Faith, reason and violence
There’s a lot out there covering the whole Pope Benedict Regensburg address and the violence that erupted from the distortion of one line of it. For a thorough, intellectually probing analysis, Sandro Magister has combined the divergent views of two Islamic scholars in this recent article.
He concludes the lengthy piece with this brief but resounding postscript:
Among the Muslim reactions to Benedict XVI’s address in Regensburg, one in particular must be pointed out: that of the grand ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, the most authoritative and respected guide in Shiite Islam, in Iraq and elsewhere.
The secretary of the Vatican nunciature in Baghdad, monsignor Thomas Harim Abib, told the agency “Asia News†that Al Sistani’s official representative visited him on two occasions to express friendship and solidarity with Benedict XVI, precisely when the protests from much of the Muslim world were raging against him. Al Sistani’s representative accepted the explanations given by the nunciature, and gave assurance that he would communicate these to all of the Shiite Iraqi communities, expressing esteem for the Holy See, “which has always been close to the people of Iraq.†The representative of the grand ayatollah has expressed the desire to go to Rome to visit Pope Benedict XVI.
Grand ayatollah Al Sistani uses great care in calculating his rare declarations. In 2004, he issued a striking position statement defending the Christian minorities in Iraq, and firmly condemning attacks against churches…
That statement is good to see, since attacks against Christian churches have become routine in that part of the world. And after all, this dialogue Benedict has been calling for is based on the universal human right of religious freedom. Has the real dialogue begun now?
