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| Olde Tyme Religion |
| Turkish Official Compares Pope to Hitler |
| 2006-09-15 |
| Turkey's ruling Islamic-rooted party joined a wave of criticism of Pope Benedict XVI on Friday, accusing him of trying to revive the spirit of the Crusades with remarks he made about Islam. A party official said the pontiff would go down in history "in the same category as leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini" for his words. The Vatican said the pope did not intend the remarks - made in Germany on Tuesday during an address at a university - to be offensive. 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 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,'" he quoted the emperor as saying. He did not explicitly agree with them nor repudiate them. Turkey's top Islamic cleric, Religious Affairs Directorate head Ali Bardakoglu, asked Benedict on Thursday to apologize about the remarks and unleashed a string of accusations against Christianity, raising tensions before the pontiff's planned visit to Turkey in November on what would be his first papal pilgrimage in a Muslim country. Bardakoglu said he was deeply offended and called the remarks "extraordinarily worrying, saddening and unfortunate." I know I'm stating the blindingly obvious, but even putting jihadists and run-of-the-mill muslim misdeeds aside, islamic theological tenets state that christians (and jooooos) are falsificators who rewrote their own holy books to deviate from the One True Natural Religion (islam, which of course predate every other religions, whatever chronology and common sense tell); in its very essence, islam is a negation and a direct refutation of christianity (no Trinity, Jesus only a *muslim* prophet, no crucifixion), and is a supremacist, hegemonical and expansionnist ideology created from scratches to serve arab imperialism (it's probable old Mo' didn't even exist and is actually a mythical founding father whose biography is a mix of several calife's), more than a religion anyway... so this is VERY rich. On Thursday, when the pope returned to Italy, Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said, "It certainly wasn't the intention of the pope to carry out a deep examination of jihad (holy war) and on Muslim thought on it, much less to offend the sensibility of Muslim believers." Lombardi insisted the pontiff respects Islam. Benedict wants to "cultivate an attitude of respect and dialogue toward the other religions and cultures, obviously also toward Islam," Lombardi said. On Friday, Salih Kapusuz, a deputy leader of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party, said Benedict's remarks were either "the result of pitiful ignorance" about Islam and its prophet, or worse, a deliberate distortion of the truths. "He has a dark mentality that comes from the darkness of the Middle Ages. He is a poor thing that has not benefited from the spirit of reform in the Christian world," Kapusuz blurted out in comments made to the state-owned Anatolia news agency. "It looks like an effort to revive the mentality of the Crusades." "Benedict, the author of such unfortunate and insolent remarks is going down in history for his words. However ... he is going down in history in the same category as leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini," he said. In Beirut, Lebanon's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric denounced the remarks and demanded the pope personally apologize for insulting Islam. "We do not accept the apology through Vatican channels ... and ask him (Benedict) to offer a personal apology - not through his officials - to Muslims for this false reading (of Islam)," Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah told worshippers in his Friday prayers sermon. A Lebanese government official said the country's ambassador to the Vatican has been instructed to seek clarifications on the pontiff's remarks. In neighboring Syria, the grand mufti, the country's top Sunni Muslim religious authority, sent a letter to the Pope saying he feared the pontiff's comments on Islam would worsen interfaith relations. And in Cairo, about 100 demonstrators gathered in an anti-Vatican protest outside the capital's al-Azhar mosque. Pakistan's parliament unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the pope for making what it called "derogatory" comments about Islam, and seeking an apology from him Pakistan's Foreign Ministry also called the pope's remarks "regrettable." "Anyone who describes Islam as a religion as intolerant encourages violence," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said. "What he has done is that he has quoted very offensive remarks by some emperor hundreds of years ago," Aslam said. "It is not helpful (because) we have been trying to bridge the gap, calling for dialogue and understanding between religions." She said Muslims had a long history of tolerance, adding that when the Catholic kingdom of Spain expelled its Jewish population in 1492 they were welcomed by Muslim nations such as the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The head of Britain's largest Muslim body said it was disturbed by the pope's use of a 14th century passage. The Muslim Council, which represents 400 groups in Britain, said the emperor's views were "ill-informed and frankly bigoted." "One would expect a religious leader such as the pope to act and speak with responsibility and repudiate the Byzantine emperor's views in the interests of truth and harmonious relations between the followers of Islam and Catholicism," said Muhammad Abdul Bari, the council's secretary-general. Benedict, who has made the fight against growing secularism in Western society a theme of his pontificate, is expected to visit Turkey for a few days, starting Nov. 28. He was invited by the staunchly secularist Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who said the invitation was part of an effort to strengthen dialogue between religions. On Friday the pope appointed a French prelate with diplomatic experience in the Muslim world as the Vatican's new foreign minister. The new foreign minister - officially called secretary for relations with states - is Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, 54, who was born of French parents in Morocco. |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #16 Remember - TGA knew the Pope and before becomming the pope had him frequently over for dinner. At dinner you tend to talk about things you know about and sometimes even show people what you just read on the internet. Consider TGA was a Rantburg regular. I give even odds the Pope has visited Rantburg a time or two. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2006-09-15 22:01 |
| #15 Bush = The Pope Yer joshing me, DMFD. Bush actually wears a white silk dress? You gotta be kidding! |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-09-15 22:00 |
| #14 1) Bush = Hitler 2) The Pope = Hitler therefore 3) Bush = The Pope |
| Posted by: DMFD 2006-09-15 20:49 |
| #13 I don't know .... Benedict was seen as a deeply conservative theologian before his election to the papacy. The cardinals DID elect him, too, and after 9/11. |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-09-15 20:00 |
| #12 Regrets that he was misunderstood. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-09-15 17:30 |
| #11 Either way, I'm waiting to see if the Pope apologizes. I hope he doesn't but I half expect he will in some way. Personally, I'd love for him to expand on his first statement w/some parallel to "you will know them by their fruits" or some such. As for me, I'd just tell'em to go wipe their ass w/that koran of theirs and hope it don't scratch. |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2006-09-15 16:58 |
| #10 To get into a discussion about categories... Why is Islam listed under "Olde Tyme Religion?" It does claim to be the oldest, but... it isn't. Don't scratch your furry head, Snowman, it's just I think the owner of this place felt like islam somehow belonged in the past (I wonder why), and had some aspect, some would say puritan and fire and brimstone accents, that this writing would evoke with irony. I know you cryptid hominids are a straightforward, honest people, hopping from underground cavern world only to see what's going on among the puny hairlessones, so you may have difficulties understand cranky curmudgeons like the All-Powerfull RB boss, brimming with snark and with 50's pin ups pictures in their wallet. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-09-15 16:57 |
| #9 The truth hurts muzzies!!!!! Damn, that was my first reaction too |
| Posted by: Cheaderhead 2006-09-15 16:42 |
| #8 Endless seething? Boundless outrage? Abject humiliation? We must be doing something right for a change. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-09-15 16:09 |
| #7 To get into a discussion about categories... Why is Islam listed under "Olde Tyme Religion?" It does claim to be the oldest, but... it isn't. |
| Posted by: Abdominal Snowman 2006-09-15 15:08 |
| #6 #3 3dc: "Ask the muzzies to apologize for their behavior." Ask, hell. Do what they do - DEMAND. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-09-15 14:59 |
| #5 Don't apologize. Ask the muzzies to apologize for their behaivor. Exactly. It's way past time we started calling their bluff and taking them to task publicly for the true nature of their ideology. No more of this "hijacking of a great religion" PC twaddle. I'm not Catholic, but I'm glad the Pope is taking point on this. The only other Christians making similar points are always dismissed (sometimes with cause) as fundy Christer nutjobs, while the mainline Protestant Churches are turning Unitarian on this issue. |
| Posted by: xbalanke 2006-09-15 14:09 |
| #4 The Seeething is definitely on. |
| Posted by: J. D. Lux 2006-09-15 13:56 |
| #3 I'm not Cathloic but I say... Fuck-em! Don't apologize. Ask the muzzies to apologize for their behaivor. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2006-09-15 13:46 |
| #2 Ah, the ever reliable Hitler references. Ok, so is it Dems imitating Muzzies or is it muzzies imitating dems.....hmmmmm.....I'm confused. |
| Posted by: mcsegeek1 2006-09-15 13:20 |
| #1 The truth hurts muzzies!!!!! |
| Posted by: Gliper Phereck2334 2006-09-15 12:15 |