All Comments (50)

AMERICA IS MY LAND TOO:
A patriotic Muslim American speaks out
Rebuilding the Jewish-Christian-Muslim symbiosis in my homeland

ABOUT ME:
I am a patriotic American and a Muslim. These two facts are not contradictory, but supplement each other and make our country great. I am an American by choice. I love America. I love the American declaration of independence, because it is one of the best written documents ever written by human beings.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”

What a marvelous concept, surely such deep insight and such fantastic ideals could only be the creation of people of tremendous vision and enterprise. Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton are my heroes. In a world steeped in monarchy, Colonialism, slave trade, man’s inhumanity to man, consideration of women as chattel, and absolute divine powers to the emperors Like King George, how did anyone come up with such lofty ideals and fantastic vision. Surely in a few minutes, we will investigate the influences on these great geniuses.

Describing the equality of all human beings on this planet and the equality of men and women, the Quran says
O mankind! We created you from a single (pair of a) male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, so that you may know each other. Verily the most honored of you in the sight of Allah is (one who is) the most righteous of you.... (Al-Hujurat 49:13)

And also in chapter 4:1:
God created you from a single soul. Created, of like nature, his mate and from them scattered countless men and women. Be mindful of God through whom you demand (your mutual rights), and (be mindful of violating relations based on) the wombs; for God ever watches over you. (Al-Nisa 4:1)

The character of all human beings as equal was a very alien one for Europeans in the 18th century. This concept of abject equality not only between all men was championed by Islam in the 7th century and practiced the world over. The 7th century was when the Quran said men and women are equal.

The prophet Muhammad in his farewell address to all humanity said:
"An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab, nor has a non-Arab over an Arab. You are all born of Adam, and Adam was made out of clay."

According to Dr. Robert Dickson Crane, one of the foremost Ameican Muslims describes these “Mutual Rights’ as the rights of “Haq a Hurriat”, “Huq a Qolâ”, and “Huq e Insaanâ” described our the prophet of Islam in the 7th century.

Arnold Toynbee writes:
The extinction of race consciousness as between Muslims is one of the outstanding moral achievements of Islam, and in the contemporary world there is, as it happens, a crying need for the propagation of this Islamic virtue. The forces of racial toleration, which at present seem to be fighting a losing battle in a spiritual struggle of immense importance to mankind, might still regain the upper hand if any strong influence militating against racial consciousness were now to be thrown into the scales. It is conceivable that the spirit of Islam might be the timely reinforcement which would decide this issue in favor of tolerance and peace. (A. J. Toynbee, Civilization an Trial, Oxford university Press, 1948, pp. 205-6)

Malcolm X, when he visited Mecca saw racial and gender equality in Mecca and changed his mind about White man and came back an ambassador of unity among all races.

Our Declaration of Independence says
. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to

In Surah Al-An'am, Allah first poses a question in this manner:
...Which of the two parties has more right to security and peace, (tell me) if you know. (Al-An'am 6:81)
and then the answer is supplied thus:
It is those who believed and did not pollute their faith with zulm that are truly in security and are rightly guided. (Al-An'am 6:82)

The prophet said:
“Struggle against injustice and tyranny, if you cannot struggle, speak out against it If you cannot speak out against it, keep it in your heartâ”

AMERICA I MY LAND TOO: America is my land too. From the mountains of Alhambra California to the plains of Alabama (Allah-bumya); From the hiding places of lovers in Palestine, Virginia to the corn fields of Medina, Ohio; from the airport of Philadelphia (Amman) to the traffic lights of Seville (Al Sebilia), Ohio; From the towers of Mecca, California to the town halls of Fatima New York; from the beaches of Islamorada, Florida to the steeples of Khalifia Haroonia (California); From the streets of Cordoba (Qartaba) CA, to the valleys of San Joaqin; from coffee houses of Lebanon, New Jersey to the Crepe places in Lahore, New York, is my land too.

From the Moorish designs of Ringlin brothers home, the Caad Zaan palace in Sarasota Florida, to the Tiffany’s home in New York; from the Alhambra arches in California, to the Gothic architecture of our capitol domes, we see Islam everywhere in America.

The list is long. Want to see the impact of Islam on America. Walk down Main street USA. From the halls of justice that allow jury trials, to the domes of our capitol buildings, we see the impact on the numbers on our homes and offices.

I immigrated to America 25 years ago. I did not come here as an economic or political refugee, I came here as a student. Like my parents and grand-parents before me, we have a family tradition of going aboard to gain knowledge. I was the first one to come to America. I have post graduate education in engineering, and have n MBA, and worked for America for many years at the highest levels of executive leadership.

I am originally from Pakistan, and went to Catholic School all the way through high school. My teaches Ms. Flanigan, and Father Burne taught me about the wonderful side of Christianity that carry in my heart. God Bless them. I never met any bad Christians in Pakistan and did not know any who were bigoted or prejudiced. I see them everyday on Fox.
WHO ARE THE MUSLIMS IN THIS COUNTRY?
Today there are about 10 million Muslims in America. About 50% are African American Muslims. 80% of the other Muslims are of Asian origin, Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis, Indonesians. About 10% are of Arab Descent and the others are from other countries of the world.
WHAT HAVE MUSLIMS CONTRIBUTED TO AMERICA? Muslims in America are model community. We have the lowest crime rate, very low violence, low divorce rates, no prostitution, no alcoholism, no drugs, and are a productive part of this society. We have a very high literacy rate. We are engineers, doctors, attorneys, and executives. Muslims of America have a higher per capita income than normal white Americas, We have more graduate degrees, more phDs, and live in the best parts of our cities. Muslim Americans run some of the largest American corporations, Sun Microsystems, Ethan Allen, Schering Plough, and are part of the scientific fabric of our research institutions. 80% of the American phD programs are foreign born students. Muslims make up a big portion of that. 50% of our graduate program are foreign born students. Muslims make us a significant portion of that number.
Why is education so important to Muslims? Because the prophet said “go to China if you have to learn and get knowledge”
HISTORY OF MUSLIMS IN AMERICA: Muslims sailed to America before Columbus with Chinese Muslim Admiral Zeng He, with Columbus (Panzone Brothes who captained two of his ships), and after Columbus. For references, you please read “1421”, and “They Came before Columbus”. 25% of African American slaves were Muslims and today about 30% of African Americans are Muslim.
WHAT DOES THOMAS JEFFERSON AND JOHN LOCKE HAVE TO DO WITH ISLAM:
It is a matter of historical evidence that Thomas Jefferson owned a copy of the Quran. When he lost it, he purchased another one. Jefferson was not one who kept books for decoration purposes. Huq e Qol (Freedom of speech), Huq e insaan (Right to humanity), Huq e hurriat (Right of Freedom) were clearly enunciated by Ibn Haytaum, Ibn Tufail and narrated by Ibn Rushd. These are right out of the Quran. Greek writings were unavailable to the Europeans. They would have been lost if they had not been translated into Arabic. Thomas Aqauinas and John Locke were heavily influenced by Greek writings which had been translated by Ibn Rushd. Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison were heavily influenced by John Locke. As you know Plato’s opinions about women and Socrates opinions about democracy cannot be repeated in this august gathering. So where did the ideas about equality for women and freedom come from? My answer is that the works of Ibn Rushd who talked about Reason and revelation are important building blocks for these ideas.
Further evidence of Muslim influences on Locke or Sir Isaac Newton, please read the religious writings of Sir Isaac Newton, more specifically on the errors of the scriptures. What further evidence do I have about Muslim influences on Jefferson? Thomas Jefferson wrote a Bible. It is given to every member of Congress. It is freely downloadable from the internet. The Jefferson Bible is exactly what Islam teaches about Jesus. Any Muslim would not have any problem accepting Jefferson’s Bible as enunciation of the Quranic belief system.
Forced by the media to a stereotypical version of the Muslim, it is incomprehensible for some to see anything Islamic in America. You find Islamic influences in Europe each time you drink Qahwah (coffee) discovered in Southern Ethopia, or whenever you use Qamra (an invention by Ibn Haitham, a word that means “dark room”). You see Islam in America whenever you use shampoo a product introduced to London by Mahomed's Indian Vapour Baths on Brighton seafront in 1759. You have all heard to Icarus and Dedulas, but you never hear about Abbas ibn Firnas a man who jumped from the minaret of the mosque in Cordoba in 852 and flew for a few minutes. Many modern surgical instruments are of exactly the same design as those devised in the 10th century by a Muslim surgeon called al-Zahrawi. Jabir ibn Hayyan invented Sulphuric and Nitric Acid as well as Al-cohol. al-Jazari invented the crank-shaft to raise water for irrigation. The modern cheque comes from the Arabic saqq. Muslims doctors also invented anaesthetics of opium and alcohol mixes and developed hollow needles to suck cataracts from eyes in a technique still used today. The windmill was invented in 634 for a Persian caliph and was used to grind corn and draw up water for irrigation. The fountain pen was invented for the Sultan of Egypt in 953 after he demanded a pen which would not stain his hands or clothes. One has to be blind not to see it in the Moorish architecture of 5th Avenue synagogues. One has to illiterate not to realize that our numbering system is called Arab numerals. One has to be really bigoted to ignore the 526 names of towns that are Muslim names, Alhambra, Medina, Palestine, Allahbumya (Alabama), T Allah hasse (Talahasee) .One has to be Islamphobic not to know that Columbus sailed with Muslim sailors using Muslim inventions like the astrolabe and Muslim maps. One has to be rabidly anti-Muslim not to realize the Alhambra arches of California homes are Muslim in origin.

It would be tragic to ignore the 800 year old Jewish-Christian-Muslim symbiosis in Muslim Spain that created the renaissance and transported Greek and Roman knowledge to Latin Christians. Egos, imperial hubris and contempt for all other ideas will surely prohibit some to admit their own faults for BEARING FALSE WITNESS and not taking the trouble to find out the real truth.

America or Europe was not born in a vacuum and all knowledge did not emanate from the fountains of Sorbonne and Oxford without any prior or current interaction with Al Azhar and Cordoba. The very word college is base don the Arabic “Kulliat” . Tulipomania in the Netherlands was based on getting the Tulips from Turkey. Beethoven based his 9th symphony on Turkish Janessarian music.

Some may also refuse to read Islamo-Christian Civilization by Dr. Boulliett.

Nullus liber homo capiatur vel imprisonetur aut disseisietur de libero tenemento suo, vel libertatibus, vel liberis consuetudinibus suis, aut utlagetur, aut exuletur, aut aliquo modo destruatur, nec super eum ibimus, nec super eum mittemus, nisi per legale judicium parium suorum, vel per legem terræ

Just because the Magna Carta words were written in Latin cannot hide it's Islamic origins.""No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or be disseised of his freehold, or liberties, or free customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any otherwise destroyed; nor will we not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land."" (See "The Islamic Origins of the Common Law," 77 North Carolina by John Maksdisi). Alas, todays Patriot's Act invalidates the habeous corpus.

World War I deaths: 15 million. World war II deaths 50 million..............we counted 173 million deaths in the past century................and Islam is the violent religion? Crusades, inquisitions, Vietnam, Korea, colonization...........Islam is the violent religion?

In 1526 Emperor Babar established the Mughal empire a center of ecumenical harmony among Hindus, Jews, Christians and Muslims that lasted three centuries. This was the time when the Spaniards were burning every Jew and Muslim in sight...............

In 1631 in Mughal India, while Muslim Emperors like Shah Jehan were building wonders of the world as a monument for the love of his life, General Mathew was planning different ways of creating a rapport with women. Around the same time, innovative ideas were being drawn up on torture witch burning. And this was happening in post renaissance and the ENLIGHTENED WORLD. In a provocative article "Chapter 39, Order 39 Torture and Neo-Liberalism with Sycorax" in Iraq Peter Linebaugh compares the sexual abuse and depravity of Abu Ghraib with what went on in the West in the 17th century....

WHO ARE THE IMPORTANT WOMEN IN ISLAM?
According toe many traditions, one of the most important women in Islam was Khadija a Christian women. Our prophet was hired by Khadija and he made many profitable ventures for her. She was so impressed by his honesty, that she asked him to marry her. He remained loyal to Khadia for more than 20 years ‘till he was an old man.

Ayesha was also a very important women in his life. She took up arms and led an army in battle right after his death in a battle of succession which she lost to Ali, the 4th caliph.

Every major Muslim country in the world has been and is being led by women. Mrs Khalida Zia of Bangladesh is the current prime minister of Bangladesh. Mrs Sukarnoputri is the previous prime minister of Indonesia,. Turkey had women prime ministers, and Pakistan elected Mrs. Benazir Bhutto twice in non-consecutive terms. In fact, one of the “fathers” of the Pakistani nation was a women, Mrs Fatima Jinnah who almost became the prime minister in 1963. Many Muslims countries have opposition leaders who are women, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Pakistan are on the short list.

The number of women parliamentarians is 23%. This is not uncommon. Tunisia, Turkey and many other countries are even higher. Compare 8% in the US.

MAIN PRECEPTS OF ISLAM:

VERY SIMPLE. VERY LOGICAL.Prey to one God! Islam means peace, and we wish peace in every one of our greetings. Salaam, which is similar to Shalom!

1) The first commandment: There is no divinity but God

2) Jews pray 3 times a day. Muslims Pray 5 times a day

3) Alms to the poor; Tithing

4) Fasting similar to month of lint fasting

5) Pilgrimage to Mecca once in a lifetime if finances permit:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article350594.ece

How Islamic inventors changed the world

From coffee to cheques and the three-course meal, the Muslim world has given us many innovations that we take for granted in daily life. As a new exhibition opens, Paul Vallely nominates 20 of the most influential- and identifies the men of genius behind them

Published: 11 March 2006

1 The story goes that an Arab named Khalid was tending his goats in the Kaffa region of southern Ethiopia, when he noticed his animals became livelier after eating a certain berry. He boiled the berries to make the first coffee. Certainly the first record of the drink is of beans exported from Ethiopia to Yemen where Sufis drank it to stay awake all night to pray on special occasions. By the late 15th century it had arrived in Mecca and Turkey from where it made its way to Venice in 1645. It was brought to England in 1650 by a Turk named Pasqua Rosee who opened the first coffee house in Lombard Street in the City of London. The Arabic qahwa became the Turkish kahve then the Italian caffé and then English coffee.

2 The ancient Greeks thought our eyes emitted rays, like a laser, which enabled us to see. The first person to realise that light enters the eye, rather than leaving it, was the 10th-century Muslim mathematician, astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haitham. He invented the first pin-hole camera after noticing the way light came through a hole in window shutters. The smaller the hole, the better the picture, he worked out, and set up the first Camera Obscura (from the Arab word qamara for a dark or private room). He is also credited with being the first man to shift physics from a philosophical activity to an experimental one.

3 A form of chess was played in ancient India but the game was developed into the form we know it today in Persia. From there it spread westward to Europe - where it was introduced by the Moors in Spain in the 10th century - and eastward as far as Japan. The word rook comes from the Persian rukh, which means chariot.

4 A thousand years before the Wright brothers a Muslim poet, astronomer, musician and engineer named Abbas ibn Firnas made several attempts to construct a flying machine. In 852 he jumped from the minaret of the Grand Mosque in Cordoba using a loose cloak stiffened with wooden struts. He hoped to glide like a bird. He didn't. But the cloak slowed his fall, creating what is thought to be the first parachute, and leaving him with only minor injuries. In 875, aged 70, having perfected a machine of silk and eagles' feathers he tried again, jumping from a mountain. He flew to a significant height and stayed aloft for ten minutes but crashed on landing - concluding, correctly, that it was because he had not given his device a tail so it would stall on landing. Baghdad international airport and a crater on the Moon are named after him.

5 Washing and bathing are religious requirements for Muslims, which is perhaps why they perfected the recipe for soap which we still use today. The ancient Egyptians had soap of a kind, as did the Romans who used it more as a pomade. But it was the Arabs who combined vegetable oils with sodium hydroxide and aromatics such as thyme oil. One of the Crusaders' most striking characteristics, to Arab nostrils, was that they did not wash. Shampoo was introduced to England by a Muslim who opened Mahomed's Indian Vapour Baths on Brighton seafront in 1759 and was appointed Shampooing Surgeon to Kings George IV and William IV.

6 Distillation, the means of separating liquids through differences in their boiling points, was invented around the year 800 by Islam's foremost scientist, Jabir ibn Hayyan, who transformed alchemy into chemistry, inventing many of the basic processes and apparatus still in use today - liquefaction, crystallisation, distillation, purification, oxidisation, evaporation and filtration. As well as discovering sulphuric and nitric acid, he invented the alembic still, giving the world intense rosewater and other perfumes and alcoholic spirits (although drinking them is haram, or forbidden, in Islam). Ibn Hayyan emphasised systematic experimentation and was the founder of modern chemistry.

7 The crank-shaft is a device which translates rotary into linear motion and is central to much of the machinery in the modern world, not least the internal combustion engine. One of the most important mechanical inventions in the history of humankind, it was created by an ingenious Muslim engineer called al-Jazari to raise water for irrigation. His 1206 Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices shows he also invented or refined the use of valves and pistons, devised some of the first mechanical clocks driven by water and weights, and was the father of robotics. Among his 50 other inventions was the combination lock.

8 Quilting is a method of sewing or tying two layers of cloth with a layer of insulating material in between. It is not clear whether it was invented in the Muslim world or whether it was imported there from India or China. But it certainly came to the West via the Crusaders. They saw it used by Saracen warriors, who wore straw-filled quilted canvas shirts instead of armour. As well as a form of protection, it proved an effective guard against the chafing of the Crusaders' metal armour and was an effective form of insulation - so much so that it became a cottage industry back home in colder climates such as Britain and Holland.

9 The pointed arch so characteristic of Europe's Gothic cathedrals was an invention borrowed from Islamic architecture. It was much stronger than the rounded arch used by the Romans and Normans, thus allowing the building of bigger, higher, more complex and grander buildings. Other borrowings from Muslim genius included ribbed vaulting, rose windows and dome-building techniques. Europe's castles were also adapted to copy the Islamic world's - with arrow slits, battlements, a barbican and parapets. Square towers and keeps gave way to more easily defended round ones. Henry V's castle architect was a Muslim.

10 Many modern surgical instruments are of exactly the same design as those devised in the 10th century by a Muslim surgeon called al-Zahrawi. His scalpels, bone saws, forceps, fine scissors for eye surgery and many of the 200 instruments he devised are recognisable to a modern surgeon. It was he who discovered that catgut used for internal stitches dissolves away naturally (a discovery he made when his monkey ate his lute strings) and that it can be also used to make medicine capsules. In the 13th century, another Muslim medic named Ibn Nafis described the circulation of the blood, 300 years before William Harvey discovered it. Muslims doctors also invented anaesthetics of opium and alcohol mixes and developed hollow needles to suck cataracts from eyes in a technique still used today.

