As a Roman Catholic, I believe  Pope Benedict XVI should extend his apology, by speaking out against the atrocities and mass destruction  committed by coalition forces against Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Lebanon.

I am certain Pope Paul VI would have done so.

             Regards,

                Bennite

I don't think Muslims should demand an apology from the Pope. That is akin to forcing someone to declare something that they do not believe in, while retaining something quite different in their heart. To his credit, the Pope has NOT apologised for what he said. What he DID say, is that he is sorry for the reactions that resulted from his words.

The Pope is a thinking man, and a man of his age and wisdom, does not lightly pick quotations randomly. The quote was picked because it was a lead-in to his speech on faith and reason in religion. The thrust of his argument is that Christianity is reason because Christianity has had the beneficial input of Greek philosophical thought during its early days; Islam do not have this same benefit. The Pope's starting premise is that reason is something exogenous to religion. Sadly, he fails to see that reason is something endogeneous to Islam. Therein, is the difference between the two world religions. This is not about violence in religion because both religions have had their own experience with violence as history adequately shows.....

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Check out my blog! Recent articles include "An Analysis of the Pope's Speech: Islamic Faith is Reason".

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Then why the bedrock of Christianity the "Trinity" is based on totally blind faith & no  reasoning & is 'un-reasonable' & will not take any questioning? On the other hand the "Unity" of Islam is fully reasoned out & argued out in all its aspects in the Prevailing Revelation so one is fully convinced by logical deductive sound  reasoning, now used in science to arrive at a deductive conclusion, & with full insight as to the grounds & the reasons of his belief  & the verifiablity of the logic & soundness of the underlying premises; & the blind following to the contrary based  on without any reasonioning but 'blind following' because their elders did  - so they followed it unquestioningly even if the elders were wrong, is blamed as neglect of  the human faculty of  endowed intellect, a tool with which humanity is fitted with, to find the right & correct path in this life-of-test for the eternity of tomorrow. Science by itself cannot reach to God, because He does not live in a lab but on His Throne, out of reach of the humanity, above His Creation. He is one of a kind only. There is none like Him. He can only create & no on besides Him can create anything. He has created everything. Being the Sole Creater, He is the only One rightfully worth worshipable & no on besides Him. He is ET(Extra-territorial). He has delivered a final & a last  prevailing message to humanity 1400 years ago that He is Living & on His Throne & death doesnot overtake Him. He has described himself in the message & what He likes & dislikes & how one can please Him so He can please with His Reward in kind. How He is going to judge the humanity at the end of this life-of-test to qualify for the eternal abode tomorrow in the Hereafter. This is the basic message of Islam. Where is the 'evilness' in it? Pope needs to do his basic homework - like a kindergarten he has to learn the ABC's of Islam. It is really appalling - to being a leader of  a most prominent western instituition which has been in contact with Islam since 7th century and he does not know the basics of Islam & he got it totally wrong -  how ignorant he is? Normally a leader is chosen, who is the most-versed in his job or his field. You don't appoint an ignorant person as a captain of ship, or do you? Otherwise God may help his passengers if they don't drown by sinking , they will drown by being shipwrecked!

How can a person call himself/herself a muslim if he/she is not a fundamentalist? Do you know who a fundamentalist is? A fundamentalist is one who believes and follows the basic i.e. basic teachings of Islam in the case of the muslims. In a broader sense, a muslim fundamentalist is the one who follows the teachings of the Quran and Sunnah without influencing it with his/her whims and desire. Therefore, those who call themselves msulims but are not fundamentalists then they are astray. They are not real muslims!

Your living with your Christian family and muslims’ dealings with the combatant jews and Christians [(i.e. those who support fighting Islam and muslims and those who are fighting Islam and muslims) (pope is a combatant Christian)] are two different things. You cannot compare these two issues.

