Why are the Pope's comments more offensive to Muslims than when a Muslim terrorist claims he is doing Allah's work by killing innocent civilians? Why are the words of an "infidel" (the Pope) more offensive than the deeds of a faithful murderer?
2006-09-16 12:13:37 · 14 answers · asked by Dumaflatchey 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
You have no understanding of the TRUE Muslim faith! Many Muslims have spoken out against the terrorist, they do NOT in any way condone what the TERRORISTS have done. It is so sad and upsetting to see that the entire religion is being attacked based on the actions of a few. I'm not Muslim, but I have many Muslim friends and they are just like everyone else.
And I know for a fact that Christians get upset whenever a non Christian says something about the Christian God. We all get upset whenever someone insults someone or something that we love. For a Muslim, attacking their God would be like someone attacking my mother. I would be extremely upset and I would defend her to my death.
Please do the world a favor and educate yourself on the true meaning and beliefs of Islam.
2006-09-16 12:22:06 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 4⤋
Because a "faithful murderer" is on the extreme fringe of Islam. ALL MUSLIM SCHOLARS condemn terrorism and say suicide is forbidden as well as killing civilians.
the Pope is not an extremist.. HE HAS A HIGH POST.... The highest post in the whole Catholic world. He should be responsible and smart about things.
Ahmedinejad of Iran got toasted for questioning the Holocaust (and I agree, he was very wrong and he should be protested against). Like Ahmedinejad's, the Pope speech really was innacurate and wrong FACTUALLY as well as what it was implying. Its discouraging to see such "pseudo religious study" coming from the head of the Catholic Church.
2006-09-16 12:18:15 · answer #2 · answered by Ibrahim 3 · 4⤊ 2⤋
You're question assumes that all Muslims are terrorists and back people who commit terrible acts of violence on innocent people. But this is like assuming all Catholics molest little kids because a group of priests did. The Pope has the chance to help unite people of all faiths, but instead is choosing to divide them. There are very similar teaching of all the major world religions, however people only want to focus on the differences.
2006-09-16 12:18:01 · answer #3 · answered by bob44554 2 · 4⤊ 2⤋
In a way you answer your own question. The Pope was not talking about Muslim terrorists of today! He was talking about historical Islam. They are not the same at all.
He was reading from a text which was from the period just after Christian crusades in an attempt to capture Muslim territory. Already many Muslims think that we are on a crusade against them so this adds fuel to the fire!
Current Muslim terrorism has its roots in when Britain (and France) colonized many of these countries. It has nothing to do with Muhammed.
Historically Islam was more tolerant than Christianity was. Islam considered Christianity and Judaism as sister and equivalent religions. They were more likely to tax them than to kill them.
It is a very untrue statement and the Pope should know this. I am a Christian, but I did intensive research on Islam from 1988 to 2000 in the framework of my Ph.D. dissertation and have known quiet a few "real" Muslims.
The current political "fundamentalist" Islam with which we are being "plagued" has little to do with historical Islam or what is in the Koran. It is a political ideology based on ignorance of Islam. Jihad or Holy War is waged against oneself to improve one's character and behavior or against pagans - it is about trying to "save" people as Christians would say and not to destroy them. Mohammed was trying to get rid of paganism not Christianity or Judaism which he (accurately) considered fellow Abrahamic and monotheistic religions.
If Jesus is criticized your average Muslim will be much more upset than your average Christian. While they do not consider Jesus the "son of God" they consider him a great prophet.
And, especially for his time and place Mohammed was progressive in his treatment of women. The current abuse of women and scarves have more in common with the Arabian paganism he was fighting than with Islam. It is actually the Bible which says women should cover their heads not the Koran. Veiling is a pagan attempt to protect against "the evil eye".
What's the most tragic about the Pope's recent statement and the supposed current "convert or die" Islamic fundamentalist perspective is that historically Islam was the most tolerant. They wanted people to be monotheist. They were harsh with pagans but pretty tolerant of Judaism and Christianity. They taxed these two more heavily but they didn't convert by the sword as much as Christianity did. In fact, some Protestant Anabaptists hoped the Muslim Turks would invade the Austrian (Catholic) Holy Roman Empire because they felt they would fare better under Muslim than Catholic rule. Not only did Christians chase and burn pagans and the Catholics went after the Protestants (e.g. Holy Roman Empire and elsewhere) and vice versa, the Protestants even had inquisitions against other Protestants (e.g. Switzerland and border areas of Germany such as Constance). And, obviously there were the inquisitions against and forced conversions of Jews, as well. Catholics historically as well as recently have persecuted other Catholics! This is why we have separation of Church and State in the US - many of our ancestors fled these persecutions. When you have a state religion anyone who thinks differently is in trouble!
