I have read the Pope’s address which stirred up so much fuss which seems to be more than many American papers are willing to do.
The obvious question is to wonder about how easily our foes are baited by a very clever pontiff. Is there a radical Moslem with a sense of irony? When they threaten to kill the Pope for “saying” that they are violent, don’t they get a bit concerned about how that appears?
My new idea for capturing Bin Laden is for President Bush to announce that if he does not come out of hiding soon that he is a big, fat scared-y pants. Bin Laden is sure to do it on the same swift reasoning being shown by radicals in the Middle East today.
The second less obvious set of questions hinge on fears about media education when some American papers and reporters are shocked to discover that (perhaps!) the Pope believes Islam is wrong. Next they will be discovering that Catholics send out missionaries to offer people the chance to convert to Christianity and not to Islam! Ever!
My own Orange County Register keeps reporting that the Pope is “under pressure.” From whom? Is the Swiss Guard going to mount a coup? Are the American bishops going to act more sullen? Is the bishop of Los Angeles going to build an ugly cathedral as an act of protest? Does anyone believe BXVI cares that the New York Times doesn’t like him? By golly, he might not win his next election. . . or get a better job!
But most shocking to all newspaper writers is this: His Holiness does not think Islam is true, but he can say it without being a bigot or violent.
This is (it appears) a radical proposition to most of them. . . the head of the Catholic Church considers Islam mistaken? Do Germans invade Poland? Does Vader go to the Dark Side? Do Southern Baptists think the Bible without error? Does Howard Dean hate Republicans? Perhaps, reporters could look into the shocking answers to all these questions.
Of greater interest is Benedict’s reference to one of histories great men: Manuel II Paleologus. The Byzantine Empire was ruled by highly educated men and had an upper and middle class that were highly literate. To the very end of the Empire it maintained a university tradition, created sublime art treasures. . . and deeply influenced their Moslem conquerors right down to the very shape and structure of the mosque.
The Byzantines did not want to be Moslem and their Greek culture was destroyed by force. But then what land in the Middle East fell to Islam through peace?
Here is an important question: how many nations became Moslem through peaceful missions work? How many resisted with all their blood and treasure for hundreds of years only to be conquered?
Christian missions have sometimes been violent, but when it was so it was contrary to the legacy of the Prince of Peace. Islam swept through Christian lands the moment it left Arabia, spread by the sword and only the sword. . . making the majority Christian population second class citizens while looting the cultural legacy of the Christian Byzantine Empire.
Manuel II was a scholar who spent his long life resisting Islamic attacks on his state. He faced several sieges of Constantinople and the breaking of his economy by the invaders. Despite their poverty, the people of the Empire resisted Islam with all their hearts and when he died the nation was still secure.
Because of their weakness, Manuel and other rulers of this era were willing to work with moderate Islamic rulers even to the point of recognizing them as “over-lords.” This was not enough for Islam . . ., which rarely will give up an inch of land, conquered and which destroyed its own moderates to keep the fight going. Sound familiar?
Manuel was a scholar and a diplomat before he was a soldier, but he had watched the previous rulers try to get along with the Turks and fail. Each attempt to reason only led to the loss of more Christian territory and the slaughter of more Christians.
In this modern world, as in the past, there are moderate Moslems. We should encourage them at all cost and remember that in the contest of ideas Christians are not allowed to use bullets except in self-defense or in a just war. We do not spread the faith by force.
But history teaches us that the moderate Moslems do not usually win the internal struggle for the soul of Islam. Perhaps this is because their founder was not a prince of peace, but took up the sword. He was a great man, but he was not the same sort of man as Jesus and this example and dealing with it should be a starting place for inter-faith dialogue done with respect and reason.
Like Manuel we should dialogue (with more tact than he a man under siege could show!), but keep our walls high and our defenses ready. Dialogue has not been promising in the past.