I’m certainly not the first to comment on this, but it’s been rattling around in my head for a couple of days.
Action and reaction:
- The pope makes comments that, when taken out of context, can be interpreted as implying that Islam is a violent religion.
- Some Muslims react by shooting a nun and others by fire bombing a church.
I really feel like a wing-nut for saying this, but…
- Why are we not hearing equal outrage in the Muslim world at these violent reactions?
- Why, when Madonna used crucifixion imagery in her latest tour (BBC), did we not get riots and violent protests at the Vatican?
- Why, when Jews are insulted, do we not see violent protests in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem?
- Why can various Muslims (including the leader of Iran) call for the destruction of Israel while we non-Muslims are expected to tip-toe around troubling ideas found in the Muslim world?
Update: Just after posting this, I read in the newest The Week of a Dutch priest who, angered at Madonna’s depiction of the crucifixion, phoned “in a fake bomb threat to a Modonna concert. […] He was tracked down easily because he called from his home phone.” Google turns up a few stories about it.
I think if you look at it in those terms, you’re removing the issue from the historical, sociological, and political contexts. I don’t think you can comparing the behavior of well-off and (by worldwide standards) reasonably well-educated Westerners to the behavior of poverty-stricken people whose violent acts are supported by government and paramilitary organizations and reach any meaningful conculsion about the value of a particular faith.
You’ll notice that American muslims, for the most part, are not rioting in the streets here in the US.
That said, I’m not feeling all that great about the prospects for civilized religion what with people like Luce organizing post-apocalyptic religious tent revivals.
Of course, who knows what those protesting were told the pope said? If you read his whole lecture, it’s clear the pope wasn’t condemning Islam.
Translation must be an issue as well. I’d bet many of the reports of B-XVI’s comments in the Muslim world were based on the English translations of the original German speech. Add to it the fact that the pope was quoting a French source and it’s easy to see how things could get twisted.
So there are certainly other aspects at play here, not the least of which being the socioeconomic imbalance. But there are a great number of poor Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, etc. and you just don’t see that kind of vitriol in those communities when they feel their religion has been offended.
Will this result in wide-spread violence?
That’s what I’m afraid of. Such mega-rallies certainly read like incitement to violence.