I've been seeing headlines on line the past few days about Pope Benedict's comments that pissed off the Muslim world. I read the speech, will admit to some of it going over my head/boring me to tears, but these are the two inciting paragraphs as presented.
( The Pope's Remarks Taken Out of Context )First of all, I don't know why he chose a passage from this work that meant to insult and incite. He mentions himself that there were other conversations, perhaps more involved and showing the shared points between the religions or the benefits of either religion, but we don't hear this from him. Instead, we hear, this is my point, your religion is full of violence and destruction and everything that separates your religion, the teachings of your prophet is wrong, wrong, wrong.
I'm all for condemning war, all for it, and it's nice to know that the Pope & I have that in common (not a whole heck of a lot else, and I like it that way). But so many of the world's wars have been religion based, so why is one of the most powerful figures in Western religion stirring up shit?
Holy war is bad, brought to you by the religion that sponsored the Crusades.
Why is there such a need to focus and exploit the differences between the religion, rather than to see the common threads that bind us all together? Why can't we just see the faithfulness of the people and appreciate that? I don't get it.