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| Home Front: Politix |
| US Muslim group declines to meet pope |
| 2008-04-16 |
| Unease with Pope Benedict XVI's approach to Islam has led a U.S. Muslim group to decline joining in an interfaith event with him later this week. It's all the Pope's fault because he didn't want to convert to Islam. Several other U.S. Muslim leaders expressed similar concerns about the pope, but pledged to participate in the Washington gathering, saying the two faiths should do everything possible to improve relations. Even if it involves showing up only to mitigate the bad press that skipping out would generate. "Our going there is more out of respect for the Catholic Church itself," said Muzammil H. Siddiqi, chairman of the Fiqh Council of North America, which interprets Islamic law. "Popes come and go, but the church is there." Translation: Natter natter natter. Siddiqi, co-chairman of the West Coast Muslim-Catholic Dialogue, is among the Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Jain and Hindu leaders scheduled to meet Benedict on Thursday at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center. Muslims and Roman Catholics each have more than 1 billion followers worldwide. U.S. Catholic and Muslim leaders started holding interfaith talks in the early 1990s, and many of the Muslim leaders invited to the event Thursday are veterans of those discussions. But Salam al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, an advocacy group based in Los Angeles, said the event seemed "more ceremonial than substantive" and his organization would not participate. He said he was disappointed that no time was made in the pope's six-day trip for even a brief private meeting with U.S. Muslim leaders. Boy, I'd sure like to have a public meeting with the Pope. It'd impress the heck out of all my friends. This is the first trip to the U.S. that Benedict has made since he was elected in 2005 to succeed John Paul. He turns 81 on Wednesday. "It would have been a good opportunity for him to have a dialogue," al-Marayati said. No, it would have been a good opportunity for you to have a dialogue. Which you have failed to capitalize on. Again. And somehow it's all the Pope's fault. If you're Muslim, anyway. I'll tell you what: How 'bout you guys host next time? The pope has been praised by supporters for his frankness in approaching Islam and interfaith dialogue in general, but critics have called him insensitive. Insensitive? Strange word coming from a group that kills their own every time they don't agree with something someone else says or does. Muslims in many nations reacted angrily when the pope quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor connecting Islam with violence in a 2006 speech at Germany's Regensburg University. Tensions eased after Benedict traveled to Turkey that same year, visiting Istanbul's famous Blue Mosque. Muslims will continue to call it the Blue Mosque until the last bit of Papal Contamination has been removed, at which point they will call it the Red Mosque. The pope was applauded for organizing a Nov. 4-6 meeting in Rome with Muslim religious leaders and scholars, as part of a push for more dialogue between Catholics and Muslims. Muslims are frantically organizing a reciprocal event. But many Muslims said the pontiff insulted them on Easter Sunday in St. Peter's Basilica, when he baptized Magdi Allam, an Egyptian-born commentator who has criticized what he called the "inherent" violence in Islam. Islamic leaders said the prominence of the ceremony, not the conversion itself, was troubling. Otherwise, they would have had to settle with being upset about the conversion itself. "It's true that some of the gestures, some of the statements make us uncomfortable and we feel badly about it," said Sayyid Syeed, national interfaith director of the Islamic Society of North America, the largest communal group for American Muslims. "But our challenge is to not let those challenges hamper progress." Syeed will attend the meeting Thursday. A challenge doomed to failure. But I digress. Imam Yahya Hendi, a leading advocate of interfaith dialogue and chaplain at the Jesuit-founded Georgetown University, had met John Paul and said he would participate in the interfaith gathering, because "I believe in the power of love and the power of dialogue." Hendi will also be among the thousands of people at a ceremony for the pope Wednesday at the White House. He's discovered quite by accident that lots of infidels react favorably to this kind of crap that was initially meant as a joke, so he uses it. But Hendi said that he and other Muslims were concerned that the pope wasn't visiting a mosque or meeting with leaders who represent the millions of Muslims living in the U.S. "Since he came to office, things have happened that have been used on both sides to build up walls," Hendi said. "I think this could be a good opportunity for Pope Benedict to help people to build bridges." The muslim halves of those bridges have been built and are just waiting for the Christian halves of the bridges to be built. American Muslims are unlike any Islamic migrant community Benedict has encountered in Europe. Many Muslims in the U.S. came for higher education and are now professionals — academics, business people, physicians and engineers — who are settled in the wealthier suburbs. Paragraph is of the auto-snarking variety. They've battled discrimination and intensive government scrutiny following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Yet they have also benefited from American constitutional protection for religious freedom. The U.S. Justice Department, along with civil rights groups that usually represent Jews and Christians, often help Muslims secure their religious rights in the workplace, public schools and elsewhere. Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith Youth Core based in Chicago, said that he was inspired as a boy by the interreligious outreach of the late Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. But he's dead now, isn't he? Patel, a Muslim born in India, said he had no concerns at all about participating in the Washington gathering, even though he wished the Easter conversion hadn't been so public. "I think that we have to find ways to cooperate on important matters concerning the earth, including climate change, reducing disease, reducing poverty, increasing respect," he said. "That's where our focus should be." Yes it should, shouldn't it? But now matter how perfect the Western world could become in this imperfect world, it wouldn't be nearly as perfect as Allan, so I guess you'll always have an excuse for your behavior. |
| Posted by:gorb |
| #7 This means he is free to proselytize and convert without offending anyone on the dais. Go for it, B16. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-04-16 15:10 |
| #6 he finds their lack of faith...disturbing. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2008-04-16 15:02 |
| #5 I bet B16 has trouble sleeping after this...NOT. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2008-04-16 13:56 |
| #4 Oh, he must be heartbroken... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-04-16 13:24 |
| #3 His Holiness doesn't need to use his hands. |
| Posted by: Rambler in California 2008-04-16 13:00 |
| #2 Wussies. They are just afraid the Pope will strangle a couple of them with his bare hands as an example to the rest. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2008-04-16 09:52 |
| #1 Standard moose limb triangulation, cf hamas/fatah/PIJ and blaming others for their own intransigence. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2008-04-16 09:47 |