Based on a false premise

The Muslims’ letter to the Pope is not all it seems

Piers Paul Read

20 October 2007

The Muslims’ letter to the Pope is not all it seems

Pope Benedict in particular has called for Islamic countries to show the same tolerance towards Christians as Christians have shown towards Islam. Certainly, there has been an historic enmity between the two religions, but it is now more than 40 years since the decree Nostra Aetate of the Second Vatican Council stated that ‘The Church has . . . a high regard for Muslims. They worship God, who is one, living and subsistent, merciful and almighty, the Creator of Heaven and Earth. . .’ and acknowledge the veneration of Jesus and Mary by Islam. Again in 2001, after visiting the Umayyad Great Mosque in Damascus, Pope John Paul II called for respectful dialogue between the two religions; and in 1998 the same pontiff actually apologised for the Crusades, hoping in vain for a reciprocal apology from Muslims.

Popes do not rule over all Christians but the very size of the worldwide Catholic community makes him a de facto spokesman for Christianity. The problem, as Pope Benedict made clear in his controversial Regensburg address, is that Muslims have no sovereign authority other than the Koran and no Muslim leader dare suggest that some of its shuras should be altered or disowned. ‘From the beginning,’ wrote the Islamic expert Jacques Jomier, ‘Islam had an active warlike character. It acted in accordance with the laws of Bedouin warfare. . . . In the Koran one hears the echoes of that martial activity.’ It would surely have better served the cause of peace if the 138 Muslim scholars meeting in Amman had addressed their remarks to Osama bin Laden, the Iranian ayatollahs, the Saudi King and the young Muslim fanatics here in Britain.

There are many things that Christian leaders may admire and even envy in Islam: the strong faith in God and an afterlife; the strict observances such as fasting during Ramadan; strong families; the nurturing of virtues such as modesty and chastity almost extinct in the West. It is also right that Muslims and Christians could ‘come together on the common essentials of the two religions’ as they have done, for example, on the question of abortion. But there are important differences between the God of the New Testament and the God of the Koran. Allah is one, an indivisible unity; the God of the Christians is a Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit: Jesus, God made man, is not a bolted-on addition to the Yahweh of the Old Testament, and his teaching cannot be reduced to an ethical system, however beneficial that might seem in the short term for the human race.

Previous page 1 | 2 | 3

More articles from: Piers Paul Read | this section

Print this article | Email to a friend | Permalink | Comments (3)

Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Post comment

Dr. Irene Lancaster FRSA

October 21st, 2007 5:16pm Report this comment

All this is pretty obvious and the writer has not even suggested that it is offensive to Jews to leave us out of the equation and to cite Mark without stating that his quote comes from the so-called Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible

marc silver

October 23rd, 2007 4:24am Report this comment

Is the West trying to destroy Islam? No, and Yes, depending on the depth of your viewpoint. It seems nonsensical for Muslims to claim we are attacking them, because on a doctinal level democracies and democrats have no complaint. Westerners don't care what day you worship on, what name you give God, whether you eat port, drink or worship images. On this plane the Muslim charge is absolutely wrong. HOWEVER, Muslims know that doctrine is not at issue in this crisis--- COSMOLOGY IS. By what moral principles shall we run this planet? Is tolerace a virtue or a vice? What is the value of the individual person? What rights do we own at birth? Shall men live according to the demands of external authorities holding scimatars? or by the inner dictates of a congenital conscience founded on the love of life---ALL life? Will we allow families to circumcise their young girls? No. Will we allow brothers to strangle sisters who are rumored to have affairs? No. Will we allow males to rule their women like haram slaves? No. On the level of moral principles we are definitely at war with Islam. The mullah, ayatollas and imams all know the seminal depth of the conflict. The sooner westerners grasp it and adjust our efforts accordingly, the surer will be human survival and fulfillment on this planet

Stephen

October 25th, 2007 1:56pm Report this comment

True but trying telling that to Muslims. It is a sad fact of life that religious groups only remember harm perceived as done to them and remember nothing that their own side does against the others.

Post comment