Pope Benedict XVI

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[Rasputin]

Pope Benedict XVI has paid tribute to an Italian nun killed in Somalia who is reported to have forgiven her attackers as she lay dying.
Sister Leonella Sgorbati was attacked, along with her bodyguard, outside the hospital in Mogadishu where she worked.

Some suspect the shooting was connected to recent remarks by the Pope which caused anger across the Islamic world.

Pope Benedict spoke ahead of Monday's planned meeting with ambassadors from predominantly Muslim countries.

He said her sacrifice was the most authentic type of Christian testimony, which showed "the victory of love over hate and evil".

"This nun, who served the poor and children in Somalia for many years, died with the word 'forgiveness' on her lips," the Pope told pilgrims and tourists during his Sunday address at his summer villa at Castelgandolfo near Rome.

On Monday, he is due to meet with envoys of Muslim countries for talks aimed at explaining that a recent speech he gave during a pilgrimage in Germany was misunderstood.

The Pope has said three times that he regrets the offence caused, expressing "deep respect" for Islam.

[Rasputin]

Pope meets with Muslim diplomats

Muslim diplomats were meeting Monday with Pope Benedict XVI in the pontiff's latest effort to mend relations after his remarks about Islam and violence ignited the Vatican's most serious international crisis in decades.

Benedict's spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the meeting, at the Vatican summer residence, was "certainly a sign that dialogue is returning to normal after moments of ... misunderstanding." He predicted that the encounter would lead to further steps toward calm, constructive dialogue.

Since the September 12 speech on Islam, Benedict has said that his remarks were taken out of context and said he regretted that Muslims were offended.

Vatican Radio said that it would cover the meeting live, and the speeches were scheduled to be shown to journalists on closed-circuit Vatican TV.

Cardinal Paul Poupard, a Frenchman who leads the Vatican's efforts at dialogue between religions, said that the pope planned to meet personally with participants.

Muslims in many cities around the world protested the remarks Benedict made at Regensburg University, where he once taught theology in his German homeland. Benedict quoted the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith."

Among the countries expected to send representatives were Iran, Iraq and Egypt.

Also expected were diplomats from Indonesia, where Christian-Muslim tensions were further heightened last week by the execution of three Catholic militants. Benedict last month had appealed for the men's lives to be spared.

Turkey also accepted the invitation. Benedict has said he hopes to go in November to that predominantly Muslim but officially secular country, whose officials were among the first to vigorously protest the Regensburg remarks.

Last week, the Holy See's ambassadors stationed in Muslim countries met with officials to assure them that the pope respects Islam and to urge a complete reading of the speech, which was an exploration of the relationship between faith and reason.

Lombardi said the acceptance by Muslim countries to the pope's invitation for Monday's meeting reflected a "desire to work together for the great ideals, the great objectives of peace, justice."

The Vatican and much of the Muslim world share some important goals for each side, including the battle against legalized abortion. Benedict also was among the first to urge Israel to use restraint and turn to dialogue in its battle in Lebanon against Hezbollah guerrillas over the summer.

A top aide of Poupard's, Monsignor Felix Anthony Machado, told Vatican Radio on Sunday that dialogue must be practiced when "times are favorable."

Such dialogue "is not an ambulance to call in times of crisis," Machado said, but rather, "the only hope in this world, where people get emotionally excited and take the path of violence."

On Sunday, Benedict praised an Italian missionary nun who was shot to death on Sept. 17 in Somalia in an attack that might have been linked to the worldwide anger over the Regensburg speech. Benedict noted that the nun forgave her attackers as she lay dying in Mogadishu, showing "the victory of love over hate and evil."

[Rasputin]

Pope meets Muslim envoys

Pope Benedict told Muslim envoys on Monday that Christian and Muslim believers must reject violence, in an audience meant to defuse anger at his use of quotes saying Islam was spread by the sword.

The Pope expressed his "esteem and profound respect" for members of the Islamic faith in a meeting with diplomatic envoys from some 20 Muslim countries plus the leaders of Italy's own Muslim community at his summer residence, Castelgandolfo.

"Christians and Muslims must learn to work together ... in order to guard against all forms of intolerance and to oppose all manifestations of violence," said the 79-year-old Pope.


It was the fourth time he had tried to make amends to Muslims, without actually apologising directly, for a speech at a university in his native Germany on September 12.

The leader of more than 1 billion Roman Catholics has expressed regret at the response to his quoting 14th-century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who said the Prophet Mohammad commanded his followers "to spread by the sword the faith he preached".

The Pope has said his intention was to explain that religion goes together with reason, not with violence.

His speech to Muslim envoys, delivered in French but also immediately made available by the Vatican in Arabic, made repeated references to the need for dialogue between faiths.

Mario Scialoja, an adviser to the Italian section of the World Muslim League who attended the audience, told Reuters afterwards he thought it was a "very good and warm speech".