11 The windmill was invented in 634 for a Persian caliph and was used to grind corn and draw up water for irrigation. In the vast deserts of Arabia, when the seasonal streams ran dry, the only source of power was the wind which blew steadily from one direction for months. Mills had six or 12 sails covered in fabric or palm leaves. It was 500 years before the first windmill was seen in Europe.

12 The technique of inoculation was not invented by Jenner and Pasteur but was devised in the Muslim world and brought to Europe from Turkey by the wife of the English ambassador to Istanbul in 1724. Children in Turkey were vaccinated with cowpox to fight the deadly smallpox at least 50 years before the West discovered it.

13 The fountain pen was invented for the Sultan of Egypt in 953 after he demanded a pen which would not stain his hands or clothes. It held ink in a reservoir and, as with modern pens, fed ink to the nib by a combination of gravity and capillary action.

14 The system of numbering in use all round the world is probably Indian in origin but the style of the numerals is Arabic and first appears in print in the work of the Muslim mathematicians al-Khwarizmi and al-Kindi around 825. Algebra was named after al-Khwarizmi's book, Al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah, much of whose contents are still in use. The work of Muslim maths scholars was imported into Europe 300 years later by the Italian mathematician Fibonacci. Algorithms and much of the theory of trigonometry came from the Muslim world. And Al-Kindi's discovery of frequency analysis rendered all the codes of the ancient world soluble and created the basis of modern cryptology.

15 Ali ibn Nafi, known by his nickname of Ziryab (Blackbird) came from Iraq to Cordoba in the 9th century and brought with him the concept of the three-course meal - soup, followed by fish or meat, then fruit and nuts. He also introduced crystal glasses (which had been invented after experiments with rock crystal by Abbas ibn Firnas - see No 4).

16 Carpets were regarded as part of Paradise by medieval Muslims, thanks to their advanced weaving techniques, new tinctures from Islamic chemistry and highly developed sense of pattern and arabesque which were the basis of Islam's non-representational art. In contrast, Europe's floors were distinctly earthly, not to say earthy, until Arabian and Persian carpets were introduced. In England, as Erasmus recorded, floors were "covered in rushes, occasionally renewed, but so imperfectly that the bottom layer is left undisturbed, sometimes for 20 years, harbouring expectoration, vomiting, the leakage of dogs and men, ale droppings, scraps of fish, and other abominations not fit to be mentioned". Carpets, unsurprisingly, caught on quickly.

17 The modern cheque comes from the Arabic saqq, a written vow to pay for goods when they were delivered, to avoid money having to be transported across dangerous terrain. In the 9th century, a Muslim businessman could cash a cheque in China drawn on his bank in Baghdad.

18 By the 9th century, many Muslim scholars took it for granted that the Earth was a sphere. The proof, said astronomer Ibn Hazm, "is that the Sun is always vertical to a particular spot on Earth". It was 500 years before that realisation dawned on Galileo. The calculations of Muslim astronomers were so accurate that in the 9th century they reckoned the Earth's circumference to be 40,253.4km - less than 200km out. The scholar al-Idrisi took a globe depicting the world to the court of King Roger of Sicily in 1139.

19 Though the Chinese invented saltpetre gunpowder, and used it in their fireworks, it was the Arabs who worked out that it could be purified using potassium nitrate for military use. Muslim incendiary devices terrified the Crusaders. By the 15th century they had invented both a rocket, which they called a "self-moving and combusting egg", and a torpedo - a self-propelled pear-shaped bomb with a spear at the front which impaled itself in enemy ships and then blew up.

20 Medieval Europe had kitchen and herb gardens, but it was the Arabs who developed the idea of the garden as a place of beauty and meditation. The first royal pleasure gardens in Europe were opened in 11th-century Muslim Spain. Flowers which originated in Muslim gardens include the carnation and the tulip.

"1001 Inventions: Discover the Muslim Heritage in Our World" is a new exhibition which began a nationwide tour this week. It is currently at the Science Museum in Manchester. For more information, go to www.1001inventions.com.

free downloads t mobile ringtones
http://idisk.mac.com/ringtonesforyou/Public/index.html

Faith is a very glorified word for believing things that have no or little basis in reality. Believing things on faith would be fine if we didn't believe our faith was absolute truth and then fight with others about who's right and who's wrong. Faith might give us some reassurance about life after death, or that someone is watching out for us, but for the most part it plays out violently on the world stage and the victims are always the women, children and animals.

It is better for people with different beliefs to take steps to get along and I applaud the Pope and everyone else willing to take steps outside their comfort zones and beyond the boundaries of their imagined self concepts. Yet the results of our belief systems have consistently deteriorated into war and I think that it is time to seriously question the efficacy of the very process of faith, take a quiet and long look at the falseness of belief and the importance of facing physical and elemental reality and lay our belief systems to rest. Perhaps we could have ritual funerals for Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc. and let Jesus, Mohammed, Moses and the rest of them finally rest in peace. Then we can get on with the real work of being our brothers' and sisters' keepers, take care of our Mother Earth and finally stop pretending to be something we are not.

Let the Pope and the head honcho of the Eastern Church and all the Ayatollahs and all the Rabbis and all the heads of state take their clothes off (their signs of high office), take a sweat together and realize they are humans who do not have any better grasp on the truth than the easter bunny and probably less than their pets.

I am currently doing some writing on these subjects and invite you to visit my website at www.professorpurplepants.com

It is nice to see someone such as Archbishop Tutu speak out on any issue. I find his manner of speaking thoughtful and intelligent. The responses above in some cases point out that there have been no recent terror acts in the name of Christianity...does this mean they have never happened? Clearly this is not the case, and let he who is without sin cast the first stone, in the case that is Christians. No one is without sin or error in their ways, but I would venture to say that there are a lot more peaceful Muslims than violent ones, much more peaceful Jews than violent ones, much more peaceful people on this Earth than violent ones, yet we tend to hear more about the violence becasue it is an aberration from the norm. A sad one at that. Regardless of gender, color, race or creed we are all one on this earth and a death anywhere is a crime against us all.

"Gentleness is a trait of the strong. The weak have not the character to be gentle and forgive." Gandhi

I despair after reading so much anger and vitriol in response to Archbishop Tutu's profoundly simple point: that we are all of us human, with all the potential for hope and pain, love and cruelty that that entails.

