09-19-2006, 12:29 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Pope launches battle for Europe </b>
Sandhya Jain
Pushing the envelope firmly while regretting the 'misunderstanding' caused by his discourse on violence in Islam, Pope Benedict XVI has sounded the battle-cry for Christian domination in Europe.<b> His initiative in a speech supposedly about faith and reason at Germany's University of Regensburg vindicates the Western world's political foresight in making Vatican City independent and giving the Pope the status of a Head of State with membership of the United Nations</b>.
Though in reality a borderless suburb of Rome, formal independence gives the Pope parity with world leaders not available to other eminences, such as the Grand Mufti of Mecca, who is a citizen of the Saudi kingdom. This subterfuge has enabled the West to profess secularism and de-legitimise the role of non-Christian faiths in the public life of nations where these are the dominant traditions, while retaining the political presence of Christianity on the world stage.
It is an admirable arrangement. The secular Italian Government is not obliged to dissociate from the Pope's remarks, yet his statements perfectly suit the political needs of his Western co-religionists. Mr. George Bush has designated jihadi violence as "Islamo-fascism", Mr Tony Blair has lambasted the ideology of evil; and German Chancellor Angela Merkel has supported the Panzer Cardinal's critique of a doctrine feared by a Europe softened by post-Second World War prosperity and deculturised by the phony rhetoric of secularism, multiculturalism and the various hues of socialism.
In the provisional text of the impugned lecture released by the Vatican website, the Pope refers to Prof Theodore Khoury's book on a 1391 dialogue near Ankara between Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and a Persian on the truth of Christianity and Islam. They discuss faith in the Bible and Quran, especially the relationship between the Old Testament, New Testament and Quran. The Pope explicitly says he will focus on a marginal point in the dialogue, but of personal interest to him, i.e., holy war.
<b>Pope Benedict XVI quotes the emperor saying Mohammad's doctrine is "evil and inhuman," and that spreading faith through violence is unreasonable as "faith is born of the soul, not the body..." I am at a loss to understand this sudden attack on violent conversion. The Pope is aware that the church uses the most unacceptable forms of violence to convert tribals in several Indian States, most notably Tripura, where gun culture is synonymous with missionaries. Recently, the Catholic-run Loreto Convent in Lucknow called a tantric from Kolkata to conduct a séance in which the spirit of Jesus was to enter his body so he could bless (read baptise and convert) three hundred minors. </b>
Islam is not using the sword in contemporary Europe and America. It is spreading through the population boom among former immigrants; through marriage to European Christians; and by attracting individuals alienated from the West's spiritual vacuum and seeking solace in the structured life of the Islamic ummah. The West cannot overcome its decadence without rolling back the permissiveness with which it is swamping other societies, and so, like secularism and multiculturalism, decadence is a pigeon that has come home to roost.
In this scenario, the West's real dilemma is to retain its ideological, religious and political supremacy in regions where it has been dominant for centuries while denying competing creeds (Islam) the right to challenge this preeminence; and also refusing other faiths the right to remain supreme in their native lands (Hindu dharma in India). It is a tall order, but the political elite of the former colonial countries have decided to pick up the gauntlet.
The Pope indicated as much when he said that the mysterious name of God, conveyed by a burning bush, separated this (Abrahamic) God from all other divinities and created "a kind of enlightenment, which finds stark expression in the mockery of gods who are merely the work of human hands (cf. Ps 115)." Surely this bristles with hatred for non-Christian Gods and peoples. As he proceeds to condemn the "idolatrous cult" of pre-Christian Greeks, it is obvious his version of inter-faith dialogue cannot accommodate image-worshipping Hindus.
<b>According to the Pope, the convergence of Biblical faith and Greek philosophical inquiry gave Christianity, despite its Eastern origins, its historically decisive character in Europe. Coupled with the later addition of the Roman heritage, this is the religio-cultural foundation of what is truly Europe. In other words, the Islamic tradition does not belong to Christian Europe, and is unwelcome there. Interestingly, the Pope decried attempts to move religion and ethics from the collective to the individual domain (out of church reach), though the West constantly exhorts non-Christian communities to keep religion strictly in the private domain</b>.
As in the case of the offensive Danish cartoons, the speech has much to agitate Muslim opinion. Under the chorus of condemnatory voices, however, what stands out starkly is Islam's impotence in taking its Western tormentors to task on any issue critical to its self-esteem and sovereignty. Despite Western military occupation of several Islamic lands, threat of armed action against others, and stooge rulers in most Islamic nations, and repeated provocations against Prophet Mohammad, Europe's radicalised Muslims have failed to compel Western Governments to vacate Islamic lands and treat the community with respect.
One reason is that despite the spectacular massacre of September 2001 in New York (which many Americans say involved administration complicity), Muslims have been unable to terrorise the West with the kind of punishing casualties India has long lived with (eg., Mumbai 1993, 2006). Solitary incidents in Spain (though is affected the election results), Paris, London, or the murder of a controversial film-maker, do not add up to a scenario of psychopathic terrorists on the rampage. Rather, there seems to be a stalemate, with the Euro-Americans uneasy at growing Islamic presence in their hitherto homogeneous societies, and continued Western aggression in Muslim lands.