Islam teaches the believers to treat the noncombatant kaafirs with justly and kindly. However, Islam does not teach the believers to live in “peace & harmony” with the kaafirs. Islam commands the believers to either bring them to Islam or subdued them to the Shariah of Allah. Moreover, in the case of the combatant kaafirs [there are many in this forum ], Islam commands the believers to be their enemies. So, if you find me or others acting as enemies to some kaafirs here then know that it is because they are the combatant kaafirs.

My advice to you: You should show your gratefulness to Allah for He has guided you to Islam. Do not lose this guidance by behaving ignorantly or taking on other muslims without proper justification under Islam. Be grateful to Allah and supplicate Him for knowledge and wisdom [i.e. understanding of the Quran and Sunnah] so that you do not wrong your own soul and that of the others.

You are so full of it...

Give me one Koranic verse that justifies the killing of innocent civilians.

Give me one Koranic verse that justifies taking your own life while killing innocent civilians.

And don't forget to include the verse that tells you what happens to those who take their own life.

We encourage all readers to submit their questions and opinions to the live dialogue.

Regards,

MA Team

Hi,

From the deep sense of humanity as well as natural understanding of right thinking  person, we would undoubtedly, belief that pope's statement is not inline with the teaching of Jesus christ as they claim to be following. Pope's statement is completely define his ignorance of the religion of Islam.

Furthermore, If pope really understand his stature in th diginity of christianity he would not have siad such unprove uterances.

Let him understand that he lack the knowledge of Islam. let him Lunch series of researches towards understanding what Islam is and the principal teaching of Islam.

Regards.

Again, as a Roman Catholic, throught the Ages, there have been good Popes. There have been  bad Popes.

The West is currently living in a cultural Dark Age.

The results can be reflected in the leadership, or, lack of.

Pope Benecict XVI, Pres. Bush, PM Blair  more than verify  my claim.

The unfortunate scapegoats  of their failures have been  Muslims.

The Pope did not insult Islam, The thrust of his speech was not to criticize Islam but to promote dialgue and defend his position that rationality and the belief in God are compatible.

Some *** Muslims who expressed their anger at him through violent acts as well as their instigators, at least most of them never read the speech. The instigators of the violence probably did but they were more interested in the exploitation of the inorance of their followers to consolidate their own power among the Muslim faithful.

The main reason I am posting is that it is time for non-Muslims, and even more importantly Muslims to present a united front against these hoodlums who use Islam to cause mayhem. I do not mean to defend the Byzantine part of his speech and I will leave that to experts on Byzantine theology.

But I am defending his right to say what he wants without having to be afraid that another church will be bombed somewhare in the Muslim world. The Pope has good security but that lone Catholic church in the NWFP has almost none.

May be I am "pipedreaming". I don't mean that we all need to rush to defend or to analyze this particular scholarly spech. But we can all unite in our support for freedom of speech.

Even the Pope has the freedom to speak and to say what he wants, even quote from irrelevant medieval texts. And we can also unite, loudly, in our condemnation of violent, unprovoked attacks on churches, embassies and elderly nuns. By "we" I mean here the Muslims and non-Muslims. Silence from Muslims hurts only Islam and Muslims.

 We all claim to be pro-free speech and against gratuitous violence but in the days since the pope's sermon, I don't feel that I've heard them defended in anything like a unanimous chorus.

A lot more time has been spent analyzing what the pontiff meant to say, or should have said, or might have said if he had been given better advice. All of which is simply beside the point, since nothing the pope has ever said comes even close to matching the vitriol, extremism and hatred that pour out of the mouths of radical imams and fanatical clerics every day, all across Europe and the Muslim world, almost none of which ever provokes any response at all from those that would like to see less violence provoked by religion.

When Anjem Choudhary, a well-known extremist in London ,calls, as he did the other day at a rally outside Westminster Cathedral on Sunday for the pope to be "executed" Muslims and non-Muslims should condemn him simultaneously there was not even a whimper from the same sections of the free press and Muslims that demnded an apology from the Pope.

