Did the Pope really insult Muslums around the world?

Pope Benedict gave a speech in Germany in September 2006 in which he referred to a statement made centuries ago in which a 14th century Byzantine Christian emperor said that the words of the Qu'orn (Muslum holy book) were evil and inhuman. This caused outrage around the world. What follows is a letter I sent to a Canadian cardinal in which I find fault with the Pope's remarks.

There are times when we say things that can be construed as insulting even though in our hearts, it is not our intention to offend. This is what happened when Pope Benedict, while giving a lecture at his old alma mater, the University of Regensburg, cited criticisms of the Prophet Mohammed by a 14th century Byzantine Christian emperor, Manuel II, who was debating with a learned Persian. The quotation included;

“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.” unquote

I don’t think anyone believes that His Holiness misquoted Manuel II but his timing was most unfortunate. We are currently living in an era where radical Islamists are killing people all over the world and doing it on any pretext they can devise for themselves. Gasoline by itself is inert but put a match to it and you know what follows. When the Pope made his remarks, he in effect, put a match to the gasoline and now we are in the conflagration that ensued.

Anyone familiar with the Qu’oran realizes that there are statements in that holy book that do in fact promote putting to the sword, non believers. Let me quote from a translated version from verse ‘008.012’

“When your Lord revealed to the angels: I am with you, therefore make firm those who believe. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.” unquote

I suppose one could interpret that passage to mean that the people who were alive during the time of Mohammed, Islam’s greatest prophet, the spreading of the word came about by the use of the sword. That doesn’t mean that that directive should be followed in our time any more than the directive that people who work on the Sabbath should be stoned to death.

Where the Pope blundered was when he said and again I quote from his lecture;

“Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman.....”

The 14th century Byzantine Christian emperor made a terrible blunder when he used the word, “only” when making that statement to the Persian. His statement could be construed to mean that the only things in the text of the Qu’oran are evil and inhuman.

I have read the Qu’oran and there are some very beautiful passages in it that are not evil and inhuman. I will quote some of them. The following are from verses, 004.002, 004.007 and 004.008, for example.

“And give to the orphans their property, and do not substitute worthless (things) for (their) good (ones), and do not devour their property (as an addition) to your own property; this is surely a great crime.”

“Men shall have a portion of what the parents and the near relatives leave, and women shall have a portion of what the parents and the near relatives leave, whether there is little or much of it; a stated portion.”

“And when there are present at the division the relatives and the orphans and the needy, give them (something) out of it and speak to them kind words.”

How can anyone who has read the Qu’oran say that that holy book is filled with verses that are only evil and inhuman?

The mistake the Pope made was that he didn’t go further and state that the Qu’oran has many verses that promote peace, justice, forgiveness and understanding.

Admittedly, suggesting that non believers should have their heads cut off with a sword and their fingertips chopped off is evil and inhuman but we must be mindful that when the Qu’oran was written, doing such things to human beings may very well have not been considered evil and inhuman. The Old Testament in which Muslims accept as Christians do, have many examples of massacres that were at those times, considered just and honourable.

When Hitler massacred the Jews, he couldn’t justify his actions simply because it was OK to kill innocent persons thousands of years earlier. As the centuries moved forward, so did the hearts and minds of human beings. In this day and age, we don’t condone slaughtering innocent people on the premise that they are non-believers. It would be evil and inhuman and I sincerely believe that all honest and god-loving Muslims believe that also.

An historical context has arisen since the Crusades. Muslims could not ignore those wars against Islam anymore than Muslims can ignore the wars of today occurring in Afghanistan, Iraq or the recent conflict in Lebanon.

The strong words Pope Benedict used in describing Islam, especially those inexpedient words emanating from the 14th century, ran the risk of offense. He infuriated a great many Muslims around the world and his apology simply wasn’t enough to quench the fires of hatred that followed his untimely address at the university in Germany. Worse yet, the Islamic radicals used his speech to inflame more hatred of Christians, resulting in a Catholic nun in Somalia being murdered, many churches desecrated and many people injured.

In reading the text of the Pope’s address, it is easy to see where he was going with his speech especially when he said;

“The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable.” unquote

The Pope was right when he tried to get the message across to those who heard his lecture that people in our time should not be trying to force others into accepting their faith under the threat of death---something many radical Islamic regimes are attempting to do.

I think he could have bolstered his speech if he had admitted that Christians in centuries past were no better and that Christianity also did evil and inhuman things to the non-believers in the past. Instead, he omitted that deplorable part of the history of Christianity from his speech, leaving the Muslims to suspect that he was blaming them and only them for the wrongs done against other human beings. It is far easier for all of us to accept criticism from someone when the critic admits his own failings.

