Pope On Islam

Pope Benedict is visiting his homeland and speaking his mind about the secularism of Europe and the dangers of radical Islam. He is obviously less accomodating to rapprochement with Islam than was John Paul II and in his talks yesterday came close to suggesting that all of Islam, not just its radical elements, is "evil and inhuman:"

He began his speech, which ran over half an hour, by quoting a 14th-century Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologus, in a conversation with a “learned Persian” on Christianity and Islam — “and the truth of both.”

“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 the sword by the faith he preached,” the pope quoted the emperor, in a speech to 1,500 students and faculty.

He went on to say that violent conversion to Islam was contrary to reason and thus “contrary to God’s nature.”

As is violent conversion to Christianity, I would assume he would agree. The Pope, according to the article has been studying Islam:

At the end of that summer, he devoted an annual weekend of study with former graduate students to Islam. In that meeting, and since, he has reportedly expressed skepticism about Islam’s openness to change, given its view of the Koran as the unchangeable word of God.

And why is it that the Catholic church doesn't have women priests? Something about the unchanging word of God, I believe. But what I find interesting about these comments is the Pope's seeming willingness to ignore the history of Christianity and Islam. After all it was during what we call the "dark ages" in a Europe ruled by the holy Roman Empire that Islam flourished as a religion of both revelation and reason. Science, math, medicine, astronomy all made great strides thanks to the work of Islamic scholars. We have many of the Greek classics because they were preserved by Muslim scholars. And even as Europe was coming out of the dark ages, Islam under the Ottoman Empire gave refuge to Jews who were persecuted by Christians and tolerated and protected the Greek Orthodox Church that made its home in the empire.

All of which is to say that there is no reason to believe that Islam is less open to reason or is more inherently dangerous than Christianity to the future of civilization. Any fanatical and intolerant belief system, be it Christian, Islam, or fascist, is dangerous.

We don't need to be encouraging any clash of civilizations or my religion is more enlightened than your religion thinking. We all need to be looking hard at our own faith traditions and working to make them more tolerant, peaceful, and just.