In the above comments, we have accused one another for the violent acts of a thousand years gone, and forgotten everything that we owe to one another. Some of us have demanded apologies from our Muslim brethren for the conquest of Spain in 711 - forgetting that it was Andalucia that reintroduced Europe to science, and mathematics, and that is was the Catholic Monarchs, not the emirs, who converted Spain by the sword. Some of us have expressed rage over the Crusades, though we are separated from them by generations uncounted. Even as we deny responsibility for the actions of our ancestors, we demand apologies, and a pound of flesh, for the pain they endured.

We are all human. Our ancestors conquered our ancestors who enslaved our ancestors who forced our ancestors to hide their beliefs. We will never be able to tally the accounts for the past. We can only deal with the present.

Many, many of us have demanded to know where the "moderate Muslims" are. blinding our eyes to the thousands of men and women we pass in the street every day, who work beside us in Detroit and New York, Chicago and Sugar Land, Toronto and Minneapolis, who serve in Congress and Parliament. Which is to say nothing of the untold millions who want nothing more than to live their lives in piece from Morocco to Bosnia to Indonesia.

We have taught ourselves just enough about one anothers' faiths to pretend knowledge when we make our accusations.

Archbishop Tutu, despite the anger that has been written in response, asked only that we remember our common imperfection, remember that it is easier to blame one another than to admit our own ignorance, and try, just try, to reach out for one another.

I despair that it seems we are incapable.

Someone pointed me to an article in Haaretz: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/793711.html

An excerpt that is very much to the point about the Islam/West situation:

Envy the extremist.

Envy him his freedom from ambiguity, his immunity from ambivalence. Only the extremist knows exactly why there is no moral equivalency between the sides, and that only his side is in the right.

Only he knows what the world does not, what the world refuses to see. Only the extremist knows what many on his own side refuse to see, either because they lack his vision, or they lack his loyalty. Only he knows who's at fault for all our ills. The other side. Only the extremist knows who started all this suffering, who's entirely to blame, who are the transgressors, why they're the real villains.

What is this drug that allows us to thrive while the rest of us stew in the misery their actions and beliefs cause us?

It is the drug that is compounded of old dreams. Dreams, rivers and mountains and bottomless reservoirs of dreams, are the cultural birthright of our peoples, the Jews and the Palestinians both.

In the past, our dreams were all that we could truly rely on as possessions. Little wonder that we cannot bring ourselves to part from them.

It will take radical action to do so. It will take radical action on the part of people unaccustomed to viewing themselves as radicals. It will take a willingness to take the most radical step that anyone who loves and lives in this Holy Land of ours can take:

To see the person on the other side, not as the Other Side, but as a person.

What I hate most about 'political correctness' is that it often comes in the form of a lie. To call the garbageman a "sanitation engineer" and thus lump him into the same catagory as Civil Engineers, Structural Engineers, or Electrical Engineers is ridiculous. The garbageman is an unskilled laboror while the other "Engineers" are university graduates, trained in mathematics and the sciences. I don't want to demean or insult any man who earns an honest living, but does 'respect' mean that I have to drowned a laborer with unearned titles of education or accomplishment? Is it an insult to call him what he is?

The pope's comments are but one of many cases where the Muslim insistance that we 'respect' their religion sometimes amounts to a lie. The current pope quoted the opinion of one of his long-dead predecessors. He did not endorse that opinion, but repeated it as a statement of fact - no one appears to argue the point that the midevil pope said what he is accused of having said. The current pope brought this opinion up emphasize a point he wanted to make later in his comments.

Another example where we supposedly 'disrespected' Islam occured when Danish cartoons depicting Mohammad with a bomb for a turban that appeared earlier this year. Whether you agree with the point the artist was trying to make misses the point. The point is - many Muslims consider any depiction of Mohammad, no matter how flattering, to be idolatry. Every one of these depiction is (to many of them) an insult.

This is more than say-no-evil. This is say-nothing. It is an end to all dialog. We SHOULD gage our words carefully when commenting on a faith not our own, but when issues do arise, we SHOULD NOT lie or water-down the truth. We will never find common ground in silence, nor will we find the truth in lies and half-truths.

The Islamic world has more than its share of violence. It was a violent place before our envolvement in Iraq and if we leave the region it will most likely continue to be violent - will silence fix that? If we call every man a saint whether he is or not, will the violence end amidst the flood of inevitable 'good' feelings?

I do not hate Muslims, but Islam and the West are at a place where tough love may be a better answer to our problems than pretending that all of us are engineers or that a unflatering observation is always preferable to a 'honorable' silence.

It would also be nice if a little of this 'respect' for others we disagree with was reciprocated by our Muslim brothers.

Remarks of the Pope was very unfortunate and for that he needs to mend fences with the community that he offended. As mentioned by reverend Tutu that faithful not the faith is responsible for the wrong deeds in the world. Religion is a way to respect the supernatural. Bringing it up as a pretext to violence and carnage is deplorable be it for any cause.

Father of my Nation, India proved to the entire world way back in the 30's and 40's of the 20th century that one can achieve success by following the path of peace and non-violence. I wish today's modern world would learn something from it. Religion is for spiritual gratification and realization of God and it's purpose ends right there.

I NOTICE THAT LOTS OF COMMENTS ARE NOT GHISTORICALLY BASED, WHILE OTHERS ARE SOMEWHAT.
THE PROBLEMS BETWEEN RELIGION WILL NEVER BE
RECONCILED THEOLOGICALLY. THERE ATE PROFOUND DIFFERENCES. THE PROBLEM ARISES WHEN OTHERS ARE FORCED TO AGREE OR ILL TREATED BECAUSE OF..
THERE IS TRUTH AND ABSOLUTE TRUTH OR THERE IS NOT
HOW DO WE KNOW WHICK OF US SPEAKS THE TRUTH ???
THATS THE BIGGER QUESTION.

I know of the atrocities of which the Church must repent of, and we must do this continually for the shame we have brought on the Body of Christ and the harm we have done to many humans undeserving of those punishments. But are we really to be blamed for the Holocaust? Was that not more from humanist thought than Christian thought? What about Stalin and Pol Pot? Are the secular humanists repenting for that?

