Hicham Maged's blog Inquisitive curiosity paves knowledge path

Pope Benedict XVI’s Lecture on Islam

Assalam Alaikum wa rahmat Allah.
Peace be upon you dear visitor.

Pope Benedict XVI

I generally respect what other believes in and especially what the sons of Prophet Abraham (Ibrahim in Arabic) believe in since they are the followers of the three Devin religions as revelation from The Almighy Allah (swt) – GOD – to Mankind: Judaism, Christianity and Islam respectively. Nevertheless, what His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI mentioned in his lecture on 12^th September 2006 at University of Regensburg proves that people – even pope – can fall in mistakes.

I can understand when mistakes are committed by normal people who do not have any kind responsibilities towards others; however when this came from the elite or intellectuals who are called to guide people to the right way for bridging the gap between cultures then I pause and look for what happened.

Faith and Reason

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI did not say something directly against Islam by his own words; however he quoted the Byzantine Emperor Manuel Paul II Palaeologus who lived in the 14^th century and had written down his controversy with a Persian Muslim where he asked this Muslim man the following question “Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

I am not interested in the quoted words themselves right now; however what I am highlighting on is Pope’s speech itself. I read the whole speech and found that His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI was talking about Faith and Reason where he tried to establish a comparison between Reasonable Faith which is found in Christianity verse non-reasonable faith which is found in Islam according to his point of view.

Now we reached the keystone for understanding the whole issue not the quoted words themselves outside the context. I am wondering how to establish a whole structure over very weak foundations. Pope Benedict XVI is quoting words that are ignoring what Islam had present to humanity in the medieval era when the Islamic civilization was revealing between the 7^th and 15^th centuries. Muslims during these eight centuries had not only saved the outcome of the predecessor civilizations, either Greek or others, but also contributed within the Islamic civilization for the welfare of humanity while Europe and the world was in the darkness of the middle ages.

If you wonder why, then I tell you that Almighty Allah (swt) sent Holy Quran to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) as a revelation by the Archangel Gabriel where the first verse that sent was “Read” [96:1]. In parallel, Holy Quran urges Muslims to use their minds rationally to understand the universe. This was the foundation for the Islamic civilization to establish its structure as Muslims were implementing what Islam encourages urbanizing Earth for the welfare of Humanity and Mankind which simply and rationally depends on the human intellect not on illusions!

Later, when the Islamic civilization faded out, Europe had found both the heritage of the predecessor civilizations and the contributions of the Islamic civilization where it established the renaissance upon and climbed the civilization curve since the 15^th century. So excuse me dear your Holiness Pope Benedict XVI; Islam is a reasonable faith that is founded on reasoning since it came as the final message from Almighty Allah (swt) – GOD – to Mankind in parallel with respecting the other divine messages (Judaism and Christianity) and calling Muslims to respect their messengers because they were sent from the same source; Allah, the Creator of the universe not only Earth.

Reactions to Pope’s Regensburg Lecture

The reaction of His Holiness after Muslims’ anger was nothing more than his deep sorrow for offending Muslims according to the statement issued on 20^th September 2006. Later His Holiness called for a meeting with Muslims envoys in Vatican on 25^th September 2006, where he expressed his total and profound respect for all Muslims without any kind of dialogue.

Additionally, His Holiness mentioned that “Since the beginning of my pontificate I have had occasion to express my wish to continue to establish bridges of friendship with believers of all religions, showing particularly my appreciation in the belief in dialogue between Muslims and Christians.” This is partially good yet what His Holiness said was nothing more than a short way to avoid falling into the mistake which swallowed Danish prime minister when he refused to meet the 12 ambassadors of Muslim countries in Denmark upon the Danish Carton Crises at the beginning of this year.

Bridging the gap between Cultures

Bridging the gap between Cultures

I am not offended in the way you think; I am rather offended and sad because what happened means we are lacking for humans who have sense and sensibility, interpret differences among faiths, and dare to stand together punting hands in hands – despite of the differences – for solving the real problems that Mankind is facing by bridging the gap between cultures in parallel with decreasing the radius of the tensions and clashes’ circles which are almost tangent to every place.

Hereby, I think Mankind need to work on understanding their differences better and learn how to exist together while respecting what each other believe in on various level like cultural, social, faith and believe as this is simply what Multiculturalism means. Furthermore, many Muslims – including me – are aware about our differences and hence have noting against the followers of other religions in general and the sons of Prophet Abraham (Christians – Jews) especially because Islam calls for respecting what they believe in and there is no compulsion in religion.

In the light of these elaborations, neither a call for apology nor just bunch of sweet words to be told within a 30 min. meeting can solve the problems caused by words. Consequently, the human development means that civilizations follow each other in order to add for humanity not to subtract from Mankind, but unfortunately, we still see people in the 21^st century who do not understand this and play the scary movie of their own. Its enough to circulate the stereotyped images and misconceptions that serve nothing but hate and anger while all loose on both the short and long run.

On the other hand, let me tell you something that seems out of subject but it is close. Have you read Victor Hugo’s greatest novel “Les Misérables”? I like this novel in general and specifically because the main character “Father Madeleine” – who became the Mayor later – was in the past “Jean Valjean” the thief. The dramatic line of the novel tells us that he took a decision to face his destiny when his acts in the past caused an innocent man to face a trial that could end with his death. My point is that the man took a tough decision towards his responsibilities despite what it means on the short run but on the long run it is the right one as I believe.

Islam, Muslims and Prophet Muhammad

I cannot end this post without stopping by the quoted words in the speech. I am aware that misconceptions and stereotypes about us are revealing so in a previous post about Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) you can find resources to know about him more in case you are interested to know something useful.

On the other hand I see that Islam does not need any kind of defend; however what is being committed under its name is what we should criticize and here I recall my previously published article on I-MAG Magazine entitled “Islam, between Ideology and Application” and you can check it over the magazine.

Consequently, Muslims themselves place criticism for what is being committed in the name of Islam and to be more specific in general and for those terrorists who are manipulating Islamic faith and belief for their own purpose especially, but the scary movie of Islamophobia plus terrorism is being played on both sides which is not funny at all in the 21^st century.

Furthermore, in parallel with the facts about Islam that are usually ignored, I have my own perspective: Islam is about building not destroying and it is based on the facts that Islam calls for.

Mankind and Coexistence

In a nutshell, despite being united in the origin, people are different in culture, color, and faith, religion and belief. This is normal yet because of the same origin we are called to look for “meeting points and common grounds in Human Nature” where we can communicate, interact, co-operate and bridging the gap between cultures for the welfare of humanity if we still care about. This is what Islam call us for and that what Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) told us to do. In other simple words, let us stop feeding the hate, misconceptions, stereotypes and start looking forward for bridging people towards a better future.

Finally, I quote the following words by Saint Jerome:

Related Quotes and Sayings

Do not let your deeds belie your words, lest when you speak in church someone may say to himself, (Why do you not practice what you preach?) — Saint Jerome: Letter and Church Father & Saint (374 AD – 419 AD)

Note: Pope Benedict XVI was knows as Cardinal Ratzinger before being elected as Pope on April 2005 after the death of his predecessor Pope Jean Paul II.

Salam,
Hicham

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Tags: islamic civilization, islamophobia, multiculturalism
Categories: Critiques
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