Ibrahim Malick September 17, 2006

Tags: Islam , christianility , religion , Benedict

Why are Muslim men so overly sensitive?

href="/tag/law">law is now upset), was something that we had become accustomed to as teenagers.

Looking at the reaction of Muslims these days remind me of that erstwhile ‘dulha bhai’. You never know what will upset these hyper sensitive creatures of Allah. You make a cartoon, or make an erroneous statement, or even look at them funny and you will have few hundred bearded men on streets raising fists and burning flags and effigies.

And, without fail the Western media will be there, prominently covering these mullahs, no matter how insignificant the gatherings. Some friends in Pakistan who work for Western media companies tell me that a picture (or video) of irate Mullahs is the hottest running item. Editorial desks will never turn down a story, picture or video (read: sure money for the stringers/ correspondents in Pakistan and elsewhere).

Not that I am condoning the statement of Pope Benedict. But, he is a pope under training and I am willing to give the benefit of doubt to him. I am willing to do that because of what John Paul II stood for and how he conducted himself. In 2001, during a visit to Damascus, John Paul II stepped into a mosque, becoming the first leader of the Roman Catholic world to visit a Muslim house of worship. The event typified the thrust of John Paul’s papacy, which was building bridges between Christianity and other faiths. In 1986 he brought together Jewish, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs and representatives of smaller religions for a day of prayer for peace in Assisi, Italy.

His quest to reach out to other religions did not stop there. In 2004 the Pope reminded a mixed-faith delegation from Azerbaijan: “No one has the right to use religion as an instrument of intolerance, as a means of aggression, violence and death.”

John Paul II was particularly obsessed with cementing ties with Islam. While the Pope denounced terrorism he skillfully avoided the trap of blaming religious militancy for the bloodshed.

Now the bridge John Paul II had painstakingly built is being shaken to its foundations. A wave of anger has spread across the Islamic world over a speech made by his successor, Benedict XVI, in Germany last week. In it, Benedict quoted a 14th-century Byzantine emperor who said the changes introduced by the Prophet Mohammed were “evil and inhuman.” The Vatican has gone into damage-control mode, issuing two “clarifications” to the papal remarks that stopped short of an apology. Benedict himself has said he “sincerely regretted” that he may have offended Muslims, but did not take back his words.

The furor is not expected to subside soon. Over the weekend, Morocco recalled its envoy to the Holy See, and molotov bombs were hurled at two Catholic churches in the West Bank. Protests vilifying the Pope have erupted in Muslim capitals, recalling the violent demonstrations over cartoons satirizing the Prophet Mohammed earlier this year.

The flames of hatred are easy to fan and difficult to extinguish. When the flames are stoked by religious fervor, they are even more dangerous.

The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Turkey gives this astute observation: “When there are so many dangers facing humanity and when there are so many common values and opportunities for cooperation between religions and cultures . . . it is essential not to offend each other and to avoid situations that might hurt each other’s beliefs.”

It is unfortunate that Benedict, who shares John Paul’s call for an interfaith dialogue between Christians and Muslims, has touched off a crisis of dangerous proportions.

At the same time it is unfortunate that Muslims go on acting like dulha bhai’s of the world. Tolerance, may I remind my Muslim brethren, is the core virtue of Islam.