Just a thought.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Andy

I dont see anymore posts

As a Catholic, I was saddened to see the reaction to the Pope's comments and shocked to see the immense hatred it sparked. Are most Muslims so intolerant that a mere statement can cause pandimonium (or a cartoon)? Apparently, open dialogue is not an option for some extreme Muslims, so this begins to feel like there will always be a rift. It scares me to think that if you are not fighting the "Holy War" your views are not only wrong, but need to be wiped out. This does not bode well for the future, with most of the countries starting to band together against Israel and America. We can only pray for peace and tolerance.

Wow! Lots of responses.

BOTTOM LINE:

Mohammed advocated violence, Christ did not.

We are sick and tired of you muslims and your endless whining and sniveling. Interesting how you don't refer at all to the muslim invasion and occupation of Spain several hundred years before the First Crusade. You also don't mention the invasion and conquest of Asia Minor and Constantinople, Greek cities for over a thousand years. I wonder why? When will muslims apologize for the slavery practiced by muslims in Mauritania, Senegal, and Sudan today, in the 21st century? Darfur? Mumbai? Chechnya? Kashmir? Bosnia? Sooner or later you will have every hand raised against you and no one will stop it nor care.

Asim says: "If he is really sincere about a Muslim-Christian dialogue HE needs to walk in the footsteps of Jesus,show some humility and apologize to Muslims in a Crystal Clear and Unequivocal fashion about three major issues:

1// His inexcusable and uncalled for insults in the now infamous lecture at Regensburg which caused untold pain, agony and insult for some 1.5 billion Muslim souls. His remarks were ill-advised as an academic, as the head of the largest Christian Church and as a head of a state;
2// About the horrors of the crusaders' wars launched by the Catholic Church on Muslims and Muslim lands;
3// About the horrors of the Inquisition mainly imposed on Muslims in before and after 1492 in Spain and the forced conversions of Muslims to Christianity."

What are you smoking Asim? The Pope did not insult anyone with his remarks -- what is insulting and inexcusable is the inability of 1.5 Muslim souls to listen and to acknowledge the evil that infects their religion today. When you spend all your time in outrage over something that happened 600 years ago, is there any wonder that you appear to be totally out of touch with the real world?

This poster is emblematic of the problem in the world today -- Muslims who have their head in the sand and who blame everyone but themselves for their tolerance of those 300-400 million Muslims who are violent and intolerant of everyone else in the world.

It should be obvious how difficult it will be to negotiate a peaceful path with people who aren't interested in peace and dialogue.

Why do you always scream about "islamophobia" when many of us are "islamopaths"? Do you understand the difference? You will one day.

Compare Bishop Tutu's humble common sense with the pedantic double-talk of the Pope's Regensburg "lecture". The former's comment earnest but tactful, the latter's deliberately provocative, a "holier than thou" affront to one and one half billion human beings whose only sin is that they're not Catholics.

Sincere peace-loving Catholics - and there are many -
must blush with shame for this puny Pope.

Just this sampling of opinions displays the difficulties in the idea of "fence-mending" faiths.

The belief in a particular God (in my case Christ), fundamentally, creates divisions. This is just the truth. But, I think many of us are missing Bishop Tutu's point, and I quote "it is not the faith that is responsible but the faithful." It is the actions of the faithful that bring shame to their faiths.

As a African-American and Minister I am confronted with the truth that the Christian faith has been used to prop up ideas of human slavery, the de-humanization of people of color and other atrocious actions.

So Bishop Tutu has a very relevant position, it is to approach the world with an abscence of humility to address the failures of others in history or the present, without straining our statements through the lens of our particular faith's behavior.

Dear Friends,
As most of the comments show there is really a serious lack of understanding of Islam and Muslims: Islam and Muslims are judged wholesale by the actions of an extremely few literalist Muslims; Muslims are sick and tired of deliberate distortions and insults of their faith and culture such as associating Muslims with violence and terrorism-when the overwhelming majority of Muslims are peace loving and moderate by definition.
Violence and terrorism has no color and religion: millions perished in two world wars in Christian Europe, the violent and destructive Crusaders' wars on Muslim lands were launched from Europe by the Catholic Church, the horrors of the Catholic Inquisition imposed upon Muslims as well as Jews in Spain in 1492, the deep scars of modern European colonialism on the Muslim world from Algeria to Indonesia, the creation of Israel and the eviction and exodus of millions of Palestinians from their homeland of Palestine, the genocide of the European Bosnian Muslims in the heart of Europe-next door to the Vatican-and the on going destruction of Iraq to "introduce democracy"...I can go on and on... It's these accumulated grievances that make all Muslims feel frustrated, desperate and besiged..And where very few of them feel so desperate and revert to violence...individual violence rather than State sponsored violence such as the NEO-CON war on Iraq and the recent Israeli destruction of Lebanon...

The West needs to understand all this and know where are Muslims coming from...more importantly it needs to deal with The Root Causes and grievances causing the frustration of Muslims...Then engage in a sincere dialogue for peaceful and productive co-existence and NOT for domination...

Now back to the pope whose position so far has been evasive and vacillating on the question of an apology: only regretting the pain, agony and insult his remarks inflicted on 1.5 billion Muslims but not apologizing for causing that pain and insult.

If he is really sincere about a Muslim-Christian dialogue HE needs to walk in the footsteps of Jesus,show some humility and apologize to Muslims in a Crystal Clear and Unequivocal fashion about three major issues:

1// His inexcusable and uncalled for insults in the now infamous lecture at Regensburg which caused untold pain, agony and insult for some 1.5 billion Muslim souls. His remarks were ill-advised as an academic, as the head of the largest Christian Church and as a head of a state;
2// About the horrors of the crusaders' wars launched by the Catholic Church on Muslims and Muslim lands;
3// About the horrors of the Inquisition mainly imposed on Muslims in before and after 1492 in Spain and the forced conversions of Muslims to Christianity.

Let the pope walk in footsteps of Jesus and show some humility by apologizing for the above grievances which will go a long way to help reconcile the two sides.
Nothing less will do.

I am Russian. The Chechnyans had attempted to create a state in southern russia. They had de-facto independance for 4 years. Their state became a nexus of criminal activity. Russia has a lot of crime, and still that criminal activity stood out. The chechens ran things however they pleased. This made Russia feel weak and inefective. We felt we were being abused by a small bunch of bandits. We attacked them and ensured a long and bloody war. There are those that said we could have built a wall around them, isolated them, but how could we have done that with so many Russians living there? Russians gave up a lot in the 90's, but there was a point we would not cross.

