A Sunday Sermon

Can't we all just get along? Apparently not. The one thing George Bush and I agree on is that there is a war raging for the ideological conscience of the world. However, while Bush frames the struggle as democracy versus "Islamo-facism" whatever that is, I see the war as a reprise of a war already fought in the Enlightenment; a war of reason against superstition and fable. The current row between Pope Benedict and the religious fundamentalists in the Islamic world is a perfect example of how the battles of this war are being waged. The Pope’s words were clearly taken out of context. He apologized, which in my opinion he shouldn’t have done, and now the political leaders in the Islamic world are whipping their people into a frenzy by claiming that the apology wasn’t good enough and that the Pope has committed a grevious sin against Islam. People are starting to speak of this controversy as akin to the cartoons of Mohammed posted by the Danish press last year. Since the political leaders of Jihad aren’t really interested in whether the Pope has been sufficiently contrite for speaking what is essentially the truth about Islam, no apology issued from the Vatican is likely to be thought of as adequate. The Pope is about to learn something that we on the American left are all too familiar with; you cannot reason with crazy people. People who run their lives according to mysterious teachings handed down in sacred books are not prone to listen to reason. The Pope must find this lesson particularly ironic considering his own sermon of several days ago in which he chastised the west for relying too much on reason and not enough on faith.

Perhaps ontologically there isn’t much difference between the religious myths of Christianity and Islam, but Catholics aren’t rioting in the streets, burning mosques and killing mullahs. Islamic leaders need to realize that until they can bring their fanatical followers under some semblance of control, the Western leaders will be issuing more pronouncements along those of 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus, which I repeat here: "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."

The Islamists argue that the violent teaching in the Koran have no place in Islam today but of course this is complete nonsense. The reaction to the Pope’s statement by the Islamic masses has largely consisted of burning Churches, rioting in the streets and killing nuns as opposed to starting a dialogue on differences in matters of faith. This, to me is not a religion of peace and non-violence. But then again, I suppose it is a matter of degree. One could make the argument that invading a soverign nation without provocation for the purpose of imposing your political ideology is also emblematic of a sort of religious-centered violence which only appears as rational because you believe God is on your side. If the leaders of this country truly believe that God is calling the shots and that he prefers the United States to other countries, then how can anyone expect the Islamists to believe that this isn't a crusade by the West to, in essence, take back the holy land?