The Pope’s second blunder occurred when he attempted to apologize for his unfortunate remarks. In the presence of more than 40,000 people, the Pope said he had chosen the theme of the relationship between faith and reason by saying to the throng;

"In order to introduce my audience to the dramatic nature and current importance of the subject, I quoted some words from a Christian-Muslim dialogue from the 14th century in which the Christian - the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus - presented to his Muslim interlocutor, in a manner we find incomprehensibly brusque, the problem of the relationship between faith and violence.”

He went on to say: "This quotation, unfortunately, has lent itself to misunderstandings.”

There is an understatement if I ever heard one.

His Holiness was apologizing for causing the conflagration that followed his speech rather than apologizing for quoting the Byzantine Christian emperor. That is akin to a drunk driver apologizing to the parents for the loss of their child without apologizing for being drunk in the first place.

People who give speeches must take great care to make sure that when quoting a historical figure, their listeners will not feel insulted or suspect that they approve of what that historical person said.

I was confronted with this dilemma when I addressed a United Nations conference in Bangkok in April 2005. I am the father of the UN bill of rights for young offenders and I was reporting to the delegates from 140 countries, what has happened to young offenders around the world since the UN General Assembly passed the Rules in January 1986.

My message was that many of the abuses brought upon the young people in the institutions were still being caused by the staff rather than it being the policy of the state. I quoted the words of one of the world’s most evil persons who ever existed. His name was Hosse. He was the commandant of the death camp, Auschwitz. I quoted him by saying;

“This so-called ill treatment and torture in detention centers, stories of which were spread everywhere among the people and later by the prisoners who were freed, were not, as some assumed, inflicted methodically but were excesses committed by individual prison guards, their deputies and men who laid violent hands on the detainees.” unquote

There was no outcry or outrage when I quoted the words of this man. I told the delegates that he was one of the world’s most evil men who ever lived. But obviously what he said at his trial before he was hanged as a war criminal was true and most appropriate when used to bring my message to the delegates. I quoted him again in November 2005 when I addressed the Second World Conference on the Rights of Children that was held in Lima, and I will quote him in October 2006 when I will address the Second International Conference on the Rights of Children in Europe as their keynote speaker in Brussels. I didn’t get any flack in Lima nor do I expect any in Brussels. It’s OK to quote people from the past irrespective how good or evil they were so long as the quotation serves a useful purpose.

The Pope, in my opinion was quite correct to quote the 14th Century emperor to get his message across that it is wrong to force religion on others at the point of a sword but he was wrong in not immediately stating immediately thereafter that the Qu’oran also encourages peace, justice and decency. It was his failing to do so that caused the Muslims to react the way they did, and sadly, the blood of that saintly nun in Somalia who forgave her murderers before she died at their hands, is on the Pope’s hands.

We are all prone to making mistakes because we are human and fortunately, the ones most of us make are not so bad that lives are lost as a direct result of them. The Pope made a blunder that will live on in history. That will be his legacy. He would have been wiser if he had used the services of someone in the Vatican who was an authority on world problems and the feelings of Muslims instead of venturing out on his own.

I sincerely hope that that blunder will be his last one. If he continues on blundering his way through his papacy, he will be referred to in time as Pope Benedict, the fool.

Is this member of the Canadian parliament a coward?

I wrote Jack Layton, the leader of the NDP and a member of the Canadian parliament on September 13, 2006 when I heard that he wanted all Canadian forces withdrawn from Afghanistan.

Dear Mr. Layton:

You made an impressive statement with respect to the terrible event that took place five years ago when terrorists attacked the United States on September 11th , 2001. I quote you in part;

“On September 11th, 2001, an immense tragedy struck the United States, and the whole world felt its impact. The scourge of terrorism continues today and bringing it to an end must be a part of our international and cooperative efforts. We cannot let that act of terror, that day of great loss, cloud our vision of ourselves, our country or our world and we must move forward. At this time of mass grief and commemoration of so many lives brutally cut short, let us move forward with dialogue and development and let us rebuild the international community's consensus to help bring closure to this tragedy.” unquote

Bringing closure to this tragedy is exactly what Prime Minister Harper is attempting to do by keeping our Canadian troops in Afghanistan. His government acted with the United Nations when the mission to Afghanistan was launched in October 2001. It is a noble cause.

Already you have forgotten about the human rights abuses in that country before the NATO forces went in and rescued that country from the Taliban abuses heaped upon the women and girls of that country. As a result of NATO's 35-nation military campaign in Afghanistan, Afghans have held elections for a president and parliament, girls go to school, women are permitted to work for a living and run for office and women are not publicly whipped in a stadium that the international community built for them.

