Draw Your Own Conclusions

In a speech on September 12 in Germany The pope enraged Muslims by quoting 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who said: "Show me just what Mohammed 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."

Since then:

• On Sunday 09/17/2006 an Italian nun and her bodyguard were murdered in a children's hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia - The nun was shot three times in the back.
  
  
• An al Qaeda group in Egypt called for the German-born pope, who is 79, to be punished by "strict Islamic Shariah law" for insulting their religion.
  
  
• An al Qaeda umbrella group in Iraq has vowed war on "worshippers of the cross."
  
  
• Seven Catholic churches in the Palestinian territories were vandalized this past weekend.

I have had very limited exposure to muslims but the ones that I have met have identified themselves as peaceful and have indicated to me that the violent 'militant' muslims that I see on TV are not the true followers of Allah. It leaves me in a bit of a conundrum as far as who to believe, as I get conflicting accounts of what is actually written in the Qur'an. It seems that the verses which permit violence against unbelievers are preceded by the qualifier that the violence is permissable if it is done in response to an oppressor. It does not seem to go into any great detail about what constitutes oppression worthy of violent reprisal.

These same muslims that I have talked to are also very quick to point out the ruthlessness of the Christian church (Specifically the Catholics) throughout history from the crusades up until now. As an in-law to the Filipino community I have heard many tales of abuse and exploitations of the Filipino people at the hands of the Catholic church. Each story has left me shaking my head and contemplating Mark 8:36 and thinking to myself that even under the authority of the church, these clergy who terrorized the Filipino people could not have been true Christians.

Perhaps then too not all who claim to be muslims or do violence in the name of Allah are truly muslims.

Oh by the way:

"Benedict's main point - and few have noted this - is that the West, unless it recovers a vision of God, cannot engage in a fruitful dialogue with the other great cultures of the world, which have a basic religious conviction about reality. Among these great cultures, of course, is Islam. His entire talk was focused on this point."

(Excerpt from an article by Dr . Robert Moynihan)