Islam and other things troubling Benedict XVI : Mail & Guardian Online

'n Bydrae van Moslem-kant op die opmerkings van Benedictus XVI oor Islam tydens sy onlangse toespraak by Regensburg in Duitsland.

Pope Benedict XVI’s lecture at the University of Regensburg, coming soon after United States President George W Bush rushed to rechristen the war against “Islamic fascism”, raises serious concerns about what some of the world’s most powerful actors think about Islam.

The pope’s lecture is worthy of reflection, both for its content and its wider implications for global dialogue. He made some debatable statements about Islam, and I am referring not only to the conclusion of the “erudite” Emperor Manuel II Paleologus that Prophet Muhammad’s distinctive message was “evil and inhuman”. People all over the world have rightly rejected the sentiment expressed in this two-line condemnation of Islam.

The central argument of the lecture was devoted to the urgency of reinserting the positive role of religion in modern culture. But the pope proposed to do this by turning attention to a medieval synthesis of reason and religion that has been lost in modern society through what he called the de-Hellenisation of Christianity. The Hellenic roots were lost through the Reformation, liberal theologies and, last but not least, de-Europeanisation. Boiled down, Benedict’s argument is that most of the modern legacy of Christianity has to be jettisoned.

Islam should have little to do with this very European and very Christian angst. One would expect the statements about Islam to be unnecessary and redundant. A close look at the speech, however, reveals that Islam takes shape as the extreme antithesis of the pope’s vision. Islam is not discussed for its own demerits, but for the counter-foil that it creates for a Catholic statement about modernity, the history of the church, and Europe.