09-23-2006, 01:24 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Apology for what? </b>
Fr Dominic Immanuel
It's difficult in these jihadi times to be a scholar, address controversy. Civilisation is under stress
A Muslim group in Turkey has asked for legal action and the arrest of Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Turkey in November this year. Al Qaeda, true to form, has asked for the Pope's head. In far away Somalia, an elderly Italian nun has been shot dead, allegedly by a man infuriated by the Pope's remarks. The effigies of the Pope were burnt in parts of India, some even asking for capital punishment for him.
All this as a punishment because of a quote from a 14th century Emperor which the Pope used while lecturing to the staff and students of the Regensburg University in Germany on the theme of Reason and Faith on September 12.
No sooner was the news of the reference of a conversation between Emperor Manuel II and a Muslim Persian scholar about six centuries ago by the Holy Father reported by the media, all hell broke loose in the Muslim world. A substantial chunk of media feasted for on the controversy, thereby exacerbating tensions generated by Muslim clerics with a fundamentalist bend of mind. Neither the media in general nor the agitating Muslim groups or individuals cared to find out the whole context of the Pope's lecture or indeed the fact that he was only quoting Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus.
First of all, the Pope was not delivering a lecture on Islam. Nor did he have words for Prophet Mohammed. The Pontiff was exclusively addressing the staff and students of a university where he himself had once taught theology. Here, he was trying to establish the importance of faith for a purely Western audience that is largely driven by arguments based on scientific reason. Before getting into the essence of the argument, the Pope quoted Sura 2: 256 from Quran, "There is no compulsion in religion." For, "violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of soul", he said.
The Pope then quoted the emperor as saying, "God is not pleased by blood, and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death..."
It is in this context that the emperor had said to his interlocutor, an educated Persian Muslim scholar: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith that he preached." The Pope quoted this liberally, as a scholar normally does while presenting an academic paper. There is absolutely no evidence either in his lecture or indeed in his earlier pronouncements to suggest that the Pope endorsed the emperor's views.
He, however, did not realise that his words would be taken completely out of context and that some people would come up, in keeping with the emperor's thesis, with some bizarre and even violent and, therefore, unreasonable reactions.
While the Pope was finally made to apologise, which he, as a humble peace loving servant of God did gracefully, it cannot be denied that His Holiness was not completely off the mark in quoting the emperor on the question of violence in relation to the call of jihad. For, whether it was the 9/11 attack on the WTC or the recent Mumbai blasts or the tearing down of Bamiyan Buddha sculptures or, indeed, the violent reactions at the caricature of the Prophet in a Danish newspaper, they are all related to the call of jihad by certain people giving credence to their image as people prone to violence at the slightest pretext.
In fact, the call of jihadis now to ask for the Pope's head or his arrest in Turkey, in a way supports the emperor's views. Considering the early history of Islam and even the later part when in a conquering spree, they had run over the holy land and reached as far as Spain in Europe, it was the attempt of Muslim kings to demolish Christianity by violent wars.
Not that history of other religions is free from bloodshed, as indeed it is not of Christianity, especially with regard to the crusades - Christians would argue that crusades were undertaken only to free the holy land from the clutches of Muslims. But to continue being violent in the name of jihad is what probably worried the Holy Father while making a passing reference to his scholarly presentation and surely thought that a university would be a good place to begin a debate on the issue of how violence has no part when it comes to 'religion, god and the human soul'.
In fact, if anyone should join issue with the Pope, it should be the people of Western cultures, who by and large, belong to Christian culture. The Pope is quite clearly castigating Western culture saying, "In the Western world it is widely held that only positivistic reason and the forms of philosophy based on it are universally valid. Yet the world's profoundly religious cultures (Pope surely meant Islam here) see this exclusion of the divine from the universality of reason as an attack on their most profound convictions." He goes on to add: "A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of sub-cultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures".
Unfortunately, the voices of those (including mine) who tried to bring this insight to our Muslim brothers and sisters were totally drowned in the din of protest. Hence, one could pose a question to our Muslim neighbours that if on the one hand, the questions raised by the Pope about faith need to be answered by the Western (predominantly Christian) culture, could they also do some soul-searching about the way they often react violently to anything concerning Islam or Mohammed?
Or could the question raised by the emperor and quoted by the Pope not also begin a reasoned debate where those Muslims who do not support violence (I am convinced majority of them do not) stand up and be counted? Would they not, leaving aside for the time being the quote of the emperor used by the Pope, begin, instead of crying foul at every utterance about Islam, to contribute something more substantial for peace?
And where would they find a better partner than in the Pope who is guided by the words of Jesus, so dear to Mahatma Gandhi, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall inherit the Kingdom of God.
