Is the Pope a racist?

Come now. Really.

Had the Pope said something like "the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim" or "Muslims don't know God," then I could understand and support a Muslim uproar. (As an aside, there is no uproar by Christians, Jews, Hindus etc. even though the equivalent is chanted by Muslim clerics almost daily.)

Pope Bennedict was merely discussing literature in a scholarly setting. I'm really tired of the continuing one-sided "politically correct" heart-on-the-sleeve stances cropping up here and abroad. Does this mean I can't read "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" by William Shirer because it has quotes from Adolph Hitler? Do we edit history so that the human stain is removed? No, I think not. That's how we learn not to repeat our mistakes.

 

I am forming the opinion that the vast majority of the Muslim world wants to be shown a degree of respect that they would not even dream of reciprocating. This is not an attack on the religion itself and should not be seen as such. I begin to see a situation that will not allow for peaceful coexistance between equals. I hope that I am wrong.

 

Well the Islamic world shouldn't make too big a stink over nothing. Bush and friends are just looking for an excuse to carpet bomb the rest of the Middle East.

 

Where's the regular no button?

 

You might think this is crazy coming from a Muslim, but I do not think the Pope's comments should be condemned by the Church on the basis that it is his legitimate belief that I am going to Hell. It doesn't make it true, but that is the faith he heads.

 

Actually, it is not quite (but close) to that clear. The Second Vatican Council addressed all sorts of issues that included allowing for an extremely narrow set of circumstances that would allow you not to go to hell, but Ratzenberger is among the sizable portion of the Catholic clergy who didn't particularly care for the results and more or less ignores them. So to some degree he has chosen the version of his faith that is less kind to you and as such it isn't so completely a case of being a slave to his beliefs.

That having been said I do applaud your general position.

 

i mean its not even close to the result of your allen gaffe..

this is close at best while the other one majority agreed that allens remark was racist

 

LOL! Tinman should be awarded "Consumerist of the Year" for that thread...

Seriously though, there were a lot of 'questions' and doubts being raised about the new Pope's personal background (by Jewish groups, mainly) even before this ill-advised 'speech' he gave. However, I am inclined to believe that it was an unfortunate choice of words than blatant 'racism' or some other more serious charge. I don't think it's a huge deal. He most likely was addressing a private group of individuals and thought it was a 'safe' forum to say whatever he wanted to without it receiving this much attention/publicity. Leaders/public figures make this mistake all the time, they think that they can get away with saying one thing in public and an entirely different thing in 'private'; seldom do they know that in this day and age, there is hardly any privacy for anyone any more, let alone for such an important world leader.

No biggie, he stated his personal beliefs, one that millions of religious people of all different backgrounds share (basically, that they're the only ones who will get a 'VIP' ticket to heaven), an entirely understandable position to take...just not stated in public by the leader of 800 million people in the world.

 

I am troubled by any Christian leader that condemns the idea of a crusade without acknowledging Christianity's own dark history with same. I also think the Pope is a homophobic bigot. No, scratch that. I know he is one.

But that's not the story here. The story here is NewYorker's weird man love for the racist George Allen.

NewYorker: You fake Indian liar, "macaca" = n***er. Get that through your fat head. We all understand now that you started that old thread to bemoan the passing of the glory days in which we could all enjoy good, old-fashioned racist jokes, but despite Allen's laughter that wasn't a joke. He was calling someone a n***er. What the Pope did here was crappy -- and that's no surprise, he's a crappy dude -- but your guy is a flat out racist serving in a high office in this country. Your continued defense of him is repulsive.

 

Respect from who? Trust me when I say that Muslims worldwide aren't worried about gaining respect from Americans or Christians or any other enitity.

No Muslim is losing sleep over a percieved lack of respect.

 

Thanks for bringing this up, this has been on my mind lately what with 9/11 and all. If you believe in a religion, if you have faith in a meaning of existence, being, afterlife, etc, isn't that a perfect truth? That there can be no other truth? How could anyone truly believe in more than one religion? (I suppose there are nice pantheists that believe that everybody is worshipping the same thing, that's cool, but not what I'm talking about.)

How can you believe that you are right about God and the nature of existence without thinking that those who disagree are wrong?

I think univac is right, the best one can hope for is tolerance.

 

I think we will just settle for 'tolerance', Lord knows (no pun intended) that humanity has struggled enough with that simple concept. I think it might be asking too much for everyone to be accepted/loved/embraced, how about just 'live and let live' (i.e. tolerance)? Might be more of a realistic goal to shoot for, but it's a daily challenge...

 

that's exactly correct Max. They arent suffering for horrible economic situations and restrictions of personal freedoms.

HDTV isnt available for the common muslim in third world. but in america, any person of any religion can go buy an HDTV! with no payments for 2 years!

plus they can watch anything they want!

 

they are islamic people!
just like the jesus people!
and they budda people!
and the moses parted the sea people!

 

Religion is so r****ded. no one really questions its laws or origins.

I bet you if religion started today,

Spinach would be un-Islamic and Not Koshar.