The New Crusade

[kandrathe]

There are violent implications of the latest row between the Pope and entire Islamic world. Is Pope Benedict XVI a bigot, anti-islamic, acting as a defender of the Christian faith, or a theology professor asking profound questions of the world? Will this pope fan the flames of violence between Islam and the rest of the world, or will he bring the leadership of Islamic nations to justify the peaceful nature of Islam and repudiate the violence? My view is that he is playing a pretty cogent and dangerous game of brinksmanship with the islamic world. In some respects, he may be onto a better strategy. We can confront Islamic Extremism head on (resulting in some conflict), or we can sit on our hands watching the flames spread. As Sun Tzu has stated, "The best way to defeat an enemy is to defeat his strategy. The best way to defeat his strategy is to adopt it."

Background: The pope was trying to make the point that in both Christian, and Islamic history there are interpretations that the common God of both faiths is against violence. The Pope's speech It seems that what has infuriated the Islamic world is that the pope selected this particular quote, but did not repudiate the author. So people are left wondering where the Pope's opinion is regarding Manuel Paleologos II.

During a speech on Tuesday at a German university, the pope quoted from a book recounting a conversation between 14th century Byzantine Christian emperor Manuel Paleologos II and a Persian scholar on the truths of Christianity and Islam. "The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," the pope said. "He said, I quote, '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 by the sword the faith he preached'." Benedict did not explicitly agree with the words nor repudiate them, but went on to say that "violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul". The Vatican said the pope did not intend the remarks to be offensive, but sought to draw attention to the incompatibility of faith and violence. From Aljazeera.net

Meanwhile, the Islamic world erupts in an uproar and more violence. Thousands march against the pope's speech.

And you get reactions from people like;

"These Christians are all infidels. Benedict himself is an infidel and a blind man. Doesn't he see that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places were waged by Christians?"

...and Catholic churches are firebombed in Gaza and the West Bank. I just get worried when the tinder is so dry that a spark like a Danish Cartoon, or a reference to a conversation from 600 years ago can ignite WW4. I also came upon another interesting site, JihadWatch.Org, in my research here.