Now I am even more sure that I am having a pipe dream. The day when the White House and General Musharraf can issue a joint statement is surely distant indeed. But if stray comments by non-Muslim leaders are going to inspire regular violence in the Muslim world and even in the Muslim ghettoes of the West, I don't feel that it's asking too much for the responsible Muslims and non-Muslims to quit saying sorry and to unite because it is the future of our children at stake.

The fanatics attacking the pope already limit the right to free speech among their own followers. I don't see why we should allow them to limit our right to free speech.

As-salamu alaikum,

I'm a german muslim and I have to say, that I'm deeply disappointed with the reactions to the Popes speech - with the reactions of muslims in general and the muslim scholars in particular, including Shaikh Qaradawi.
No question, what the Pope said in his speech was wrong, but this is not a reason to organize demonstratios and "anger days", but to organize a christian-muslim conference. All the questions could be discussed there in a sensible way: What is the relation between religion and violence? And: What is the relation between faith and reason?
As you know, Islam has nothing to fear in this discussions, unlike Christendom.
But instead of this, I have to read, that the International Union for Muslim Scholars cancelled a already planned muslim-christian conference. I really don't believe it! This is the worst thing to do in such a situation.
Do you know that the cited dialogue took place in Ottoman territory and in the house of the muslim scholar? This means, Manuel II. said in the house of a muslim, that our Propet brought only "evil and inhumane things". We don't know of any "anger day" in reaction to this. The reaction of this scholar was only rational argument.
We have such an amazing intellectual tradition in Islam, why don't we revive it, instead of always feeling insulted?
I wish muslims of today had the inner strength of this medieval scholar!
It seems to me, that todays muslims are only ready to react and not to act proactive. And it seems that a lot of people in the Islamic World walked into the trap of Samuel Huntington and his theory of "Clash of Civilizations", which is only there to hide the real reasons of conflicts.
In fact the whole discussion could have been a chance for Islam, but I fear we missed it.
We can do better!

Salam and Ramadan mubarak,
Sanabel

Neddy, you turn my stomach.

There are approximately, 125,000 dead Muslims 'on your president's watch,' and you have the audacity to talk your trash.

Muslim women and children have been raped and murdered by u.s.  sexually perverted 'soldiers.'

Three sovereign nations  have been 'bombed back to the stone age,' by your tattooed, button pushing coward soldiers. Billions of U.S. dollars worth of damage to their infrastructure!!!!

The numbers of killed--or--murdered individuals  by the u.s. government---through manipulators---like yourself---IS UNPRECEDENTED IN HUMAN HISTORY.

GO DIRECTLY TO HELL, WHERE YOU BELONG!!!

Hello! There's one Jewish reaction to the Pope.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=AVN20060926&articleId=3338

why do we care that much about his apology, this former nazie called pope benedictus, did for sure want to hurt de moslims and the islam.

If us muslims were any smart, we schould just ignore this former nazie because all they are about is provocing muslims to do some stupid things, in order to tell people what a crazy people we are and meaby see hes thoughts proven.

The muslims schould be much smarter, and ignore him like he doesnt exists and sure we muslims schouldnt act like we did, we are giving him to much recognision and to much of honor.

Once the christians and jews were one against the islam, and so are they now. we schould read more about our religion because we are warned for this manny years ago.

This isnt surprising me, and it schouldnt surprised us, dialogs are a waste of time and times is short especially for us muslims.We need to unit first in order to make a fist to those pagan nazies from the west!

Dialoge is useless, when christians keep haressing us.

Its the wrong time for starting a dialoge, when our brothers and sisters are getting killed by ur gouvernments and ur jewish ally.Fist we muslims have to start dialoge with our other brothers and sisters muslims, like the shia and others, and the deal with the christians and other pagans.

At this time u have rockets and airplanes, we muslims have stones, and still ur complaining about the muslims.There can be no serious dialoge when the bombs keep falling above islamic territory, simple aint it. 