He recalled the differences but expressed his willingness to continue in a cordial and fruitful dialogue, said Scialoja, who added that he "had not been expecting another apology".

The envoys invited included those from major Muslim countries such as Indonesia, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey, Iran and Iraq, plus the Arab League.

Thousands of Muslims demonstrated against the Pope after last Friday's prayers at mosques around the world, but the anger and the size of the protests appears to be diminishing.

The Pope is facing the toughest international crisis since his election in April, 2005, and the vehemence of some reactions has raised doubts about a planned trip to Turkey in November.


Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turk who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981, warned Benedict not to travel to Turkey, saying his life would be at risk.

[donsaeid]

اظهارات پاپ "بنديكت شانزدهم" رهبر كاتوليكهاي جهان درباره اسلام و جهاد كه ارتباط ميان دين مبين اسلام و خشونت را در سخنراني خود به نادرستي مورد تحليل قرار داد موجي از خشم در بين مسلمانان سراسر جهان پديد آورد.

به گفته تحليلگران و صاحب نظران، سخنان وي همچنين باعث به وجود آمدن مانعي در راه گفت وگو ميان كليساي كاتوليك روم و اسلام شد كه پاپ فقيد، "ژان پل دوم " در راستاي ترويج آن تلاشهاي قابل توجهي به عمل آورده بود.

پاپ ژان پل دوم، سلف پاپ بنديكت شانزدهم براي بهبود روابط ميان اسلام و مسيحيت به ويژه مذهب كاتوليك جهد وافري داشت و در اين راه به دستاوردهاي چشمگيري نيز نايل آمده بود.

در سال ۱۹۸۶وي گامهاي بيسابقهاي در تشكيل اولين گردهمايي اديان مختلف برداشت و نخستين همايش "دعا براي صلح" را با حضور مقامات عالي رتبه مسلمان، مسيحي و يهودي در كنار هندوها، بودائيان، سيكها و نمايندگان اديان شينتو و اديان بومي آفريقا و آمريكا در شهر "آسيسي " ايتاليا برگزار كرد.

چند سال پس از آن پاپ ژان پل دوم در نوامبر سال ۲۰۰۴بارديگر تاكيد كرد كه "هيچ فردي حق ندارد از دين به عنوان ابزاري براي عدم تساهل، تخاصم، خشونت و مرگ استفاده كند." .

پاپ فقيد اين اظهارات را هنگام ديدار با نمايندگان اديان مختلف جمهوري آذربايجان مطرح كرد.

ژان پل دوم همچنين به صورت " مستقيم " با اسلام وارد گفتمان شد و در ماه ميسال ۲۰۰۱به عنوان اولين پاپ در مسجد به قرائت قرآن گوش كرد و "قرآن مجيد" كتاب مقدس مسلمانان را بوسيد و مورد تكريم قرارداد.

ژان پل دوم براي تطهير كليسا از برخي شائبههايي كه در طول قرون سيماي آن را كدر و تار كرده بود شجاعانه دست به اقداماتي زد از جمله آن كه در سال ،۱۹۹۲اعلام كرد كه كليسا در محكوميت گاليه، دانشمند و منجم ايتاليايي موضع نادرستي اتخاذ كرده است.

در همان سال هنگام ديدار از كشور آفريقايي "سنگال" از مردم اين كشور درخواست بخشش مسيحياني را كرد كه در تجارت برده سهيم بودند.

در سال ،۱۹۹۵بيانيهاي صادر و طي آن اعلام كرد كه نسبت به تبعيض يا سوء رفتار كاتوليكها نسبت به زنان به شدت متاسف است.

هم چنين در همين سال، طي سفر به جمهوري چك خواستار بخشش براي خشونت كاتوليكها عليه پرتستانها در جنبش اصلاحات قرن شانزدهم شد.

در سال ،۱۹۹۹سوزانده شدن "يان هاس"، اصلاح طلب قرن پانزدهم را كه پيشرو پروتستانيسم بود و معصوميت "پاپ "ها را زير سوال برده بود، تقبيح كرد.

در سال ،۲۰۰۰خواستار بخشش گناهان كاتوليكها طي اعصار مختلف شد كه نسبت به يهوديان، زنان و اقليتها سوء رفتار داشتند.

در سال ،۲۰۰۱در سفر به يونان از اقدامات ناشايست كاتوليكها عليه ارتدوكس هاعذر خواهي كرد.

در اين سالهم چنين، از سوء رفتار مبلغان عليه مردم بومي اقيانوس آرام عذرخواهي كرد .

در ديدار با "پاترياك قسطنطنيه " كه در همين سال رخ داد نيز براي گناه صليبيوني كه به قسطنطنيه حمله كردند عذرخواهي كرد.

بسياري از كاتوليكها و غير كاتوليك ها، پاپ را در انجام اقداماتي كه تاثير بسياري در نزديكي اديان به يكديگر داشته و نيز در ايجاد انس و الفت بيشتر بين انسانها در تمام گوشه و كنار جهان موثر بوده ، تحسين كردهاند.

