Saturday, September 16, 2006

Foot in Mouth Disease

Pope Benedict XVI recently put his foot in his mouth with statements that join in with the trend of bashing Muslims (e.g. Sam Harris ). As I read the Pope's speech, he is continuing the misleading description of Islam as a "religion of the sword." I found it even more troubling that he somehow seems to be trying to say that Christianity is compatible with reason, while Islam is dedicated to faith without reason. On Saturday's ATC, NPR minimizes the Pope's remarks and gives a lot of time to John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter who categorizes the criticisms of the Pope's remarks as belonging to "sound-bite culture" and "P-C sensibilities." For those curious about the issue, I'd recommend Juan Cole's remarks on the subject.

1 comment:

E. said...

And the suggestion that the Catholic church has somehow refrained from using the sword (and the musket, and the rack) over the centuries is disingenuous....