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Article: What the pope should have said to the Muslim world.(COLUMN)
- Article from:
- National Catholic Reporter
- Article date:
- September 29, 2006
- Author:
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On Sept. 12 Pope Benedict XVI aroused the fury of the Islamic world with a speech given at the University of Regensburg, Germany, in which he assailed the Muslim concept of holy war as a violation of God's will and nature. The pope quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologus, who derided Islam and the Prophet Muhammad for introducing "things only inhuman and evil," such as spreading the faith by the sword. The pope held up Catholic Christianity, by contrast, as a model religion that promoted a "profound encounter of faith and reason."
From many parts of the Islamic world there were angry reactions to the pope's words, reminding the pope of the ...