Infallibility No guard Against Stupidity

{``But if it truly meant to condemn religiously-motivated violence across-the-board, why didn`t Benedict just cite an example from Christianity`s chequered history. It`s not as if he`d be hard-pressed finding something that way! ``}

Patrick,
Certainly a very powerful, clear, and no-nonsense article that places the blame squarely in the mouth of the Holy Father. :)

The kindest word for Benedict is ``stupid.`` A more appropriate word would be ``diabolical.`` As I said earlier, bring back the decent, gentle, old, and respectful and respectable guy from Poland - youth is so arbitrary and not always a guarantee of prudent behavior. Thanks.

thanks patrick.
for an enlightening article, i personally he shouldn`t have been made a pope with his controversial background. it is an open secret that he was in hitler youth league, as every body knows that`s where top nazi leadership was recruited from, if war had gone in germany`s favour, he might have been herr fuhrer, instead of a pope.

This also helps take the attention away (not that there is much) from Darfur crises. Yesterday, there were demonstrations held in many cities across the world (by world I mean the non-Islamic world). Demonstrations were held from Rwanda to Cambodia, from London to New York… but none in Lahore or Mecca. Here this little 80-year-old moron says something stupid and we have mobs coming out to protest (in the “other” world), million articles written, many Mullahs issue fatwas, and soon there will be movies made of the Pope’s debacle (No Hope in Pope). I say cut the poor old man some slack, and lets prove to the world that Holocaust in the making (over 2 million displaced, 10s of thousands killed, 100s of thousands raped) is not inspired by the good faith of the Sudanese and the Ummah can prevent it for getting to that point.

Good writeup Patrick.

I think Pope had tried to releive some pressure from the Church in US, which was held hostage by the pedophile clergy scandal. It should be an eye opener that in the past 5 years since this pressure was applied on Church for its lack of support in the war on Muslims, no pedphile allegation has been proved in any court of law. One can compare the actions of Pope with that of Canada. After resisting US pressure for 4 years Canada finally gave in and sent its troops to Afganistan. Now it is costing Canada, approximately one soldier a day to be able to sell its cattle, and lumbar to the US.

Yaar Patrick, the apology was adding insult to injury. He regretted the `reaction` to his comments, (as if the Muslims were stupid to have reacted) but `not` the comments themselves. He tried to distance himself, sure, from the comments, but leaves the matter hanging as to why he quoted these in the first place? Did he agree with these comments or didn`t he? Why doesn`t he come out and say whatever`s his conviction? Is he scared? Well .. he shouldn`t be, if he`s a man of God.

And those comments as they were, coming from a defeated byzantine who was eliminated in the attempt on fourth crusade by none other than the Ottoman Turks whose country he is supposed to visit in October.

I mean, Is the Pope stupid; or What?

``Uzr-e-gunaah, b`d-tar Uz gunaah``

Rationalising a sin, is worse than having sinned.

But the muslims can also learn a lot from the the Nusraanis ( Qura`anic word for Nazarenes; the ``christains``) about their culture of charity & forgiveness.

The Q`uraan has exhorted muslims, at more than one place, to get close to the nusr`aanis
for they are kindheartedness and their passion to tend the sick & feeble.

THe maseehees mostly concentrated , throughout history, to put their labours into medicine
& carpentary..in following the sunnat-i-yasooh-maseeh [ jesus--the healer].

The jews, following the sunnat of Moses, the lawgiver, pursued law as their dominant profession over the centuries.

Patrick Masih, my salaams to you.

Kulhay:
Yes, man, you are soo right. Dafur needs the worlds attention more than ever. Thanks for reminding us.

Salim bhai:
You`re right, `stupid` is too kind for the man. But more apt adjectives would have violated chowk`s guidlines. :)

Aslam:
Interesting musing!

Zee:
Yes, I remarked that the apology was really non-apologetic -- as you say, adding insult to injury. I think his silence is statement enough of his conviction, or of some envelop he`s trying to push. He cannot be expected to come clean, though. After all, he does need to exercise some measure of diplomacy, even if he`s disawoved Christianity.

Re: # 6
[...Rationalising a sin, is worse than having sinned...]

Yet that exactly what you muslims do - day in and day out... rationalize your sins, your violence, your depravity... you pull out various ``root causes`` and lay your sins on them...

echo:
Thank you once again -- for continuing to enlighten on the Glorious exhortations.
wa`salaam!

Actually i found the pope`s speech quite well thought out. He has a right 2 his opinions both as an individual & as the head of church w/ a huge following. Hes essentially denouncing violence as a means 2 convert or 2 effect change. Hes most certainly not a crusader type. Hes no george bush or daniel pipes.

DrDr,
I take it you haven`t read the article in it`s entirety. So here`s the part that addresses your contention:

The word from the Vatican yesterday was that “The pope`s lecture was meant as a reflection on the relationship between religion and violence in general, and to conclude with a clear and radical rejection of the religious motivation for violence, from whatever side it may come.”

But if it truly meant to condemn religiously-motivated violence across-the-board, why didn`t Benedict just cite an example from Christianity`s chequered history. It`s not as if he`d be hard-pressed finding something that way!

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PM,

...... this is one of the best written articles i have ever read on chowk ......... first there was obl, then maulana masadi, and now the pope - there is no shortage of bigots and fools in this world ! ............ and there are people out there trying to impeach leaf spinach !

a good take on the subject: Jihad, The Lord`s Supper and Eternal Life

PM, theres this perception (mostly justified) that the religion with closest links to violence is a certain form of islam which is the elephant in the room.

interesting article...thought it was also interesting tht Oriana Fallaci got along with the pope...even though she was an atheist...wonder what their common grounds were then