2006-09-16 13:23:24 · answer #4 · answered by MURP 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The pope spoke about Islam without reading first its scriptures, the Noble Qur'an, and Prophet Muhammad's hadiths, but sufficed to cite a conversation between a Byzantine emperor and a Persian Muslim intellectual," said in a statement, a copy of which was sent to IslamOnline.net.
"The pope forgot that Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) came with a message that struck the right balance between this life and the Hereafter, between individual and society and between rights and duties," he added.
"Everything that Prophet Muhammad brought was good and by far surpassed the things brought by Christianity and Judaism," he continued.
Sheikh Qaradawi said Jihad in Islam is for self-defense and not to impose the Muslim faith on someone and the Noble Qur'an says: "There is no compulsion in religion."
"To say hat Prophet Muhammad brought evil and inhuman things like spreading faith by the sword is either a calumny or pure ignorance, in effect."
And the prominent scholar wondered: "Does the pope want to close the door on dialogue and new crusades to be readied?"
"We hoped that the pope would call for a constructive dialogue between all religions and civilizations to lay to rest clashes and feuds," he said.
Din Syamsuddin, chairman of Muhammadiyah, the second largest Islamic organization in Indonesia, echoed Qaradawi's statements.
"The Pope's statements reflect his lack of wisdom. It is obvious from the statements that the Pope doesn't have a correct understanding of Islam," Syamsuddin told Reuters.
The Pakistani parliament Friday also unanimously called on the pontiff to take back his words.
"This House demands that the pope should retract his remarks in the interest of harmony between religions," said the resolution passed by the National Assembly of the overwhelmingly Muslim country.
Crusade Language
Sheikh Qaradawi wondered: "Does the pope want to close the door on dialogue and new crusades to be readied?"
The comments also stirred anger in India with the head of the National Commission for Minorities saying the Pope sounded like a medieval crusader.
"The language used by the pope sounds like that of his 12th century counterpart who ordered the crusades," said Hamid Ansari, chairman of the National Commission for Minorities.
A member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board also slammed the pope's words, saying they were "nothing but blasphemy," and called on Muslims to "exercise restraint and not lose their cool."
In Turkey, the Anatolian state news agency quoted Ali Bardakoglu, the head of Ankara's Directorate General for Religious Affairs, as describing the Pope's words as "extremely regrettable".
"I do not see any use in somebody visiting the Islamic world who thinks in this way about the holy prophet of Islam. He should first rid himself of feelings of hate," NTV's website quoted Bardakoglu as saying.
Bardakoglu, whose directorate controls all imams in Turkey and sends imams to Turkish communities abroad, recalled atrocities committed by Roman Catholic Crusaders during the Middle Ages in the name of their faith against Orthodox Christians and Jews as well as Muslims.
2006-09-16 16:47:02 · answer #5 · answered by BeHappy 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
exactly!
I for one would like to see them instead of losing their life to kill the innocent use that same passion to take a stand against those in their own religion and put a stop to it.....I would be ashamed of being a part of this religion......they will lose their life to kill for their religions reputation but not to bring reform to it and make it a respected religion......they are truly a religion of hate.....
2006-09-16 12:48:14 · answer #6 · answered by shiningon 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Only Some Do.
They're Not To All Muslims.
Don't Know.
(P.S. Cut Out the Bigotry)
2006-09-16 12:16:40 · answer #7 · answered by Spaghetti MY 5 · 3⤊ 3⤋
When war happens, misunderstandings also occur.
2006-09-17 14:39:31 · answer #8 · answered by Julie S 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
research the 2 religions
by this method you will be able to know why!
2006-09-16 12:19:25 · answer #9 · answered by wise 5 · 2⤊ 2⤋
because they relish in the fact that they can make other religions look evil.
They really seemed to prove the point that there a nonviolent religion right.
2006-09-16 12:17:12 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 4⤋