جدا كردن كليساي كاتوليك از جنگ عراق و حمايت معقول واتيكان از مردم مظلوم فلسطين از گامهاي درخور توجه ژان پل دوم محسوب ميشود.

پيشرفت روند گفت وگوي مسيحيان و مسلمانان و نزديكي بين اديان، نيز از دستاورهاي مهم فعاليتهاي پاپ بود كه اين امر در مراسم تشييع و تدفين وي به وضوح قابل مشاهده بود.

پاپ ژان پل دوم بر مواضع سنتي كليسا هم چون مخالفت با سقط جنين، حرام دانستن طلاق و مقاومت در برابر انتصاب زنان به مقام كشيشي كليساي كاتوليك اصرار داشت.به همين دليل، برخي ناظران، ژان پل دوم را پاپي مردمي اما "محافظه كار" توصيف كردهاند.

سرانجام در شنبه شب دوم آوريل، "كارول يوزف وويتيلا"، پاپ ژان پل دوم، كوتاه مدتي قبل از رسيدن به سن ۸۵سالگي و پس از بيش از ۲۶سال رهبري كليساي كاتوليك، در رم درگذشت.

وي يكي از طولانيترين دورههاي رهبري را در تاريخ كليساي كاتوليك پشت سر گذاشت.

بعد از مرگ وي، هنگامي كه "كاردينال يوزف راتزينگر" آلماني به عنوان "پاپ بنديكت شانزدهم " انتخاب شد به سرعت اعلام كرد كه قصد دارد راه وي را ادامه دهد.

با برگزاري نشست محرمانه كاردينالهايي كه در انتخاب پاپ جديد مشاركت داشتند، اين پرسش براي مردم سراسر جهان و پيروان ساير اديان مطرح شد كه آيا پاپ جديد پيرو الگوي رفتاري ژان پل دوم و ارائه عذرخواهي حتي براي سوء رفتار كليساي كاتوليك طي قرنهاي گذشته خواهد بود يا اينكه واتيكان در نظر دارد موضعگيريهاي خود نسبت به جهان، مسلمانان و ميراثي كه ژان پل دوم در عرصه گفت وگو بر جاي گذاشته بود را تغيير دهد.

انتخاب پاپ جديد به نوعي نشاندهنده موضعگيري واتيكان نسبت به حفظ گفت وگو با اسلام و ادامه رويكرد ژان پل دوم در گفتوگو با مسلمانان بود.

تقريبا نيمي از كاردينالهايي كه در جلسه محرمانه انتخاب پاپ شركت كردند كاردينالهاي ساكن اروپا بودند كه بيترديد به موضوعهايي كه اروپا به آن توجه دارد، از جمله گسترش بيبند وباري ، رواج مواد مخدر ، شيوع الحاد و بيديني، سرخوردگي نسل جوان از باورهاي مذهبي پدران خود و گسست آنها از كليسا و باورهاي ديني التفات داشتتند و ضرورت ايجاد همبستگي بين اديان الهي را براي مقابله با كفر، الحاد، بيديني و خطر ماترياليسم جديد در جهان كنوني، درك كردهاند.

بيگمان تلاش براي نزديك ساختن اديان به يكديگر به منظور كم رنگ كردن جلوههاي بيديني و كاهش گريز از مذهب، از اساسيترين اقداماتي است كه پاپ كه در راس كليساي كاتوليك قراردارد ميتواند انجام دهد.

بسياري از صاحبنظران معتقدند، با توجه به چنين فضايي، سخنان پاپ بنديكت شانزدهم رهبر كاتوليكهاي جهان، رفتاري خارج از قواعد عرفي يك مقام برجسته مذهبي كاتوليك و خلاف رويه سلف نامي او پاپ ژان پل دوم به شمار ميرود.

شايد طرح سخناني راديكال، كم مايه و شتابزده از جانب سياستمداران قابل توجيه باشد اما در گفتمان مذهبي، كه ابزارها و راهكارهاي مختص به خود را دارد، كم مايگي و شتابزدگي در سخنان مردمان عالي رتبه و ردههاي بالا، پذيرفتني نيست.

به باور بسياري از معتقدان به اديان الهي، به هيچ وجه شايسته نيست كه يك رهبر ديني طوري سخن بگويد كه مواجه با اعتراضهاي جدي شود و اين اعتراضها زمينه براي اظهار ندامت و تاسف او را فراهم آورد.

بسياري از صاحب نظران اعتقاد دارند پاپ با بيان سخنان نادرست خود در باره اسلام - اگرچه سرانجام نسبت به آن اظهار تاسف كرد- به پايگاه معنوي خود به عنوان رييس مذهب كاتوليك، به شدت خدشه وارد كرد.

