Turks demand arrest of Pope Benedict XVI.

[CBHagman]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/09/19/pope.turks.reut/index.html?section=cnn_topstories

Employees of Ankara's Directorate General for Religious Affairs, or Diyanet, presented a petition to the Justice Ministry asking it to launch a probe into the pope's remarks and to detain him when he arrives, the Anatolian news agency said.

They said the pontiff had violated Turkish laws upholding freedom of belief and thought by "insulting" Islam and the Prophet Mohammed.


Folks, I work for a newswire and was aghast when a journalist brought up the fact that the Turks had demanded that Pope Benedict be arrested upon his arrival in Turkey. This would be an arrest for quoting another person, as seen in the text below.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1873278,00.html

The quotation from the article below sets some kind of record for the irony-challenged.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060919/ts_nm/pope_turkey_dc

Muslims worldwide have been angered by remarks the Pope made in a lecture last week that they said portrayed Islam as a religion tainted by violence and irrationality.

More coverage below:

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article1616637.ece

[Matilda]

1. The more I think about the Pope's speech,

the more I'm inclined to think it was quite deliberate. The alternative
is to believe he's naive and didn't realise the impact his statement
would have; that's something I don't believe for a minute. He's sharp
and shrewd, and if I can figure out that Muslims are going to be angry
after what he said, he certainly could.

The puzzle for me is what he's trying to achieve, but it does add to a
picture that's slowly been forming in my mind - that this is a Pope who
takes literally the old (and never refuted) claim of the Catholic Church
as the one true Church. He has previously refused to meet with Islamic
leaders in Germany in a mosque, but that was excused by the fact that
he was in an area where the extremist Muslim Brotherhood are very
powerful. Then he annoyed a lot of Jews when he visited Auschwitz and
excused the Nazi atrocities as being the work of a few criminal minds,
sidestepping the issue of collective German guilt (and his membership
in the Hitler Youth - it was possible not to join, although it did
make life difficult for those who chose that course).

I'm more and more getting a feeling that this Pope holds stricly to the
words of the Creed" "we acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of
sins". Especially as he never did apologise - he simply regretted
that some Muslims found his words offensive. That's not an apology.

Somebody had better get his back in Turkey, because he's right about
one thing - there's no shortage of Muslims willing to take violent
measures when they're angry.


Editing to add a P.S: I think the Pope has said something that needs
to be said, but it could have been said in a more circumspect way to
avoid the obvious reaction.

[Matilda]

2. Uri Avnery has an interesting piece on this speech in Gush Shalom.

A Jewish atheist seems to have a better handle on the background of the Pope's reference than many
Christian scholars:

I hope this link will work; sometimes Gush Shalom can be difficult to access - you may have to hit
the green "Go" button to bring it up:

http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1159094813/


I think the Muslim hardliners are doing their people a disservice by encouraging the kind of mindless
violence that erupted after the Pope's speech; they're playing into the hands of the right-wingers
in providing the pretext for justification of their continuing "war on terror". But after reading
Avnery's piece, I'm more convinced than ever that Benedict knew exactly what he was doing, and that
bothers me.

[Matilda]

3. I'm worrying at the Pope's speech like a dog with a bone.

I just can't get over the feeling that he set this up deliberately.

James Carroll has written a very good piece, discussing it much more knowledgably than I ever
could:

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0925-21.htm


He sees, I think, what I see - that this isn't really an inclusive Pope, but one who does believe
in the supremacy of the Catholic faith above all others, and I really think this is what he wanted
to convey. But because of his words, and because of violent Islamic reaction (which he must have
foreseen, because he believes that's a standard Muslim mode of behaviour), an innocent nun was killed
in Africa. Did he, even to himself, confess his own culpability in her murder? That would weigh
heavily on my mind, if I were in his shoes.

I think his statement was deliberately provocative, but I'm still not sure what he wanted to achieve.
I think we're all becoming a bit overwhelmed with the Muslim propensity for violent action, even
though many of us on the left of politics try to understand where it comes from. But it is
particularly distressing to see the innocents suffering - the thousands of women and children
slaughtered by their co-religionists, especially in Iraq. For that reason, I don't think the Pope's
comments were particularly helpful if what he wants is to assist in dialogue that will result in a
lessening of ME tensions and a relief from the killing spree in Iraq. Bad enough the world has to
deal with GWB and his idiotic beliefs without this learned and intelligent man also poking the fire.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

4. Oh good God.

:eyes: