Beberapa waktu lalu Grek dlm postingnya yg berjudul Paus Masuk Islam dan
disertai himbauan agar yg membaca menyebar luaskan klaim orang2 dungu bhw Pope
Benedict mengundurkan diri dan masuk Islam.
Untuk keseimbangan pendapat aku sertakan artikel mengenai pidato Paus Benedict
yg DIPROTES keras oleh umat Islam karena beliau dlm pidatonya mengritik Islam.
Yg ingin lebih banyak membaca ttg pendapat dia mengenai Islam aku anjurkan
untuk click 'Pope Benedict's speech on Islam' atau 'Pope Benedict's criticism
of Islam'
Gabriella
POPE BENEDICT CRITICIZES ISLAM
(Artinya dia tidak menjadi mualaf)
"Show me just what Muhammad brought that was
new, and thereyou will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command
to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
These
words, expressed six centuries ago by a Byzantine emperor, Manuel II
Paleologus, in dialogue with an Iranian scholar, spur three reflections.
Pope
Benedict XVI offered the above quote, neither endorsing nor condemning it, in
his academic speech, "Faith, Reason and the University: Memories and
Reflections," delivered in German last week in Germany. It
served to introduce his erudite critique of the Western concept of reason since
the Enlightenment.
But did
he have other purposes? The head of the Benedictine order, Abbot Notker Wolf,
understood the pope's quote as
"a blatant allusion to [Iran's President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad." Vatican
insiders told the LondonSunday Times that Benedict "was trying to pre-empt an
aggressive letter aimed at the
papacy by the president of Iran, which was why he cited the debate involving a
Persian."
First
reflection: Benedict has offered elusive comments, brief statements, and now
this delphic quotation,
but he has not provided a much-needed major statement on this vital topic of
Islam. One hopes it is in the offing.
Whatever
the pope's purpose, he prompted the near-predictable furor in the Muslim world.
Religious and political authorities widely condemned the speech, with some
calling for violence.
* In Britain, while leading a rally outside Westminster Cathedral,
Anjem Choudary of Al-Ghurabaa called for the pope "to be subject to capital
punishment."
* In Iraq, the Mujahideen's Army threatened to "smash the crosses in
the house of the dog from Rome" and other groups made blood-curdling threats.
* In Kuwait, an important website called for violent retribution
against Catholics.
* In Somalia, the religious leader Abubukar Hassan Malin urged Muslims
to "hunt down" the pope and kill him "on the spot."
* In India, a leading imam, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, called on Muslims to
"respond in a manner which forces the pope to apologise."
* A top Al-Qaeda figure announced that "the infidelity and tyranny of
the pope will only be stopped by a major attack."
The
Vatican responded by establishing an extraordinary and unprecedented security
cordon around the pope. Further away, the incitement spurred some violence,
with more
likely on the way. Seven churches were attacked in the West Bank and Gaza, one
in Basra, Iraq (prompting this ironic headline at
the "RedState" blog: "Pope implies Islam a violent religion ... Muslims bomb
churches"). The murder of an Italian nun in Somalia and two Assyrians in Iraq
also appear connected.
Second
reflection: this new round of Muslim outrage, violence, and murder has a by-now
routine quality. Earlier versions occurred in 1989 (in response to Salman
Rushdie's novel, The Satanic Verses),
1997 (when the U.S. Supreme Court did not take down a representation
of Muhammad), 2002 (when Jerry Falwell called Muhammad a terrorist), 2005
(the fraudulent Koran-flushing episode), and February 2006 (the
Danish cartoon incident).
Vatican
leaders tried to defuse the pope's quote, as well as his condemnation of jihad
(holy war). The papal spokesman, Federico Lombardi, S.J., said Benedict did not
intend to give "an interpretation of Islam as violent. … inside Islam
there are many different positions and there are many positions that are not
violent." Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the secretary of state,
indicated that the pope "sincerely regrets that certain passages of his
address could have sounded offensive to the sensitivities of the Muslim
faithful."
Then, in
what may be an unprecedented step by a pope, Benedict himself proffered the
sort of semi-apology often favored by those feeling the
heat. "I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few
passages of my address," reads the official Vatican translation into
English, "which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims.
These in fact were a quotation from a medieval text, which do not in any way
express my personal thought."
In the Italian original, however, Benedict says only sono rammaricato, which
translates as "I am disappointed" or
"I regret."
Third
reflection: the Muslim uproar has a goal: to prohibit criticism of Islam by
Christians and thereby to impose Shariah norms on the West. Should
Westerners accept this central tenet of Islamic law, others will surely follow.
Retaining free speech about Islam, therefore, represents a critical defense
against the imposition of an Islamic order.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
Post message: [email protected]
Subscribe : [email protected]
Unsubscribe : [email protected]
List owner : [email protected]
Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[email protected]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
