Radical Islam, Benedict XVI and the disrepute of reason

Here is the full text of the pope's speech at the university of Regensburg in Germany on September 12th. I will be commenting on this speech and on the controversy soon.


why-discuss said...

The theological/philosophical views and questioning of the Pope are to be discussed in an open forum in presence of representants of the three judaic religions and not expressed in a discourse in an University . This shows that the Christian Church is forever convinced of its superiority and reinstate the imperialism that has destroyed its legitimacy and credibility with a lot of christians, including me!

عشتار said...

I have to say that a man in the pope's position has to be more than careful in his statements specialy under the current sensitive situation between the west and the east.
however i was reading his speach ,and i beleive that it was somehow misinterpretated , he just qouted some dialogue between some byzantine emperor , who's empire was under othman threat , and a learned persian moslem ,where the emperor wanted to explain the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable.
and in regards to that dialogue the pope says:

". 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".."

and in his discussion he quotes the surah which says that "there is no compulsion in religeon"

In fact i was positively surprised to find that in this speach the pope debates the man's relation with God , if God is absolutely transcendent or his will should be bounded with our rationality.

It could be that there are too many ways how his speach can be interpretated but regardless of its context , it cant be that we lost any language except the language of violence , it cant be that we have no other ways of reaction except violent demonstrations , burning flags cars and churches , threatening to burn Rome and to explode the western capitals...even some of our "intellctuals" rushed to talk about religeous war!!
we see people being killed daily in iraq in the name of Islam ,women stoned to death in the name of Islam , only few weeks ago fanatics cut the head of sudani journalist in the name of Islam and NO ONE is doing anything , not the regime , not the people , not even the intellectuals to stand against those who distort the image of Islam...so how do we expect the world to be protictive and positive to our image if we are destroying it by our own hands?
(Note m not moslem but i say WE because i belong to this people no matter of religion)

Sophia said...

The pope's speech is not innocent. I am still analysing it. However Muslims reactions are becoming more and more problematic. They have to stop whining. It dies not help to play the victim, it only victimises more...especially in the present circumstances.

Martingale said...

We cannot longer tolerate Islam, these people are in the frenzy that they are threatened from everywhere, They immigrate to Europe freely, have more rights than their home countries and they have a problem with us in Europe. This is Europe a land of freedom of speach and it is our right to judge every religion even christainity. If you dont like it take your luggage and GO HOME!!!!!

Since March 29th 2006