از پاپ به عنوان عاليترين مقام كليساي كاتوليك انتظار ميرود در بيان سخنان و موضعگيري نسبت به مسائل مهم همچون تاريخ پرشكوه اسلام ، مانند سلف خود پاپ ژان پل دوم، دقيق و ملاحظهكار باشد و سخني كه سبب جريحه دار شدن احساسات ميليونها نفر از مردم جهان ميشود را برزبان نراند.

معروف است كه پاپ ژان پل دوم هيچ گاه به صراحت و به شكلي آشكار در سياست دخالت نميكرد، اما زمينهساز بسياري از رويدادهاي بزرگ سياسي جهان بود.

گفته ميشود وي، يكي از افراد موثري بود كه با موعظههاي دقيق و حساب شده، زمينه را براي پروستريكا و گلاسنوست گورباچف در شوروي فراهم آورد.

ژان پل دوم در رويدادهاي آرژانتين و لهستان نيز بسيار تاثيرگذار بود. او باعث شد رژيم ديكتاتوري نظاميآرژانتين در اواخر دهه هفتاد و اوايل دهه هشتاد، نتواند نسبت به معترضان كاتوليك خود آن كشتار دهشتناكي كه پينوشه در شيلي انجام داد را انجام دهد.

ژان پل دوم بسيار بافراست، اثرگذار و روشنبين بود. او هرگز از وجهه كليسا مايه نگذاشت و از موضعگيري صريح و علني عليه ساير اديان الهي به ويژه دين مبين اسلام خودداري كرد.

بيگمان يكي از اصول هم زيستي در جهان پرمناقشه كنوني و ضرورت اوليه براي جريان داشتن گفتمان بين اديان و تشكيل جبهه واحد و مشترك ديني در برابر جبهه كفر، شرك ،الحاد و بيديني مدرن، آشنايي عميق و صحيح با تاريخ، فرهنگ و گذشته هريك از اديان، درك متقابل از يك ديگر و احترام به اصول و مباني فكري و اعتقادي پيروان راستين مذاهب الهي است كه بايد از سوي همه معتقدان به اديان الهي به ويژه مقامهاي طراز اول و رهبران آن رعايت شود.

[Rasputin]

Pope Benedict XVI meets with Chaldean Patriarch of Baghdad

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy Pope Benedict XVI met Saturday with the Chaldean Patriarch of Baghdad, the Vatican said.

The meeting with Patriarch Emmanuel Delly took place at the pope's summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, on the hills south of Rome, and the Vatican did not release any details.

Delly has been seeking the release of a priest who was kidnapped in Baghdad, and the pope also has appealed publicly for his release. The Rev. Hanna Saad Sirop, who is director of the Theology Department at Babel College, was abducted Aug. 15 as he left Mass celebrating the Assumption holiday.

Christians make up just 3 percent of Iraq's 26 million people. The major Christian groups include Chaldean-Assyrians and Armenians, with small numbers of Roman Catholics.

[Rasputin]

Dr Za*** Naik invites Pope Benedict XVI for open interfaith dialogue

JEDDAH: Eminent scholar of comparative religion Dr. Za*** Naik has invited Pope Benedict XVI for an open inter-faith dialogue.

The Pope`s recent statement, which included a quote from a 14th century Byzantine emperor, sparked outrage in the Muslim world. In his latest efforts to calm down the Muslim anger the Pope invited diplomats from 20 Islamic countries at his summer residence in south of Rome.

This extraordinary gathering was seen as the latest effort by Benedict XVI to quell the furor stirred two weeks ago by controversial remarks he made about Islam. He is attempting to channel the emotion into what he calls an authentic and respectful dialogue.

Dr. Naik sees the Pope`s statement on Islam as pre-planned. "He (the Pope) knew very well what he was speaking at University of Regensburg in Germany on September 12," he said.

"The Pope`s apology to the Muslims was at all not an apology rather it was putting salt on the wounds," said Dr. Naik, adding that the Pope should have explicitly apologized and retracted his statement.

Benedict XVI seems to be toeing the same line of neo-con as that of President George Bush, he said. Dr. Naik said if the Pope wants to initiate an authentic dialogue then he is more than willing to participate in such an inter-faith debate.

"I am more than willing to participate in the inter-faith dialogue with Pope Benedict XVI. I am ready on any topic he (the Pope) wishes as long as it focuses on Quran and the Bible," Dr. Naik said. He said he can go to Rome or Vatican to meet the Pope.

"I can go to Rome and to Vatican on my own expense if an Italian visa is arranged for me," he told ONLINE after delivering his lecture on "20 most common questions about misconceptions of Islam," organized by Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh, attended by a number of ambassadors, diplomatic staff and members of the Sri Lankan community.

Dr. Naik during the past three years has delivered over 600 lectures in the US and Canada. "I am absolutely ready for an open and public debate with the pope under live international TV coverage," he said.