Now of course the chechens were muslims and now of course the russians think worse of muslims in general. Bosnia, Kosovo conflicts added to the problem. Its all well and good to say, lets not judge religions based on the actions of their adherents. But do not be fooled: this is the way judging is done. My actions will make people to conclude things about russians. Whenever I do somtehing, people will ask, who is this man? Is he Russian? Aha. I do the same thing to others.

For the past three years I have been living with three muslim roommates, from all parts of the world. I have now been aquainted with Muslims from Gaza, Egypt, Dubai, Malaysia. I found them to be good roommates, intelligent people to converse with on the topic of religion and politics, although I have to restrain myself from saying certain things because there are arguments that cannot have a winner. We are friends because the circumstances allow and I am grateful for this opportunity. Under different circumstances we might have been enemies, but because of my experience now Muslims do not seem so strange to me any more, I have seen more than the photos of bearded Chechen rebels.

The powerful countries of the world are showing amazing restraint. I have heard this started with the refusal of the American president to drop a nuclear bomb on Chinese forces in North Korea, as suggested by D McArthur. Pope Innocent III would have dropped a nuke on Mecca a long time ago. I would not, but he would have. So beware when you compare today's Pope to the monsters of the past. But noone talks of this restraint. Perhaps, because it is rather superficial, and when one tallies the dead Chistians and Jews and Muslims in conflicts between the former and latter far more muslims die (for example in the Iraq war and Chechnya). I am sick of hearing, "We are better than the terrorists because we try to minimize the collateral damage". Jesus said, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. The end result is what matters much more.

Muslims view the West based on their actions. You can talk to my roommate from Gaza all you want about democracy but you wont change the fact that he hates Caterpillar tractors for destrying palestinian houses. American tax dollars keep his people in the stone age. He judges actions, not words, and I do too.

Love each other and be wary of religion (all of them). Religions are social institutions purporting to be founded on divine providence. Such institutions, including the monarchies of the present and past, are as harmful as they are useful. Religion can unite us and that's good. But religion can also divides us. Worse, it (religion not God) fosters orthodoxy and excuses atrocities against dissidents and nonbelievers. I approve of religious charities and other benevolent and life promoting buy products of religion. But we have to ask ourselves when does the good outweigh the bad. We should also ask: can members of disparate religions coexist with religion as a principal basis of social identity? The answer is yes we can so long as religion is subordinated to the rule of laws that strike a balance between pragmatism and dogma and fosters tolerance. We need to remain circumspect and tolerant because no human being should ever purport to be acting on God’s behalf. God simply is – all any human being (including the many exalted religious leaders in the world) can do is try to perceive God and become instruments of God’s purpose. I beg our religious leaders’ pardon, but all other “religious” enterprises are secular or pseudo political/social in nature.

Thank you Archbishop Tutu, your words are worth reading.

But to others, you should be ashamed of yourselves. You have not learned the hard lessons of history. You are as evil as the ones you point to as evil. Every bit as evil, every inch and millimeter the mirror of the evil you throw your stones at.

Shame, shame, shame unto you.

Yes, of course we should all be tolerant of those who practice beliefs other than ours.

But what if those folks are completely intolerant of anyone else? What do we have then?

We have missives like this from Mr. Tutu, encouraging us to apologize yet again for everything bad that was ever done by anyone in the name of Christianity.

I ask again (though my previous post was deleted, and I expect many others critical of Mr. Tutu to go soon, too), where are Muslim apologies for the sins of the past committed in the name of Islam? What? Are there none?

Atrocities have been committed in the name of all religions (yes, even Bhuddism), all states, all causes...it is the human condition.

When do we get past saying "I'm sorry" to people who have no tolerance for anyone else and turn a blind eye to the horrible things being done in their own faith? Paid any attention to the civil war in Iraq lately? It's muslim killing muslim, all in the name of their brand of Islam.

And I too have heard much about moderate muslims, but they seem to have little sway in the muslim world, and I hear very little condemnation of the vitrolic hatred that spews forth from many Imams who routinely call for death to anyone who disagrees with them. And we know they mean it literally.

Benedict is right on. He is confronting the evil history of Islam right down to Mohammed's looting, killing and execution of dozens of merchant caravans, Jewish tribes and fellow Arabs in 624-628 AD. This was the prophet that revealed God by the sword of death? Benedict is asking that this violent tradition be halted in favor of mutual respect for the human person. It is time for muslims to rid themselves of this violence and as usual the Pope is leading the blind to the truth.

This Tutu fellow sounds like he should be hanging his head in shame.

Where are the Muslim majority? Muslims represent approximately 2% of US population. They hardly have any chance of appearing at a primetime program in our media. To listen to them you may need to go to the web sites of Council of American Islamic Relationship (CAIR) or the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). But if you think that you will turn on your favorite radio station or TV channel and find the voice of the muslim majority, you will be dreaming. To get the Muslim reaction you need to go to international media and not US sources. This is the reality.

One cannot be a Catholic and at the same time deny the Nicene Creed. That Credo recites: "I believe in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith.." Benedict the XVI wants to turn the klieg lights of reason onto faith and of course the Catholic intellectual tradition from Aquinas to Newman and now to Benedict (That TIME called "a walking theological encyclopaedia") is without parallel. Faith sans reason is a fable- such as the worship of monkey gods- and a faith that is impervious to reason is a faith of charlatans. Such a faith can be used to justify suicide bombings which is what many imams, ayatollahs, sheiks, and muftis espouse. That Benedict XVI is directly confronting these canards is to his credit and to the benefit of all Christianity. This, Mr. Tutu is not being "hoity-toity."

Hi all or SalaamAlaikum (peace),

First of all thank you Bishop Tutu of South Africa and his tireless efforts of bringing Muslim and Christian communities together by action and not just mere words. He is a source of sensical conversation unlike the many *bigoted* Islamophobic posts here threatening "end to your cult." Tisk, tisk, tisk...

Sometimes hatred is just easier than simply talking to someone...just as psychologists would say physically disciplining a child is "easier" as punishment than sitting down with him and talking with him to understand his behavior.

So again I'm really enjoying these conversations and differing Points of view on "faith." My favorite has been Imam Zaid Shakir, President Khatami of Iran, the always inspiring Dalai Lama, and of course Desmond Tutu.

Thanks!

Kudos, Moin Ansari!

As a Jew, I had the greatest respect for His Holiness John Paul II. One of the reasons was his active outreach to Jews and Muslims. He went so far as to apologize to the Jewish people for the Church's historical oppression of them, and referred to his actions as "t'shuvah," the Hebrew word for religious repentance before God.