The Pope sought to end this impasse by instigating European Muslims, to justify a crackdown against them. In India, where Christianity has recruited Islam against the Hindu majority, Muslim leaders are keen to preserve their subordinate status in the crusade. The Congress party fielded a spokesperson to dissociate from the Pope's diatribe, but its Italian Vicerene remained incommunicado. Her Muslim allies need to grill her on her attitude towards the Vatican and Islam. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Sandhya Jain
Pushing the envelope firmly while regretting the 'misunderstanding' caused by his discourse on violence in Islam, Pope Benedict XVI has sounded the battle-cry for Christian domination in Europe.<b> His initiative in a speech supposedly about faith and reason at Germany's University of Regensburg vindicates the Western world's political foresight in making Vatican City independent and giving the Pope the status of a Head of State with membership of the United Nations</b>.
Though in reality a borderless suburb of Rome, formal independence gives the Pope parity with world leaders not available to other eminences, such as the Grand Mufti of Mecca, who is a citizen of the Saudi kingdom. This subterfuge has enabled the West to profess secularism and de-legitimise the role of non-Christian faiths in the public life of nations where these are the dominant traditions, while retaining the political presence of Christianity on the world stage.
It is an admirable arrangement. The secular Italian Government is not obliged to dissociate from the Pope's remarks, yet his statements perfectly suit the political needs of his Western co-religionists. Mr. George Bush has designated jihadi violence as "Islamo-fascism", Mr Tony Blair has lambasted the ideology of evil; and German Chancellor Angela Merkel has supported the Panzer Cardinal's critique of a doctrine feared by a Europe softened by post-Second World War prosperity and deculturised by the phony rhetoric of secularism, multiculturalism and the various hues of socialism.
In the provisional text of the impugned lecture released by the Vatican website, the Pope refers to Prof Theodore Khoury's book on a 1391 dialogue near Ankara between Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and a Persian on the truth of Christianity and Islam. They discuss faith in the Bible and Quran, especially the relationship between the Old Testament, New Testament and Quran. The Pope explicitly says he will focus on a marginal point in the dialogue, but of personal interest to him, i.e., holy war.
<b>Pope Benedict XVI quotes the emperor saying Mohammad's doctrine is "evil and inhuman," and that spreading faith through violence is unreasonable as "faith is born of the soul, not the body..." I am at a loss to understand this sudden attack on violent conversion. The Pope is aware that the church uses the most unacceptable forms of violence to convert tribals in several Indian States, most notably Tripura, where gun culture is synonymous with missionaries. Recently, the Catholic-run Loreto Convent in Lucknow called a tantric from Kolkata to conduct a séance in which the spirit of Jesus was to enter his body so he could bless (read baptise and convert) three hundred minors. </b>
Islam is not using the sword in contemporary Europe and America. It is spreading through the population boom among former immigrants; through marriage to European Christians; and by attracting individuals alienated from the West's spiritual vacuum and seeking solace in the structured life of the Islamic ummah. The West cannot overcome its decadence without rolling back the permissiveness with which it is swamping other societies, and so, like secularism and multiculturalism, decadence is a pigeon that has come home to roost.
In this scenario, the West's real dilemma is to retain its ideological, religious and political supremacy in regions where it has been dominant for centuries while denying competing creeds (Islam) the right to challenge this preeminence; and also refusing other faiths the right to remain supreme in their native lands (Hindu dharma in India). It is a tall order, but the political elite of the former colonial countries have decided to pick up the gauntlet.
The Pope indicated as much when he said that the mysterious name of God, conveyed by a burning bush, separated this (Abrahamic) God from all other divinities and created "a kind of enlightenment, which finds stark expression in the mockery of gods who are merely the work of human hands (cf. Ps 115)." Surely this bristles with hatred for non-Christian Gods and peoples. As he proceeds to condemn the "idolatrous cult" of pre-Christian Greeks, it is obvious his version of inter-faith dialogue cannot accommodate image-worshipping Hindus.
<b>According to the Pope, the convergence of Biblical faith and Greek philosophical inquiry gave Christianity, despite its Eastern origins, its historically decisive character in Europe. Coupled with the later addition of the Roman heritage, this is the religio-cultural foundation of what is truly Europe. In other words, the Islamic tradition does not belong to Christian Europe, and is unwelcome there. Interestingly, the Pope decried attempts to move religion and ethics from the collective to the individual domain (out of church reach), though the West constantly exhorts non-Christian communities to keep religion strictly in the private domain</b>.
As in the case of the offensive Danish cartoons, the speech has much to agitate Muslim opinion. Under the chorus of condemnatory voices, however, what stands out starkly is Islam's impotence in taking its Western tormentors to task on any issue critical to its self-esteem and sovereignty. Despite Western military occupation of several Islamic lands, threat of armed action against others, and stooge rulers in most Islamic nations, and repeated provocations against Prophet Mohammad, Europe's radicalised Muslims have failed to compel Western Governments to vacate Islamic lands and treat the community with respect.
One reason is that despite the spectacular massacre of September 2001 in New York (which many Americans say involved administration complicity), Muslims have been unable to terrorise the West with the kind of punishing casualties India has long lived with (eg., Mumbai 1993, 2006). Solitary incidents in Spain (though is affected the election results), Paris, London, or the murder of a controversial film-maker, do not add up to a scenario of psychopathic terrorists on the rampage. Rather, there seems to be a stalemate, with the Euro-Americans uneasy at growing Islamic presence in their hitherto homogeneous societies, and continued Western aggression in Muslim lands.
The Pope sought to end this impasse by instigating European Muslims, to justify a crackdown against them. In India, where Christianity has recruited Islam against the Hindu majority, Muslim leaders are keen to preserve their subordinate status in the crusade. The Congress party fielded a spokesperson to dissociate from the Pope's diatribe, but its Italian Vicerene remained incommunicado. Her Muslim allies need to grill her on her attitude towards the Vatican and Islam. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->