Category Archives: Islam

'Benedict the Brave'

Islam, Religion

“Those capable of following a rational argument understood the significance and purpose of Pope Benedict XVI’s words at the University of Regensburg. He did not misspeak; he was not quoted out of context; and his controversial historical reference vis-Ã -vis the irrationality of Islam was not randomly selected or incidental to his central thesis (faith and reason). Although very much outside the consensus, the pope was as purposeful as he was plain spoken. That he was driven to retract the analytical truth at which he had arrived is an indictment of those who menaced him into a mea culpa…”

The complete column, “Benedict the Brave,” is here.

Islam’s Performative Contradiction

Islam

Benedict XVI, who happens to be a very learned man—far more than his predecessor, the dhimmi pontiff—has proposed an apparently preposterous proposition: Islam might be the source of the violence across the Islamic world (even in places where American soldiers have never set foot). And what is the response on the Muslim Street?

Witness it here, in pictures.

To protest the implication that Islam is violent, the faithful get violent!

Self-contradiction is a condition the Greek philosophers deemed “less than human, less than coherent, less than sane.” The riots on the Muslim Street are a performative contradiction—a most extreme manifestation of self-contradiction, and hence of insanity and savagery.

Islam's Performative Contradiction

Islam

Benedict XVI, who happens to be a very learned man—far more than his predecessor, the dhimmi pontiff—has proposed an apparently preposterous proposition: Islam might be the source of the violence across the Islamic world (even in places where American soldiers have never set foot). And what is the response on the Muslim Street?

Witness it here, in pictures.

To protest the implication that Islam is violent, the faithful get violent!

Self-contradiction is a condition the Greek philosophers deemed “less than human, less than coherent, less than sane.” The riots on the Muslim Street are a performative contradiction—a most extreme manifestation of self-contradiction, and hence of insanity and savagery.

Letter of the Week: Benedict the Brave

Islam, Religion, The West

During a trip to Germany, the Holy See touched on the topic of Jihad, in “an address about faith and reason” at Regensburg University. The Associate Press reports the following:

Citing historic Christian commentary on holy war and forced conversion, the pontiff quoted from a 14th-century Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologos.
The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war, the pope said. He said, I quote, ‘Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.’
Clearly aware of the sensitivity of the issue, Benedict added, ‘I quote,’ twice before pronouncing the phrases on Islam and described them as ‘brusque,’ while neither explicitly agreeing with nor repudiating them.
‘The emperor goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable,’ Benedict said.
‘Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul,’ the pope said, issuing an open invitation to dialogue among cultures.

So how do Muslims respond to western intellectuals who convolute about the values of dialogue and coexistence, while suggesting all may not be well with Islam? By rioting, of course, and calling for the heads of the offenders.

Letter of the Week is apropos, courtesy of Dennis O’Keeffe, PhD., Professor of Social Science at the University of Buckingham. Dennis, whom I had the pleasure of meeting at a Liberty-Fund conference, is also Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs:

Dear Ilana,

Have you heard that his Holiness is in trouble? For citing a Byzantine Emperor’s rebuke of Mohammed for claiming Divine endorsement of his campaign of conversion by murder and the sword. Having taught hundreds of Muslims at high school and university, I have no trouble saying that almost all of them were nice people. As with most populations the majority are good. We are going around in circles, however, if we do not notice that the Koran justifies religious conquest. If Muslims are offended by this, let them get together and have the kind of Reformation which was the precondition in the Christian case for Christians of different persuasions to stop murdering each other. Or dumping the faith would do. I suspect that this has become a more difficult option now, because of the protection of nonsense which multiculturalism bestows on backward religions. Twenty years ago it was quite common for Muslim students to tell lecturers like myself that they do not believe in Islam. Would they even dare to say it now? Would the curators of the national museum of Mexico City dare to say what the Aztecs were really like?

—Dennis