Benedict the Brave

From the Wall Street Journal:

This is not an invitation to the usual feel-good interfaith round-tables. It is a request for dialogue with one condition--that everyone at the table reject the irrationality of religiously motivated violence. The pope isn't condemning Islam; he is inviting it to join rather than reject the modern world.
By their reaction to the pope's speech, some Muslim leaders showed again that Islam has a problem with modernity that is going to have to be solved by a debate within Islam. The day Muslims condemn Islamic terror with the same vehemence they condemn those who criticize Islam, an attempt at dialogue--and at improving relations between the Western and Islamic worlds--can begin.

Turkey--A Tale of Two Novels

One Condemned..

From the Times online:

TURKEY’S faltering hopes of European Union membership look set to be dealt a blow this week when Elif Shafak, one of the leading members of a new generation of Turkish female novelists, faces charges under the country’s draconian restrictions on freedom of speech.
Shafak, 34, is being tried under article 301 of the Turkish penal code, which makes it an offence to insult “Turkishness”. Her alleged crime is that a character in her latest bestselling novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, describes the massacres of Armenians in the late Ottoman Empire as a genocide — an interpretation which, although widely accepted internationally, is still vigorously denied by the Turkish state.
Although other Turks have faced charges for referring to the events of 1915-16 as a genocide, Shafak is the first writer to be prosecuted for words spoken by a character in a work of fiction.

The other a bestseller (even before the current controversy)...

From Hot Air:

Benedict XVI is set to visit Turkey in November, for those looking to descry omens, here’s one that’s not terribly encouraging: A potboiler novel currently on bestseller lists in Turkey titled Papa’ya suikast (”Attack on the Pope”) predicts that Benedict will be assassinated.
Written by novelist Yücel Kaya, the book is subtitled, “Who will kill Benedict XVI in Istanbul?”
In a little more than 300 pages, Kaya manages to weave the Turkish Secret Service, the infamous Masonic lodge P2, and (of course) Opus Dei into his plot line. Inevitably, Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turk who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, also makes an appearance.
All this might seem comical were it not for the fact that in the last seven months, three Catholic priests have been attacked in Turkey, beginning with the murder of Italian missionary Fr. Andrea Santoro on February 5.

I Support the Pope

Get yours here:

War Against the Cross

From The Conservative Voice:

Now, the Mujahideen Shura Council has issued the statement: “"We shall
break the cross and spill the wine! God will (help) Muslims to conquer Rome.
(May) God enable us to slit their throats, and make their money and descendants
the bounty of the mujahedeen!" After Pope Benedict XVI had said he regretted the
[Muslim] reaction to his statements, al Qaeda in Iraq called for a war against
"worshippers of the cross". Burning German, Israeli and US flags and an effigy
of the pope, protestors demonstrated in Basra chanting: "No to aggression! We
gagged the Pope!”

From the Holy Bible (RSV):

"I have said all this to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues; indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.And they will do this because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you of them." John 16:1-4

Judging the Pope

With a Muslim mind...

I heard one Muslim expert speaking from Cairo last night who felt that what the pope said would have repercussions for years. In the midst of his reasoning he said something that I think was interesting. He said Muslims felt that the pope was sending a message to Christians...

Like a secret message. In other words, it wasn't what Pope Benedict actually said but rather in what he was secretly saying. To us, this seems crazy.

But in a world where some guy wrapped in swaddling clothes speaks a message where the CIA, FBI and Homeland Security pour over the message for weeks afterwards searching for some encrypted message that might be being communicated to the secret cells out there--I guess its understandable on some level. And of course this was the Pope's message--that Muslims and Christians are speaking the same language, so why should they be expected to understand what we mean?

We believe that Jesus has revealed what God is like--and we believe that God has revealed that we should turn the other cheek when struck--but we also know that when Jesus spoke this message of peace that he angered the religious figures of his day to the point that they joined forces with the hated Romans to seek his death. So why should we be surprised if a message of "there is no holy war" by a modern disciple of Jesus meets with a violent response?

Isn't that the witness of countless martyrs in the Church's history? People who were not attacking violently but people who were attacked violently for speaking God's truth.

Sorry Vol Fans

Florida 21, Vols 20

The Pope Speaks--Apologizes to Muslims

From Asia News Italy:

“The Pastoral Visit which I recently made to Bavaria was a deep spiritual experience, bringing together personal memories linked to places well known to me and pastoral initiatives towards an effective proclamation of the Gospel for today. I thank God for the interior joy which he made possible, and I am also grateful to all those who worked hard for the success of this pastoral visit. As is the custom, I will speak more of this during next Wednesday’s general audience.”

“At this time, I wish also to add that I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims. These in fact were a quotation from a medieval text, which do not in any way express my personal thought. Yesterday, the Cardinal Secretary of State published a statement in this regard in which he explained the true meaning of my words. I hope that this serves to appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address, which in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with great mutual respect.”

Nun in Somalia Murdered...

The killing of an Italian Catholic nun in Mogadishu on Sunday may well be linked to anger among Muslims about Pope Benedict's recent remarks on Islam, a senior source among Somalia's Islamists said.

"There is a very high possibility the people who killed her were angered by the Catholic Pope's recent comments against Islam," the source told Reuters.