Pope's apology fails to stem Muslim anger

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060918/ts_afp/vaticanpopeislam_060918112134

Pope's apology fails to stem Muslim anger

1 hour, 34 minutes ago

ROME (AFP) -Pope Benedict XVI's personal apology for criticising Islam has failed to stem anger in some parts of the Muslim world despite calls for calm from Islamic and Western leaders.


Hundreds of angry demonstrators burned an effigy of the pope in the southern port city of Basra on Monday, while Al-Qaeda said it will wage jihad (holy war) until the "servant of the cross" (the pope), and the West, are defeated.

Iran said Benedict's apology did not go far enough and called on the 79-year-old pontiff to admit he had made a mistake......

"The pope was right to give these explanations and he said that his comments were badly reported," Tehran government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham said.

"These explanations were necessary but not sufficient. He needs to say more clearly that what he said was an error and correct it," he added.

[AngryAmish]

1. I-R-O-N-Y

[William769]

2. The Popes half hearted apology

Fell on deaf ears, but then again no matter what he said would have fallen on deaf ears.

[papau]

3. LOL - so true! - :-)

:-)

violent folks in a given religion will go violent if someone says that some folks in that religion are violent.

seems logical ..... :-(

[goddess40]

4. fake apologies will do that

sorry your offended by what I said - screw you isn't too effective

[Rude Horner]

5. I've been thinking the same thing

He apologizes for the anger that his comments caused. Um...that's not apologizing for his comments. It's apoligizing for their reaction.

[winter999]

7. Just like this dialog -

:o You are a violent individual.
:mad: You insult me. I'll KILL you for that!

I don't see what the Pope has to apologize for. Sounds like he's calling it for what it is. Truth Hurts. (Now let's firebomb some churches and kill a 77 year old nun.)

[skooooo]

6. doesn't justify violence

[humbled_opinion]

9. Exaclty my point... Words do not justify violence.

[ShortnFiery]

11. P.S. I still think your Prophet brings evil :P ... yes, less than sincere

despite the crazies - he didn't have to say TO BEGIN WITH that inflammatory statement.

Ya know, they would not have went as crazy, now our Fundy Crazies are going to want to Kill for The Christian God.

Oh, how it goes round and round. :crazy:

[Julius Civitatus]

8. I'm divided over this matter

This is how I see this issue:

- On one hand, I think the pope was not prudent by bringing a quote from the renaissance to criticize those who (in this day and age) use violence for religious purposes. Out of curiosity I have read the full quote that Ratrzinger read in his speech, and I actually don't think it is all that offensive, but that's just my opinion. Again, being the pope, he should be more savvy at dealing with other religions or even looking like he may be criticizing other religions. He should exercise maximum diplomacy.

That said...

- On the other hand, I'm getting SICK AND TIRED at the violent overreaction of Muslims around the world every time anyone says something they don't like. Whether it is an editorial cartoon or a speech by the pope, their reaction is just predictable. Burning churches in Palestine, shooting elderly nuns on the back? WTF? For a f*cking comment?

Enough of this shit. This is not acceptable, and the international community should figure out a way to deal this crap. These INTOLERANT attitudes are medieval and have no place in today's world.

Am I the only one that finds it ironic how these radical Muslims go on violent riots every time someone in the Western world mentions that they use their religion for violent purposes? Hello????

[AX10]

10. I agree!

[ShortnFiery]

13. Well, as Christians, we too have had our VIOLENT- if not totally

f**king nuts MURDEROUS history too.

Therefore, I fail to see that we are in a position to call the Muslims - The Most Crazy?

Besides - Our Pope did call Mohammad as a Prophet who brought "EVIL."

"Not Prudent" is a profound understatement. :(

[Wally101]

16. First off, I don't see where we're calling Muslims

The Most Crazy. We're simply stating if someone insults your religion by calling its founder violent, it's probably not the best idea to advocate KILLING that person, kinda goes to support the original comment, correctly or not.

Secondly, Muslims around the world really need to start denouncing these kinds of actions more loudly, just as christians need to denounce the actions of the Pope for stirring up a shitfest he didn't need to.

The attitude of "we can't criticize because we've done stuff in the past" just will not wash. If everyone follows that rule, then it follows that no people will be allowed to criticize anything or anyone and that really isn't going to help the situtation in the world out.

Mark

[CJCRANE]

18. I think many muslims

do denounce violence, but it's a mixed bag and especially given there are 1.5 billion of them there are going to be a lot of nutcases.

What if the Hindus had the oil and had been invaded, tortured and demonized maybe a lot of Hindus would up in arms.
But then again they had Gandhi I suppose, although I doubt he would be much use against the neocons.

