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Stand down, Saladin

Looks like the Holy War odds have just lengthened:

Pope Benedict XVI has said he is sorry that a speech in which he referred to Islam has offended Muslims.

Only fair, I reckon, given the superhuman levels of tolerance and generous spirit of the latter.

17 comments to Stand down, Saladin

  • Paul Marks

    I have already commented on this – under Samizdata quote of the day.

  • Paul Marks

    However, I will comment again.

    The apology will not make much difference. So many of the politicians, theologians and (let us be blunt) populations of the Islamic world are just on a different wavelength.

  • Robert

    I dont know what he is apologising for, saying islam is a violent religion is like saying the sky’s blue.
    The fact that the degenerate baboons then start to riot and destroy everythng merely demonstrates the truth of his statement.
    Islam is a cult of murderous savages, without any redeeming feature, every action taken by its denizens merely reinforces this idea.

  • Colin

    Muslims violent? Does the pope shit in the woods?
    He did not retract, merely stating he was sorry for the pain caused to those for whom the truth was hard to stomach.

  • The Dude

    I know alot of the muslims in Saudi couldn’t read the Koran and were reliant on the wahhabi imams for their info.

    Maybe we should donate a printing press and a translator.

  • Eric

    For about the first time ever [in several papacies] I as a Christian apostate and in general despising all religions as anti-human find myself actually respecting His Holiness for his original statement. I only wish he hadn’t ‘apologised’ and had had the guts to stick by his original truth.

  • Lexington Green

    I saw the headline, and I was surprised, since it did not seem in character for Ratzinger.

    What the article said was:

    “The Holy Father is very sorry that some passages of his speech may have sounded offensive to the sensibilities of Muslim believers.”

    He did not really apologize. He basically said, if you misunderstood me and were therefore offended, I’m sorry about that. Not “I was wrong, sorry”. He wasn’t wrong. I am glad he did not actually apologize. Apologies and similar appeasement only make fascists despise you more and ratchet up their threats, violence and demands.

  • Here here Lexington Green.

    He did NOT apologise. The vatican statement quite clearly insists that anyone who was offended needs to read the full text.

    Besides, he does not even say “sorry”. He “expresses regret”. Not the same thing at all, given the context of the rest of the statement.

  • Trofim

    But you have to realise that the muzzies will up and up the ante, and the pope well knows that innocent people, that is, Christians are going to suffer at their hands, in the long run, if he says nothing. This is a strategic “apology”. If there were no Christians in muslim-dominated countries, he would have far greater freedom of action. But there are, and muslims know it.

  • Midwesterner

    Well ….

    Reading the statement, new Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said the Pope’s position on Islam was in line with Vatican teaching that the Church “esteems Muslims, who adore the only God”

    Let’s hope it was the archaic definition of esteems.

  • Deleted. Utterly and weirdly off-topic!

  • Bruce Hoult

    “You’re an ape-faced turd!”

    “Hey! I resemble that! I demand an apology!”

    “I’m sorry you’re an ape-faced turd”

    Seems to me that’s about how it is.

  • “[A]ny remarks which offend Islam and Muslims are against the teachings of Christ.” — Coptic Pope Shenouda III(Link)

  • guy herbert

    Yes, I saw that pronouncement by another Pope, too. My assumption is he’s trying to pre-empt any pogroms against Copts. Surely no Christian could believe that literally (“I am the way and the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me…” etc), but Muslims who revere Jesus, but are unfamiliar with the Christian version of his teachings, might conceivably do so.

  • Paul Marks

    The written and (from today) verbal efforts to say sorry (sorry for quoting a 14th century Byzantine Emperor who said something that the Pope never said he agreed with – or rather sorry for the Muslims being upset [upset in the head would be a better way of describing the Muslims]) have not saved an elderly Italian nun from being murdered in Somalia (not random violence – the local Islamic authorities were busy promoting violence).

    here have also been (of course) the normal riots and attacks on churches (including bombings in the “West Bank” – and area that streaches from the Jordan river to only a few miles from the Mediterranean sea).

    The reaction to the Pope from the govenments of Pakistan, Morocco, Turkey (and so on) has been disgusting.

    As I have said on another thread, I am no longer interested if these governments act they way they do out of belief or out of fear of Islamic opinion.

    For Sunni Muslims the main authority in interpreting Islam is the theological university in Cairo, and for Shia Muslims it is the religious authorities in Iraq and Iran.

    Neither interpretation has much to do with the “tolerant Islam” myth pushed by the B.B.C. and others.

  • Alice

    Dhimmi BBC (your link Thaddeus) !
    Dismiss your old politicians, tories and leftists, with their buddy-journalists, before your country is has submitted and endebted as France is.

    The Vatican said he is “”Benedetto XVI è vivamente dispiaciuto [HE IS DISPLEASED THAT] che alcuni passi del suo discorso abbiano potuto suonare come offensivi della sensibilitÁ  dei credenti musulmani che siano stati interpretati in modo del tutto non corrispondente alle sue intenzioni. »
    The pope did not apologise he said

    « In questo momento desidero solo aggiungere che sono vivamente rammaricato [VERY SADDENED BY THE REACTION] per le reazioni suscitate da un breve passo del mio discorso all’UniversitÁ  di Ratisbona, ritenuto offensivo per la sesnsibilitÁ  dei credenti musulmani mentre si trattava di una citazione di un testo medioevale che non esprime in nessun modo il mio pensiero personale (…) »

  • Was there ever a time when Muslims liked the Pope?