This Benedict, who made inter-faith dialogue his mission

Who has any better ideas or itentions of drawing the worlds major religions into dialogues of culture than Benedict? There are not other leaders with clear voices and good intentions calling for engaging the debate over ideas and reason, grounded on who the humnan person is.

So why is he the main global target for extremists who hate his message? Because they want to hate the message, villify Chrisitianity and excuse their rampant behavior. The article in today’s USA Today on the Pope’s clarification of his personal opinions reports that Arab world voices are saying Benedict’s apology was “not enough,” “it does not represent a clear and explicit apology.” 

Where are these voices when the radical Islamists are pepetrating violence on innocent civilians? And where are they now that violence erupted over the weekend when an Italian nun and her bodyguard were shot to death Sunday at a hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia? Where are the responsible media voices asking those hard questions and expecting at least as much accountabiity on the Arab side where fires are burning and people are being bludgeoned? Where’s the outrage?

Seven churches in the West Bank and Gaza were attacked Saturday and Sunday in reponse to the Pope’s comments, USA Today reported. After that nun was gunned down, a cleric declared that “whoever offends our prophet Mohammed should be killed on the spot by the nearest Muslim.” Yemen, where conversion away from Islam can be punishable by death is treatening to cut diplomatic ties with the Vatican. Churches were bombed in the West Bank. That same USA Today article quotes a 42 year old Shiite Muslim as saying “First they insult the prophet Mohammed with their cartoons. Now they say Islam is violent.”

Well…..

What has Islam done to prove it is not? Who is defining Islam in the geopolitical climate with a war on terror involving a lot of Islamic terrorists? And when you do define Islam as peaceful, is that the same Islam being preached on the “Arab Street?” Answer: no.

The wisest Muslim voices I heard in this reporting came at the end of the piece. A 25 year old accountant in Tehran said she was offended by the initial remarks, but added “Maybe he didn’t really want to insult Muslims. Sp we must forgive him.” And a Pakistani taxi driver working in Dubai said “People were very angry. But the pope said sorry. It’s over.”

These need to be the leading voices in the Islamic world. Or it’s a long way from over.