Crazy folks, its a waste of time because the christians/jews never showed anny respect to muslims and never will in the future, thats why its a waste of time.

oo pls, poor England has to worry about 1 or 2 individuals who meaby want to place some bomb somewhere.Who is playing victim now?What about the thousands of bomb's that felt over Iraq and afghanistan?Its really pathetic to tell us not to act like victim's, while ur gouvernment are victimizing millions of us?

I dont even mention the support the west gave to barbaric leaders in the muslim world in the past and now. In order to provide the west of political support and oil and other wealth.What about the civilian victims made by those barbaric rules?The west gave them support to rule and the militairy support to remain in power, like they did in the midle east and north africa!!All those victims are blaiming the west as hard as they blame the rulers, and is this strange and justivied?This is the main reasson why manny people have to flee there countries, due to this barbaric rulers!

Pls dont tell me u dont know annything about ur racial history of ur coutries, because if the west didnt start to interfere in our politics and countries, not a singel muslim would love to stay with those pork-eating pagans of the west.Are u guys blind, ignorant or just racists, like u westerns showed us in the midel east, indonesia, south africa and so on.

Yeah do what u guys are good at, denial and ignorance, poor brits(get real)

Message was edited by:
Timarzgha

A question, do you see anny mosks in the vatican?

Evidently there is freedom to be **** in christianity also :)

as u like to focus on the lies, and on what every muslim is doing to u, u will be blinded for the truth to see ur own faults.Like someone whos possesed by finding proof for his racial thaughts, to proof hes superiority and to proof that all others who he doesnt like, are barbarians and uncivilised.Well let me tell u there have been muslims in the vatican, but they where eithet forced to conversion or ousted, just read the vatican-rome history books kid.They did that because they think the vatican is a holy site and of huge importance.

The same to saoudie arabia, once the islam gets bigger and bigger by spreading all over the arabian territory, most christians and jews just left, even if noone forced to.Like they do now they see the islam as a danger, so people left by there own, i dont blame them nor i blame annyone else.Why are there christians amoung muslims in libanon, and palestina, and iraq, and egypte and morocco and so onnnnnnnn? If the islam isnt a tollerant religion we would had them killed or forced to conversion, like the so called christians did to us when they invaded our land.All iam saying is u guys have to look at ur selfs first, then u meaby have the right to point a finger to some1 else.But like the quran told us, ur blind people and will remain blind till u find out u cant see no longer the light, because u used to life in the dark.

Manfred12 and co.- If you so desperately want Mosques at the Vatican, start by having Cathedrals built in Mecca and Medina. Start by having the Temple of Solomon built on the Temple Mount. We all know what such plans will result in- more violence from the Muslims.

For you information, Saudi Arabia is one of the most religiously intolerant states in the world. Furthermore, a majority of Muslim states persecute Christians and those Muslims who convert to Christianity- please take time to read objective Human Rights Reports on this. You might find it valuable.

As for the tolerance of Islam during its rise- fictional, really. Christians and Jews were treated as 'Dhimmis'. For those who are not familiar with the term, it means that they were deemed second class citizens who had to pay a tax based on religious discrimination. For those Muslims who are calling for the return to the Caliphate- they mean, let us treat Christians and Jews as second class citizens- if we let them live. If you are not a person of the book i.e. Chritians or Jew, you get killed. Simple formula- really. Recipe for peace.

If Islam does not support violence, why does Islamic Eschatology teach that Muslims will, in the end times, slaughter Jews (in the war for Jerusalem, led by the Al-Mahdi- Islam's end time Guided One)? Muslims are waiting for the Al-Madhi to come and wage war against Christians, Jews and non-believers and then force Islam on the whole world. Recipe for peace.

Will some Muslim- one who is familiar with Eschatology that is- please answer. And before you all shout or rant and rave, I know Islamic Eschatology- having learnt it from Muslims.

A question, do you see anny mosks in the vatican?

They say there no stupid questions, but nobody ever said that some don't come very close.

I do regret the west cant get as much bombs above there land as they do thro above our land.