[ShortnFiery]

21. Hey, those of US without sin, cast the first stone, judgement of others

:shrug:

[Wally101]

24. Well, since we all have sins, I expect this

messageboard to become extremely quiet if we all follow that ideal.

Mark

[Tellurian]

32. I say it was an INTENTIONAL ACT!

The quote had to be researched by some Monsignor underling and brought to the Pope as he requested.
The Pope knew exactly the reaction he would illicit from Muslims; IF he made the quote Public.

Shame on you Rat-zinger. You surely aren't following on your predecessor's footsteps; he was a PeaceMaker...

You, on the other hand, are as TOXIC to Catholicism as Botulism is to Chicken Soup!

[kurth]

27. Did Muslims ever apologize for their anti-whatever venom?

'Nuf said.

[breakaleg]

12. The guy should know better. He has a huge responsibility to think

about how his words will be interpreted and act accordingly.

[CreekDog]

14. the Pope has every right and responsibility to criticize Mohammed

It is in keeping with the Pope's religion to criticize and highlight Mohammed's actions and statements --especially those which do not shed the best light on the religion he created.

Furthermore, as long as Muslims are calling Jesus one of their "prophets" which is not in keeping with what he said he was, I think this dialog is necessary. Certainly the statements regarding violence stand in stark contrast to Jesus' "turn the other cheek". It's worth noting that the Catholic church has been against violence of war as well --that's where it appears bringing up the subject is relevant as a point of contrast.

Whichever religion avoids violence as a response to words is the more tolerant one.

[CJCRANE]

19. But don't you think the words

are part of an atmosphere that demonizes muslims and ends up being the justification for killing them?

Granted the muslims fight back much more, but let's remember what happened to the last group that were demonized (in the mid 20th century).

[marshall]

17. He spoke unwisely, but this is not justified

When he quotes somebody, he shouldn't be held accountable for other writings that were done over 500 years ago by that person--certainly not in this week before the ALA sponsored "Banned Books Week". That is like Planned Parenthood being called on the carpet for Margaret Sanger's views about race.

[brentspeak]

15. Don't these freaks have anything better to do with their time

than to burn effigies of the Pope and threaten jihad against everyone else?

[maxsolomon]

20. that's part of the problem

given the unemployment rates in islamic countries, many young men actually don't have anything better to do.

[ShortnFiery]

22. Hey, why don't we kick Halliburton out and put the Iraqis, et. al.

back to work. :-)

[maxsolomon]

23. that was (part of) my post-inavasion plan

unlike the freaking president, i HAD a plan for occupation. i called it "The Love Bomb".

it involved full employment of men, protection of cultural assets, sealing the borders, restoration of the marshes, and CLEAN WATER & ELECTRICITY.

[Canadian_moderate]

25. A colleague of mine is a Catholic person born in Pakistan

More specifically, she is Catholic of Goan (part of India) descent who was born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan and was part of a small but vibrant minority group. Many Goan's livin g in Pakistan haved since emigrated to safer places to live.

I had a discussion with my colleague about these recent events and asked if her family was okay and safe. Her response was that she was disappointed that the pope had raised this issue and fired up Muslims around the globe. She said that it makes life very difficult and dangerous for Catholics and other Christian minorities in predominantly Muslim countries. So in short, it was mainly the consequences of his actions that upset her.

I believe that the pope also expressed regret at the consequences of his actions, probably for similar reasons in that it places many Catholics in the Muslim world at risk. Although ill-chosen, his words certainly hit a nerve and seem to be quite accurate to some extent. Damn, it would be nice if he had been proven wrong, but the vocal and violent fundamentalist minority is getting all the attention.

[Matariki]

26. maybe because it was along the lines of 'sorry you hurt' where i hit you.

lame and insincere. and consistant with other church 'apologies' that amount to blaming the victim.

[NOLADEM]

28. Because he didn't apologize

He republican-apologized...I am sorry if you were wrong in how you mis-heard what I said, and if you are mad because of your mistake, I am sorry that you are mad at me, so don't be mad at me anymore, ok?

Apologies never were a Nazi strongpoint.

[SKKY]

29. He apologized!!! Get over it!!!! For fucks sake people. Let's get on...

...with life here.

[zanne]

30. Who let him say that

You can't tell me the pope doesn't have speechwriters and handlers. Who let him think he could just come out and say something like that? Christ, in kindergarten you learn not to insult people.

[VegasWolf]

31. This Pope and Mel Gibson just have to stop drinking together! nt

[Karenina]

33. YES IT DID!!! But the MEDIA has a stake

in highlighting the asshole rabblerousers and COMPLETELY IGNORING the mainstream who are calling for calm.

[Acadia Blue]

34. He is a senile old conservative who wants to bring the church closer to

fundamentalism. The African candidate would have made a real progressive pope. Instead we get this half witted nazi.