Let the 1.3 billion Muslims and 2 billion Christians around the world listen to the debate based on equal slot of time allotted to both sides, he said. "It is not only a debate but also a question and answer session allowing the people to ask queries," he said. He said he is not in favor of closed-door meeting with the Pope, as was suggested by his predecessor Pope John Paul II, when South African-based Islamic scholar Ahmed Deedat invited him for open dialogue, he said.

"Pope John Paul told Shaikh Deedat to come to his cabin for a debate," he said and added why does the inter-faith dialogue be held behind closed doors? Dr. Naik said the best way to counter the onslaught on Islam is that the Muslims should have their own media.

"Unfortunately, most of the international media is controlled by the Western (lobby). Unless you (Muslims) have your own media they (Westernerns) can very conveniently convert black into white, day into night, a hero into a villain and a villain into a hero," he said.

Dr. Naik, who has launched his own religious satellite channel called Peace TV, said Muslims do have their own media but what he meant by international media is similar to the Time and Newsweek and TV channels such as the BBC and CNN, when Muslims can project their views and convey the message in right perspective.

"I have a future plan to launch a news channel," he said. He said there are at least 100 Muslims that he knew, who can take such an initiative and launch at least 10 satellite channels.

People should not wait for Muslims organizations such as IIRA or OIC to take steps in this direction, he said.

"Any individual businessman can take the initiative if Muslim bodies such as OIC or IIRA are not coming forward in this direction," he said.

Dr. Naik has also endorsed former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Muhamamd`s views that the Muslims should stop to operate US dollar-denominated bank accounts. "I have been preaching (that) Muslims should stop dealing in dollar," he said. He also called on the Muslim world to launch an Islamic currency to counter dealing in dollar.

Muslim countries should not peg their currencies to the dollar. "By that time the individuals and businessmen should stop dealing in dollar," he said. He said he has been mobilizing the people wherever he goes asking them not to keep dollar accounts or even the currency.

The moment you exchange dollars you simply convert that amount with any currency such as riyal, dirham, dinar or be it yen or euro "but not to keep in dollar-denomination account," he said.

[Rasputin]

Pope Benedict XVI in the service of George W. Bush

"Information Clearing House" -- -- Since the days when Roman emperors threw Christians to the lions, the relations between the emperors and the heads of the church have undergone many changes.

Constantine the Great, who became emperor in the year 306 - exactly 1700 years ago - encouraged the practice of Christianity in the empire, which included Palestine. Centuries later, the church split into an Eastern (Orthodox) and a Western (Catholic) part. In the West, the Bishop of Rome, who acquired the title of Pope, demanded that the emperor accept his superiority.

The struggle between the emperors and the popes played a central role in European history and divided the peoples. It knew ups and downs. Some emperors dismissed or expelled a pope, some popes dismissed or excommunicated an emperor. One of the emperors, Henry IV, "walked to Canossa", standing for three days barefoot in the snow in front of the Pope's castle, until the Pope deigned to annul his excommunication.

But there were times when emperors and popes lived in peace with each other. We are witnessing such a period today. Between the present Pope, Benedict XVI, and the present emperor, George Bush II, there exists a wonderful harmony. Last week's speech by the Pope, which aroused a worldwide storm, went well with Bush's crusade against "Islamofascism", in the context of the "clash of civilizations".

In his lecture at a German university, the 265th Pope described what he sees as a huge difference between Christianity and Islam: while Christianity is based on reason, Islam denies it. While Christians see the logic of God's actions, Muslims deny that there is any such logic in the actions of Allah.

As a Jewish atheist, I do not intend to enter the fray of this debate. It is much beyond my humble abilities to understand the logic of the Pope. But I cannot overlook one passage, which concerns me too, as an Israeli living near the fault-line of this "war of civilizations".

In order to prove the lack of reason in Islam, the Pope asserts that the Prophet Muhammad ordered his followers to spread their religion by the sword. According to the Pope, that is unreasonable, because faith is born of the soul, not of the body. How can the sword influence the soul?

To support his case, the Pope quoted - of all people - a Byzantine emperor, who belonged, of course, to the competing Eastern Church. At the end of the 14th century, Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus told of a debate he had - or so he said (its occurrence is in doubt) - with an unnamed Persian Muslim scholar. In the heat of the argument, the emperor (according to himself) flung the following words at his adversary:


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.


These words give rise to three questions: (a) Why did the Emperor say them? (b) Are they true? (c) Why did the present Pope quote them?

When Manuel II wrote his treatise, he was the head of a dying empire. He assumed power in 1391, when only a few provinces of the once illustrious empire remained. These, too, were already under Turkish threat.

At that point in time, the Ottoman Turks had reached the banks of the Danube. They had conquered Bulgaria and the north of Greece, and had twice defeated relieving armies sent by Europe to save the Eastern Empire. On 29 May 1453, only a few years after Manuel's death, his capital, Constantinople (the present Istanbul), fell to the Turks, putting an end to the empire that had lasted for more than a thousand years.