(The writer is spokesman of Delhi Catholic Archdiocese)
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Fr Dominic Immanuel
It's difficult in these jihadi times to be a scholar, address controversy. Civilisation is under stress
A Muslim group in Turkey has asked for legal action and the arrest of Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Turkey in November this year. Al Qaeda, true to form, has asked for the Pope's head. In far away Somalia, an elderly Italian nun has been shot dead, allegedly by a man infuriated by the Pope's remarks. The effigies of the Pope were burnt in parts of India, some even asking for capital punishment for him.
All this as a punishment because of a quote from a 14th century Emperor which the Pope used while lecturing to the staff and students of the Regensburg University in Germany on the theme of Reason and Faith on September 12.
No sooner was the news of the reference of a conversation between Emperor Manuel II and a Muslim Persian scholar about six centuries ago by the Holy Father reported by the media, all hell broke loose in the Muslim world. A substantial chunk of media feasted for on the controversy, thereby exacerbating tensions generated by Muslim clerics with a fundamentalist bend of mind. Neither the media in general nor the agitating Muslim groups or individuals cared to find out the whole context of the Pope's lecture or indeed the fact that he was only quoting Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus.
First of all, the Pope was not delivering a lecture on Islam. Nor did he have words for Prophet Mohammed. The Pontiff was exclusively addressing the staff and students of a university where he himself had once taught theology. Here, he was trying to establish the importance of faith for a purely Western audience that is largely driven by arguments based on scientific reason. Before getting into the essence of the argument, the Pope quoted Sura 2: 256 from Quran, "There is no compulsion in religion." For, "violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of soul", he said.
The Pope then quoted the emperor as saying, "God is not pleased by blood, and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death..."
It is in this context that the emperor had said to his interlocutor, an educated Persian Muslim scholar: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith that he preached." The Pope quoted this liberally, as a scholar normally does while presenting an academic paper. There is absolutely no evidence either in his lecture or indeed in his earlier pronouncements to suggest that the Pope endorsed the emperor's views.
He, however, did not realise that his words would be taken completely out of context and that some people would come up, in keeping with the emperor's thesis, with some bizarre and even violent and, therefore, unreasonable reactions.
While the Pope was finally made to apologise, which he, as a humble peace loving servant of God did gracefully, it cannot be denied that His Holiness was not completely off the mark in quoting the emperor on the question of violence in relation to the call of jihad. For, whether it was the 9/11 attack on the WTC or the recent Mumbai blasts or the tearing down of Bamiyan Buddha sculptures or, indeed, the violent reactions at the caricature of the Prophet in a Danish newspaper, they are all related to the call of jihad by certain people giving credence to their image as people prone to violence at the slightest pretext.
In fact, the call of jihadis now to ask for the Pope's head or his arrest in Turkey, in a way supports the emperor's views. Considering the early history of Islam and even the later part when in a conquering spree, they had run over the holy land and reached as far as Spain in Europe, it was the attempt of Muslim kings to demolish Christianity by violent wars.
Not that history of other religions is free from bloodshed, as indeed it is not of Christianity, especially with regard to the crusades - Christians would argue that crusades were undertaken only to free the holy land from the clutches of Muslims. But to continue being violent in the name of jihad is what probably worried the Holy Father while making a passing reference to his scholarly presentation and surely thought that a university would be a good place to begin a debate on the issue of how violence has no part when it comes to 'religion, god and the human soul'.
In fact, if anyone should join issue with the Pope, it should be the people of Western cultures, who by and large, belong to Christian culture. The Pope is quite clearly castigating Western culture saying, "In the Western world it is widely held that only positivistic reason and the forms of philosophy based on it are universally valid. Yet the world's profoundly religious cultures (Pope surely meant Islam here) see this exclusion of the divine from the universality of reason as an attack on their most profound convictions." He goes on to add: "A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of sub-cultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures".
Unfortunately, the voices of those (including mine) who tried to bring this insight to our Muslim brothers and sisters were totally drowned in the din of protest. Hence, one could pose a question to our Muslim neighbours that if on the one hand, the questions raised by the Pope about faith need to be answered by the Western (predominantly Christian) culture, could they also do some soul-searching about the way they often react violently to anything concerning Islam or Mohammed?
Or could the question raised by the emperor and quoted by the Pope not also begin a reasoned debate where those Muslims who do not support violence (I am convinced majority of them do not) stand up and be counted? Would they not, leaving aside for the time being the quote of the emperor used by the Pope, begin, instead of crying foul at every utterance about Islam, to contribute something more substantial for peace?
And where would they find a better partner than in the Pope who is guided by the words of Jesus, so dear to Mahatma Gandhi, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall inherit the Kingdom of God.
(The writer is spokesman of Delhi Catholic Archdiocese)
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