the pope, what on earth was he thinking when he atacked muslims?

Question

and why did he come and pelted muslims and islam with accusations that were not true during the islamic rise to power.

well , as far as history goes , it was the crusaders that killed muslims who did not converet. as for muslims when they took over lands , they gave chrisitans that choices not ot converet or to pay a fee agnist protecting them. and this fee used to go to chairty for those chrisitans who would like to keep their faith but they did not have any money to convert.

amazing , how can a pope come out and say " in a gathering that is supposed to seek harmony among religions " that the bezantian "whatever his name " said tha muhmed only took over the world by force. this bezantine guy was at war with islam , it comes naturally to attack and calim things that are not real.

i have red history and i found what is being done and said as a real distortion of the truth

Answer 1

lot of good wine arround him.I guess he was drunk enough to remember the Bezantian.

Answer 2

This is very reminiscent of Bush using the word “crusade” when we first entered into this mess. The pope is just another politician so it comes as know great surprise. It is very similar to a shyster lawyer planting ideas in a jury’s mindset knowing that the judge will inform the jury to disregard that statement. It’s too late then as the seed has been planted and has already began to root. It appears that there are groups of people that will always continue to sprout hate and prejudice instead of trying to unite the world. Apparently this pope is the exact opposite of the man of peace he pretends to be.

Answer 3

the pope did not "pelt" muslims, his commentary has been taken out of context and misrepresented. His remarks regarding (quoting a seventh century Professor Khoury commenting on speach from another leader facing islamic threats)

"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 he preached". The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable"

Answer 4

I could not agree more. I do not have the detailed information of what happened but, what i know is good enough to realise what a great mistake the Pope has made. I think he should apologise again, this time to the Muslim faith. No one has the authority to stand as a critic of another religion, unless that one is GOD himself. So is the Pope trying to say that he is GOD!?

Answer 5

You folks who are against the pope's statements have serious reading comprehension problems. First of all, he was not addressing muslims as a whole, but the violence of jihad, so for you to state otherwise is gravely mistaken.

Second, pointing out that murder and mayhem inherent in a misguided "religion" is wrong isn't remotely close to claiming one is God, it's demonstrating common sense.
Which you obviously lack, from the distinct glare of your ignorant prejudice.

(Putting on sunglasses.)

Kindly F.O.

Answer 6

i'm not catholic nor am i muslim.... yet i completely stand behind his comments though faith, credence and belief are not my strength (europeans are generally less attached to those things than are amis..)... anyway! His intentions were and still are to trigger an intense dialogue between muslims and the christians... a dialogue concerning utilization and pseudo-jusification of violence in the name of any given religion, prophet or god.
pope ratzinger has set himself the target to persuade those violence-prone people that tolerance and understanding are the key words for a peaceful co-existence of religions.
Ratzinger, as the prior authority of the mighty catholic church, has to make them know that he and his fellows do not agree with the muslims contemptious behaviour... he certainly knew that, citing that medieval text from that byzantine catholic emperor, it would entail such fierce and scathing critics upon him... nontheless, someday he had to take that step anyway!!!

fabian jost, switzerland

Answer 7

He wasnt thinking. The vatican is working hard to spin it but that is only making a bad situation worse. Even though christians claim to take the high road, I think that his statements clearly illustrate (at a very core level) the intolerance that christianity has for islam.

Answer 8

The pope is right. And one again your prove your nothing but a bunch of ruthless killers. A nun real brave.

Answer 9

I guess they'll have to cut off some heads or kill some more nuns to show how non violent they are. I guess just rioting with their rifles and masks on isn't getting the point across.

Answer 10

Here is a link to the English translation of the Pope's controversial speech: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2006/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060912_university-regensburg_en.html

With love in Christ.

Answer 11

He didn't attack Muslims. By way of illustration, in a lecture to other scholars, he quoted a medieval text referring to a debate between the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaeologus and a Persian Muslim:

"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."

As a letter in the Times today says,

"t seems we are in a world wherein one side of the debate has tacit permission to be as inflammatory and venomous as it pleases, while the other must continually genuflect and wring its hands in an apologetic orgy of self-loathing and self-abasement.

"There are those among us who are weary of Western servility in the face of communities at home and abroad which seek to extinguish all criticism of their religion and their culture, while simultaneously -- and with no sense of contradiction -- spitting hatred and a doctrine of destruction in our direction." http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,59-2362591,00.html

Why should there be a double standard, whereby jihadis and islamists can rail against Chritianity, Judaism and the West, and the West has to bow and scrape and apologize for its history and its cultural, technological and economic success?

"Pardon me for living" -- is that what they want to hear as they drive us into the sea?

We know where the real sympathies of many or most Muslims lie. We saw the tapes re-run last week of Palestinians and others cheering as the Twin Towers collapsed. We saw reports of that evil Egyptian TV series propagandizing and giving reborn credence to the Russian fraud, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

It's not just asymmetric warfare we're up against: it's that they want our cake and theirs too -- they want us to be multicultural with the hope on their part that they can, in due course, dominate us in our own lands. But even embassy personnel in Saudi Arabia have to consult in secret with priests and other clergy who visit from time for pastoral reasons.

AND TODAY THE ULTIMATE IN IRONY: the murder of a nun by Muslims protesting a quotation of a 14th-Century opinion that Islam is violent!

Sorry, I'm not fooled, and I'm not servile. There are 1 billion Catholics in the world. They are not to be fooled with, not even by 1.4 billion Muslims.