivity of the issue, Benedict added, "I quote," twice before pronouncing the phrases on Islam and described them as "brusque," while neither explicitly agreeing with nor
repudiating them.
"The emperor goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable," Benedict said. "Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul," the pope said, issuing an open invitation to dialogue among cultures.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the pope was not giving an interpretation of Islam as "something violent" although he said the religion contains both violent and nonviolent strains.
Benedict did not touch directly on the current controversy over Islamic extremism, although it is an issue he follows with concern. Last year in Cologne , Germany
Last week, he told a gathering of Christian, Muslim and Jewish representatives in Italy Turkey
Gerlinde Axmann, a 40-year-old social worker, watched Tuesday' s speech on one of the large screens set up in a square near the cathedral.
"That was a very important start to dialogue with Muslims amid the terrorist threat," she said, calling Benedict' s appeal to reason "a building block toward finding a way to argue with each other without using weapons." "I think it' s very important for him to bring these things up in society," she said. "Muslims aren' t
going to take us seriously until we become conscious of our own values. For example, they take the pope much more seriously than others in the West."
Benedict earlier celebrated Mass for some 230,000 people, the second-largest crowd of his six-day homecoming tour, which ends Thursday. From atop the altar platform, the pope looked over a throng dotted with blue-and-white Bavarian flags and the yellow-and-white Vatican banners.
In discussing faith and reason, Benedict in his sermon at Mass scoffed at the idea of a "mathematically ordered cosmos" without any hand of God. He said this would mean "nothing more than a chance result of evolution." "We believe in God. This is a fundamental decision on our part."
Eva Renz dozed in the sun as she waited for the pope, having been on the road since 3 a.m. with her husband and six children. "His presence is important because he is a representative of Christ," she said. "I brought all the children because it' s important for them to see this huge crowd and all the joy."
Some people turned out in spite of disagreeing with Benedict' s conservative stands such as his opposition to ordaining women and
married men. Machine shop worker Kurt Kellner, 40, came to the Mass but was skeptical about whether Benedict would win him over. "I know his positions, they' re not entirely my opinions. I want to take part in the event," he said, calling Benedict "relatively good" as pope. "He knows how to move people," he said.
In his speech at the university, where he once taught theology, Benedict stressed that "a reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures is incapable of entering a dialogue of
cultures." But he assured that his critique of modern reason "has nothing to do with putting the clock back." "The positive aspects of modernity are to be acknowledged unreservedly," he said.
"For to us will be their return; then it will be for us to call them to account." (Holy Quran 88:25-26)
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{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.} (Holy Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all." [Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
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