Getting a bad rap can be depressingIn his analysis of Pope Benedict's address (12 September, 2006) delivered to scientists at the University of Regensburg -- where Benedict XVI was a professor and vice rector from 1969 to 1971 -- Andrew Sullivan says:
Benedict insists on the Greek "logos" as inherent in the Christian tradition, and "logos" demands a freely chosen faith, and certainly not a faith imposed by violence. What's striking to me about Benedict's account of Islam is his suggestion that compulsion and violence are not extrinsic to Islam but intrinsic to its vision of humankind's relationship with the divine.
[...]
Without a Muslim reformation, a central part of Islam is always and intrinsically false. And it is this divide that lies at the heart of our current civilizational conflict. This seems to me to be the Pope's message. In the current climate, it is an inflammatory but courageous one. [Link, The Daily Dish]
I find it terrible that people have come to think this about Islam. Then, I found this on Yahoo Answers, and what people say there (scroll down to the "Answer" section at the bottom) is even more depressing.
1 comments:
There can't be compulsion in religion. As an analogy, if someone forced another to love him/her using the sword, you can have the body perhaps but not the soul!
I think a lot of muslims today, are too lazy (pardon me, can't find a better word or perhaps my subconscious wished not to be subtle..??) to put on their 'thinking hat' and read in between the lines. Plenty of life's secrets in that 'in-between-line' realm.
Thought provoking entry.
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