During his reign, Manuel made the rounds of the capitals of Europe in an attempt to drum up support. He promised to reunite the church. There is no doubt that he wrote his religious treatise in order to incite the Christian countries against the Turks and convince them to start a new crusade. The aim was practical, theology was serving politics.

In this sense, the quote serves exactly the requirements of the present Emperor, George Bush II. He, too, wants to unite the Christian world against the mainly Muslim "Axis of Evil". Moreover, the Turks are again knocking on the doors of Europe, this time peacefully. It is well known that the Pope supports the forces that object to the entry of Turkey into the European Union.

Is there any truth in Manuel's argument?

The pope himself threw in a word of caution. As a serious and renowned theologian, he could not afford to falsify written texts. Therefore, he admitted that the Qur'an specifically forbade the spreading of the faith by force. He quoted the second Sura, Verse 256 (strangely fallible, for a pope, he meant Verse 257) which says: "There must be no coercion in matters of faith."

How can one ignore such an unequivocal statement? The Pope simply argues that this commandment was laid down by the Prophet when he was at the beginning of his career, still weak and powerless, but that later on he ordered the use of the sword in the service of the faith. Such an order does not exist in the Qur'an. True, Muhammad called for the use of the sword in his war against opposing tribes - Christian, Jewish and others - in Arabia, when he was building his state. But that was a political act, not a religious one; basically a fight for territory, not for the spreading of the faith.

Jesus said: "You will recognize them by their fruits." The treatment of other religions by Islam must be judged by a simple test: how did the Muslim rulers behave for more than a thousand years, when they had the power to "spread the faith by the sword"?

Well, they just did not.

For many centuries, the Muslims ruled Greece. Did the Greeks become Muslims? Did anyone even try to Islamize them? On the contrary, Christian Greeks held the highest positions in the Ottoman administration. The Bulgarians, Serbs, Romanians, Hungarians and other European nations lived at one time or another under Ottoman rule and clung to their Christian faith. Nobody compelled them to become Muslims and all of them remained devoutly Christian.

True, the Albanians did convert to Islam, and so did the Bosniaks. But nobody argues that they did this under duress. They adopted Islam in order to become favourites of the government and enjoy the fruits.

In 1099, the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem and massacred its Muslim and Jewish inhabitants indiscriminately, in the name of the gentle Jesus. At that time, 400 years into the occupation of Palestine by the Muslims, Christians were still the majority in the country. Throughout this long period, no effort was made to impose Islam on them. Only after the expulsion of the Crusaders from the country, did the majority of the inhabitants start to adopt the Arabic language and the Muslim faith - and they were the forefathers of most of today's Palestinians.

There no evidence whatsoever of any attempt to impose Islam on the Jews. As is well known, under Muslim rule the Jews of Spain enjoyed a bloom the like of which the Jews did not enjoy anywhere else until almost our time. Poets like Yehuda Halevy wrote in Arabic, as did the great Maimonides. In Muslim Spain, Jews were ministers, poets, scientists. In Muslim Toledo, Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars worked together and translated the ancient Greek philosophical and scientific texts. That was, indeed, the Golden Age. How would this have been possible, had the Prophet decreed the "spreading of the faith by the sword"?

What happened afterwards is even more telling. When the Catholics reconquered Spain from the Muslims, they instituted a reign of religious terror. The Jews and the Muslims were presented with a cruel choice: to become Christians, to be massacred or to leave. And where did the hundreds of thousand of Jews, who refused to abandon their faith, escape? Almost all of them were received with open arms in the Muslim countries. The Sephardi ("Spanish") Jews settled all over the Muslim world, from Morocco in the west to Iraq in the east, from Bulgaria (then part of the Ottoman Empire) in the north to Sudan in the south. Nowhere were they persecuted. They knew nothing like the tortures of the Inquisition, the flames of the auto-da-fe, the pogroms, the terrible mass-expulsions that took place in almost all Christian countries, up to the Holocaust.

Why? Because Islam expressly prohibited any persecution of the "peoples of the book". In Islamic society, a special place was reserved for Jews and Christians. They did not enjoy completely equal rights, but almost. They had to pay a special poll tax, but were exempted from military service - a trade-off that was quite welcome to many Jews. It has been said that Muslim rulers frowned upon any attempt to convert Jews to Islam even by gentle persuasion - because it entailed the loss of taxes.

Every honest Jew who knows the history of his people cannot but feel a deep sense of gratitude to Islam, which has protected the Jews for fifty generations, while the Christian world persecuted the Jews and tried many times "by the sword" to get them to abandon their faith.

The story about "spreading the faith by the sword" is an evil legend, one of the myths that grew up in Europe during the great wars against the Muslims - the reconquista of Spain by the Christians, the Crusades and the repulsion of the Turks, who almost conquered Vienna. I suspect that the German Pope, too, honestly believes in these fables. That means that the leader of the Catholic world, who is a Christian theologian in his own right, did not make the effort to study the history of other religions.