In your speech, you said, “…..let us move forward with dialogue….” When asked about the NDP's position, The American Secretary of State Rice vehemently disagreed when she said, "You can't negotiate with Taliban. C'mon, these are people who whipped women in stadiums given to them by the international community. The Taliban made Afghanistan a failed state and a terrorist haven for al-Qaida so that they could launch the Sept. 11 attacks. What's to negotiate?" unquote

You weren’t around when Hitler was in power so you didn’t see British Prime Minister Chamberlain holding a peace of paper in his hand, and crying out, “Peace in our time.” after getting a written promise by Hitler that he would not encroach on the borders of his neighbours. When he invaded Poland, England declared war on Germany and soon after, so did Canada. Before the Allies could bring an end to that war, Hitler massacred almost six million Jews, many of them in Poland.

This raises an interesting rhetorical question. If you were a member of parliament in 1942 when the war in Europe wasn’t looking very good for the Allies, would you have stood up in Parliament and demanded that we withdraw our soldiers and return them to Canada?

The world stood by and did nothing when almost a million Rwandans were slaughtered on orders of the governing powers in that country. The Sudanese government has forbidden UN peacekeepers to enter the Darfur region of Sudan and so far, over 200,000 people have been slaughtered there. Despite these tragedies, I can find no public statements of condemnation made by you when those Rwandans were being slaughtered, nor can I find anything said by you re the plight of those victims in Darfur and now you condemn our prime minister for trying to bring stability to the lives of Afghans.

Despite progress in Afghanistan, a large area of that country is still in the hands of the Taliban and aside from the fact that women and girls under their control are still suffering from human rights abuses heaped upon them by the Taliban, 90 percent of the world’s poppies are grown in their sector of Afghanistan which increases the flow of heroin worldwide thereby providing most of the revenue which goes directly into the coffers of the Taliban.

Obviously the Americans have a vested interest in fighting the Taliban since most of the heroin created in Afganistan ends up in the veins of Americans. That is also the reason why the Americans invaded Panama and arrested, tried and convicted its leader as a drug trafficker.

Terrorism is a plague that has encompassed the world. Three times since 1975, I have addressed United Nations crime conferences (the latest in Bangkok in 2005) about the dangers of terrorism and I have consistently said that we must stamp it out like one stamps on bugs that are prone to infesting homes.

Thanks to the ruling Taliban—Muslim fundamentalists who imposed radical Islamic rule on the country—Afghanistan had become a base for terrorists, namely Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda training camps. Because Afghanistan was such a chaotic place, and because the Taliban were deeply influenced by bin Laden’s philosophy, the Taliban welcomed him and his network into the country. There they could plan their attacks with less fear of reprisal because other countries were wary of entering Afghanistan. Are we to believe that the Taliban have since renounced terrorism? Not likely. If the Taliban overtake all of Afghanistan again, it will be a cesspool of terrorists and we will all be back to square one again.

The battles are not won and although we have a bloody nose, we must persevere. Until the Taliban is eradicated and Afghans can live in peace and enjoy equality for all, Canadian soldiers should continue to fight the Taliban and any other warlords who abuse the people of Afghanistan and encourage heroin trafficking and harbour terrorists.

When John W. Dafoe wrote a letter to George Ferguson in 1939 after Canada declared war on Germany, he said in part; “I thought the news would knock me out. Instead it was such a relief that the sword had at last come out of its scabbard in a good cause.” unquote

Canada has drawn its sword and is swinging it at the Talibans in Afghanistan. Your demands that Canada put it back in its scabbard before the fight is over are the words of a coward.

A politician who cheated his former employees

I wrote the premier of the province of Ontario a letter on October 21, 2003 in which I suggested that he get rid of one of the members of his party as that member was cheating former employees.

Dear Sir:

I was shocked when I learned that Conservative spokeperson Paul Rhodes announced that there were no plans to ask Conservative candidate Daniel Cullen to withdraw from the race, notwithstanding the fact that some of his former employees claimed that he owed them $50,000 in past wages and he still refuses to repay them what he owes them. I should add that this scoundrel is also a business partner of disbarred lawyer, Mario Giangioppo who was forced to withdraw his Conservative candidacy when it was discovered that he had previously ripped off elderly clients for great sums of money.

Integrity is an extremely important element that is expected in politicians and when it is lacking, then the public loses faith in those who choose to associate with such scoundrels. The fact that as the leader of the Conservatives, you, through your spokesperson have chosen to let Cullen remain as one of your candidates is a clear statement to the public that you really don’t care that much as to who sits in the Legislature, just so long as he is a Conservative member of the Legislature.

I think Henry Kissinger was right when he said, “Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.”

Governments are like diapers. They both need changing regularly and for the same obvious reason. I am going to vote for another party in hopes that the government’s diapers can be changed so that we won’t have Cullen and his ilk in the Legislature.

NOTE: Both the party and Cullen were defeated at the polls.