Ur bombs are legal, our bombs are illegal? no way the west deserve to get a pay back, to bad we dont have the power to do so in huge scale.Who kills deserves to die, the west is killing others like they didt through the centuries, so they deserve to die.Our bombs are a defence an legal, urs are offencive and illegal.But i recon its hard to see the truth, especially if ur ignorant like u are.

salamz...

i just want to know when did Pope Benedict issued an apology..?and where..?

as i know he not yet says "forgive me..." for his previous statement...he just stated his regard on his statement....

and Pope Benedict should and compulsory to issue an apology to all of Muslim...

When this topic comes up, the first thing that is asked...or that is said, is should the Pope apologise.  Nothing in this forum talks about how do we tackle the extreme reactions to the Pope.  
 
Why is that then? 

We keep telling ourselves, even the Qur'an tells us, that Islam, is a peaceful religion.  But somehow, its not portrayed in that way.  The question now isnt about whether the Pope is in the right or wrong.  The question now is how do we as Muslims, tackle this extremism problem and how do we convince the non-believers that Islam indeed is a peaceful religion.

Over the years, its either the Muslim fighting the Jews, Muslims fighting the west, and even...for centuries...muslims fighting muslims.  Isnt it time for us to do something for our religion and for the peace of the world.

If the Pope's quote is taken in it's immediate context, it is clear that he was critical of the quote from the Byzantine Emperor, citing it as an example of how NOT to engage in religious dialogue. 

Why is this ignored, if not to serve some agenda?

Understanding the statement in context makes it clear that the Pope was not insulting Islam, he was criticizing the Emperor who made the statement.

The response to this statement is partially to blame on the media who ignored the context and fanned the flames of controversy just to make a headline.  The remaining response, of outrage & murder & violence by Muslims, is a totally irrational action, unfortunately making the Pope look silly and foolish for critizing the Emperor.

Let's stop comparing the quoting of old sources with injustifiable Muslim savagery.

Western Civilization needs to get a backbone again, and stand up to this rising tide of Muslim hatred, anger, non-contribution, silent endorsement of terrorist acts. If life for you is so bad here in the West, pick any of your glorious civilizations in the Mid-East (or elsewhere). We do not want to live there. But obviously, you want to live where we are, because life is better here, but you are too hypocritical to see that....Go there, I say, to Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, and truly enjoy the freedoms, benefits and superiority that Islam brings. We don't need you. You need us. It's as simple as that. As long as that is the truth, act accordingly, and assimilate, otherwise you have no right to invoke our freedoms, rights, or protections guaranteed under our (Judao-Christian) legal system. We don't need your complaints. We have enough troublemakers here.

I suggest that it would be a good conduct that before we speak our mind about the matter..like what this pope is exhorting about...like the roman catholic church is the true church...about abortion....about terrorism...etc..we should rather first know the history of the Christianity dating back year where the human history was dichotomized in BC/AD, even before Christ himself arrived and delved into human history or equally important also, in the early church years about their historical undertakings that later-on came about to what it is that we see now. And let us not speak adamantly harsh as though we are faultless but rather lets us have a demeanor that embraces humanity in its inner grounding w/c is God, the God that is all that we have, regardless to what religion we are in. These confusions, misinterpretaions, etc.. that we are experiencing these times seems to me a blessing to all of us, that it is the for us to be in dialouge and be gradually united...and for me the beginning of these confusions is the begining of our understanding of the Good itself. Aye, as long as we are humans, we are interconnected to each other, and that we should not condemn each other but rather we be united in serach for the absolute truth that is common to us that is where the reason, faith, and most of all LOVE unites...in God. The pope as well must extend retitutions proper to human justice if he vehemently hurt anyone because eventhough in my experience that I am somewhat right on a certain aspect but still I have hurted the fellings of others, I must too must ask an apology. Lastly let us not aregue, for argumernts are smoothered with emotions. it does not bringforth light but offsprings of hatred. Good Day to all.