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

Turkish jet hijacker surrenders

A man who hijacked a Turkish Airways plane flying from Tirana to Istanbul has surrendered after the Boeing 737 landed at Brindisi in southern Italy.
First reports suggested there were two hijackers, protesting against the Pope, but the one man now in custody is a Turkish army deserter seeking asylum.

Italian police are checking reports that he may have had an accomplice.

All the plane's 107 passengers - including beauty contest entrants - and six crew are said to be unhurt.

We saw a man wearing track-suit bottoms and a hat go to the cockpit door and pause there, thinking

Ermir Hoxha
Passenger, speaking by mobile phone from plane

Greek, then Italian fighters, were scrambled to intercept and escort the airliner after reports of the incident emerged while it was in Greek air space at 1758 (1458 GMT).

Two Italian F-16s reportedly forced the plane to land in Brindisi where the hijacker, named as Hakan Ekinci, surrendered after negotiations with police.

Initial reports suggested that two hijackers had wanted to deliver a message to Pope Benedict, angry at his recent comments in a lecture in Germany which appeared to link Islam and violence.

The pontiff is due to visit Turkey in November.

Army deserter

Hakan Ekinci is a conscientious objector who had run away to Albania during military service in the Turkish army, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford reports.


Hakan Ekinci faced arrest in Istanbul

He was seeking political asylum there, saying he had converted to Christianity eight years ago and could no longer be forced to serve in a Muslim army.

He charted his efforts to gain asylum in letters to a well-known Turkish pacifist group on the internet.

According to his most recent letter posted last month, he believed his application for asylum had been refused and he was about to be forced to return home.

There is another letter from the same Hakan Ekinci on the Internet - this one an address to Pope Benedict, our correspondent adds.

In it the soldier pleads with the Pope for help with his asylum claim as a Christian.

Again he says he has been forced to join the army against his will and claims he was imprisoned and ill-treated for refusing.



The Turkish foreign ministry confirmed for the BBC that the hijacker, who is 28, was on the run from the army.

Separately, Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler said that Mr Ekinci had faced arrest and transfer to the military authorities on arrival in Istanbul.

Mr Guler added that Mr Ekinci may bluffed the airliner's pilot into believing he had at least one accomplice on the plane,

'Track-suit man'

Ergun Ozkeseoglu, a passenger who phoned Turkish NTV television from the plane, said the hijacker had waved and apologised to applauding passengers as he left the plane.


Miss India is among four beauty queens on the plane

He had seen no weapons but had noticed a passenger repeatedly entering the cockpit and "and giving orders to the stewards".

One Albanian passenger told Albanian TV that nobody had been informed of the hijacking.

Ermir Hoxha, a journalist who was also aboard, described one of the suspected hijackers for his television channel, Albania's Top-Channel TV. He said he had not seen any weapon.

"We gathered something was amiss when we saw a man wearing track-suit bottoms and a hat go to the cockpit door and pause there, thinking," he said.

Contestants in an international beauty pageant, Globe International 2006, were among the passengers, according to the Albanian event's press spokesman.

Miss India, Miss Singapore, Miss Malaysia and Miss Philippines were on the flight.

[Rasputin]

In a speech, Pope Benedict XVI quoted 14th-century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus who said: "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".

Now, it is not a big secret that the sword was used quite effectively to spread Islam from the desert that is Arabia all the way to Morocco and Indonesia, as that was the only form that the early Arab could communicate, (not that much has changed). I mean the man who was allocated to Persia, Ali the "Amir of Momenin" had a sword which was blessed with two blades!! which was absolutely necessary as the Persians were showing more resistance.

But coming from the leader of the other Semitic religion this is quite debatable. The clear difference is that it wasn't the early Christians who used violance to spread Christianity, but the later ones!! I guess the early Christians were too busy being fed to the lions!

But, you've got to hand it to the Pope. Being German and a former Nazi he has his cunning abilities. By using quotations from someone who is already dead he masterfully neutralized the famous Islamic Fatwa, which would have been declared had emperor Manuel II Paleologus been still alive. (Clever ha!)

Pope Benedict XVI has later said he is "very upset" that his speech on Islam offended Muslims and caused such reactions and expressed his respect for their faith"! In other words he is sorry about the way Muslims have reacted!!

Which makes me think, maybe the Pope isn't as clever as I thought. He must have read what Manuel II Paleologus, had said centuries before him, and with such accurate documentations and the recent reactions to the Danish cartoons, he must have had some idea.

Well all in all, this latest clash between two of the three leading Semitic holy religions, may have upset the followers and their desire to prove that violance has nothing to do with religion by burning a few churches and attacking a few nuns and threatening to decapitate the Pope unless he converts to Islam. It also made something unthinkable happen... It was announced that the Vatican has decided to use extra protection.

Who would have thought... thanks to Islam Catholics are now willing to use protection!

[Rasputin]

What Pope Benedict XVI really said about Islam

The furor over what Pope Benedict XVI supposedly said is another example of, not anti-Islamic prejudice, but anti-Christian and anti-Catholic prejudice. With all of the headlines generated by the reaction to talk the pope gave on Sept. 12, I wonder if anyone who was screaming or who was writing the stories took the time to read what he actually said.

Here's the rest of the story. One of the many stops on the pope's trip to Germany was to the University of Regensburg, where he was a teacher more than 40 years ago. He was giving a talk to the faculty about "Faith, Reason and the University." This was not a talk to the Catholic Church, nor a pronouncement of the philosophy of the Church or of the pope. It was a talk to a group of university professors, most of whom were probably not Catholic. The example that has now become so widely quoted, although inaccurately repeated, was not from some obscure writer in the Middle Ages, but was from a book written by Theodore Khoury, a 20th-century German Catholic theologian who translated the Quran into German. No doubt many of the faculty present knew Professor Khoury.

The quotes in the papers from the Muslims all insinuate that the pope said the teachings of Muhammad were "evil and inhuman." In fact, he was quoting from one of the works by Professor Khoury, and the partial quote is used as the start of a conversation (controversy) between a Byzantine emperor and a Persian intellectual on "faith and reason." Pope Benedict says this very thing in the sentence immediately before the paragraph that contains this story.

The pope goes on to discuss how the use of force to spread faith, any faith, is against reason. Remember, this was not a statement of his opinion or fact, but an example used to begin a discussion about faith and reason.

I doubt that most people who have heard about the marches, threats, attacks and the calls for the pope to step down have taken the time to find out what actually was said and how it was said. I printed out the entire speech from the Vatican Web site. Pope Benedict XVI is a very erudite man who has studied and taught extensively. To anyone who thinks that he said anything derogatory or inflammatory about Islam, I ask you to read what he actually said, not what some reporter or Islamic cleric or politician says he said. And if you think he doesn't know anything about the teachings of Islam, or doesn't understand the teachings of Islam, then you definitely need to read his entire speech.

The pope's point was that faith and reason can and must function together. Excluding reason diminishes faith and marginalizes it, while exalting human reason and excluding faith minimizes our potential and denies our spiritual reality and connection to the Almighty God. I think the reaction throughout the Muslim world to his talk offers strong proof in support of his thesis.

Robert Cranston of Saugerties is a Catholic layman and accountant. He is 61 years old and has a wife and three children.

[Rasputin]

Pope Benedict XVI Reaffirms Church's Stance Against Anti-Semitism

Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday reaffirmed the Catholic Church's condemnation of all forms of anti-Semitism and called for greater cooperation between Catholics, Jews and Muslims.

In a meeting at the Vatican with representatives of the Anti- Defamation League, a United States-based organization that fights anti-Semitism and the defamation of the Jewish people, Benedict said the Church "deplores all forms of hatred or persecution directed against the Jews and all displays of anti-Semitism at any time and from any source."

The pope also called for improved dialogue between peoples and between cultures.

"To do this effectively requires a deepening of our mutual understanding and a shared dedication to building a society of ever greater justice and peace. We need to know each other better and, on the strength of that mutual discovery, to build relationships not just of tolerance but of authentic respect."

"Indeed, Jews, Christians and Muslims share many common convictions, and there are numerous areas of humanitarian and social engagement in which we can and must cooperate," the pope said.

In a separate audience at the Vatican, the pope also met with Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

While at the Vatican, Kaczynski took time to visit the tomb of the late Polish-born Pope John Paul II.

[Rasputin]

Pope to visit Turkey despite row

The Vatican has confirmed that Pope Benedict XVI will travel to Turkey in November, his first visit to a predominantly Muslim country.
The Pontiff will visit Ankara, Izmir, Istanbul and ancient Ephesus during the trip, which will begin on 28 November.

The trip has been overshadowed by a row over remarks he made about Islam.

Muslims were angered when the Pope quoted a 14th Century Christian emperor who said the Prophet Mohammed had brought only "evil and inhuman" things.

In the speech at Regensburg University in September, Pope Benedict explored the historical and philosophical differences between Islam and Christianity, and the relationship between violence and faith.

Stressing that they were not his own words, he quoted Emperor Manuel II Paleologos of the Byzantine Empire, the Orthodox Christian empire which had its capital in what is now the Turkish city of Istanbul.

The speech sparked several days of protests in Muslim countries and calls for an unequivocal apology.

In response the Pope said that the remarks had been "misunderstood" and that he regretted the reaction they had caused.

The visit, which will run until 1 December, is the result of an official invite by the Turkish government.

The Pontiff will begin his tour with a one-night stay in Ankara, capital of the officially secular state. The second night will be spent in Ephesus - home to an ancient Christian community.

The Pope will then spend two nights in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city and the place where Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I is based.

Pope Benedict will call upon the patriarch, who is the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians.

[dasa424]

Well done Pope Benedict.................well done