Unfortunately, Pope Benedict XVI seems to be throwing aside his predecessor's policies toward the other Abrahamic faiths. It is not just Jews and Muslims, but Catholics as well, who are the worse for it.

A festering wound, never healed, was brought to the surface by the Pope's address. Now it is in the open where it has to be reckoned with. Benedict and Turkey may well get us on a road where we can all admit to the wound, dress it, try to make it well.

If Benedict is trying to represent Christ, and I believe he is in his own imperfect way, what he said was no different than Christ's discussion with the woman at the well. He brought transgressions out into the open and healed them.

"Moderate muslims", for example, in Saudi Arabia? or Pakistan? Or Sudan? Or Somalia? Or Algeria? Where are these hundreds of millions of moderate muslims that we never see or hear from but are told so much about? Do moderate muslim condone slavery in Sudan? Do they approve of suicide bombers? Do they always have at the ready a justification for the criminal and stupid behavior of the followers of Mohammed? Why is it that islam cannot get along iwht anyone? Why does everyone hate the muslims? Only in your countries do people want you and not even then. You don't have to be a Chrsitian to hate muslims, you only have to be a non-muslim human.

I totally agree with Bishop Tutu. Christians ought to speak with some humility especially in light of those historical "Christian" atrocities that he eloquently enumerated. I also agree that religious leaders ought to stay away from deliberately inflammatory rhetoric. However I applaud the Pope for the courage to speak his mind on an issue on the mind of many. No religious leader should feel disqualified to make judgment calls on current situations because of the historical actions of his Church. The job of a religious leader is to reach for the soul of the people in the most sincere way he/she knows how, not to build consensus. Jesus our Lord was so driven by his mission that He did not care much for political correctness. Let religious leaders be religious, and politicians political. The onus is on the people to learn to respond to both in a civilized manner. The duty of the custodians of the law is to guarantee this, and Turkey is doing a great job.

A moderate Muslims does not mean a non-Muslim. A moderate Muslim does not mean someone who is Christian in thoughts on beliefs. A moderate Muslim is someone who respect Chrsitianity and Christians and other religions.

A moderate Christian is one who does NOT listen to the bigots on "Foxy" and elsewhere. A moderate Christian is not one who secretly or opnely expects Muslims to become Christians. A moderate Christians is one who respects Islam and other religions. Finding moderate Muslims is easy, stop listening to the bigots of the world and find one in the nearest mosque or in your neighborhood.

Seek out a Muslim and befiend him/her. It will be a rewarding experience. Friendship and hospitality will energize and improve everyone.

Craig,

You make a good point. There are many beliefs, many books. The Bible is but one, and it’s the one I need, and the one I know, and so all I can throw out are Bible passages. This is America and I’m not mad at you. You go for what you want Champ! I did not go from being a “Pagan” to a Christian overnight, and I have tolerance for all who are like I once was. There was a time when I was “off the hook.” Now I’m hooked, booked and gotta new look. Peace. Love. Happiness.

By the way, all of this is good dialogue.

If you are waiting for apologies you will have long to wait. Chechnya, Kashmir, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Southern Thailand, Bosnia, Kosovo, etc., all have the common denominator that precious muslims who feel "offended" are involved. If you feel that people are attacking your slave cult now, just wait. The future looks bright and I hope your emergency services are up to the task that they will surely have to face in the not-so distant future. Embrace your fate Abdul and leave while you still can.

and I hope those who are posting with so much hatred and bitterness are looking inside of themselves and asking why they are doing that?

pointless to get into fights over blogs, but your comments are completely irrational and display the very hatred or extremism you are accusing an innocent poster of harboring . . . which is actually kind of funny . . . but sad.

Cup of tea anyone?

Titles do not make men great, it is deeds and words. Mr. Gratzinger has not shown integrity in admitting his mistakes or the mistakes of the Catholic Church. Mr. Gratzinger, was propelled to the position of Pope because of his "Conservative" and "Evangelical" positions viz a viz Protestants, Jews and Muslims etc. If Mr. Gratzinger has talked garbage against Muslims, wait a few, other faiths will face the same ridicule.

Mr. Gratzinger was not naive when he uttered garbage against the holiest figure in Islam the Prophet Muhammad. He did it deliberately and with hubris. Many identify Mr. Gratzinger with the Islamphobic Neocon philosophy. He showed his theological ignorance of the writings of Averoes (Ibn Rushd) and philosophical illiteracy about the responses by Thomas Aquinas to Ibn Rushd’s “Reason and Revelation”. He was elected to lead Catholics, not reform Islam. Muslims all over the world do not need any lectures from those who lead packs of homosexual pedophiles and brought the Crusades, and the Inquisition to the world. The “frank dialogue” should begin with the Vatican complicity with the Nazis which is a matter of historical record. John XXIII’s Catholic priests routinely sprinkled holy water on marching Nazis.

Mr. Gratzinger deliberately provoked the Muslims and poured water on "Nostrae Aetate" (promulgated 28th October 1965) and the wonderful works of Papa, Pope John Paul the 2nd who was so near and dear to Muslim and Jewish hearts. Nostrae Aetate proclaimed.
"All the people on earth make up one single community, since God made all men and gave them the earth to live in. They also all have the same ultimate goal. That goal is God, whose love and care, whose plan of salvation extends to all men everywhere." (Cf. Wisdom 8:11; Acts 14:17; Romans 2:6-7; 1 Tim 2:4)"
Mr. Gratzinger had the unique opportunity in history to build on those bridges of harmony created by Papa, Pope John Paul the 2nd. Papa John Pual said.

"In the course of centuries there have been quarrels and hostilities between Christians and Muslims. But now the Council begs them both to forget the past and to work together for mutual understanding. For the sake of the whole human race let Muslim and Christian work together for social justice, for morality and for peace and freedom."

Mr. Gratzinger however took the road in following Pope Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) of Rome and Pope Gregory IX who established the Inquisition, in 1233 which eventually led to the horrors in Spain in 1481/1492. Mr. Gratzinger should worry about reforming the malaise from his own church and not worry about Islam. Mr. Gratzinger’s recent “volte face” act aimed at aimed at "dialogue, brotherhood and reconciliation" in Turkey is to be commended. Will the real Mr. Gratzinger please stand up. Nobel Peace prize winner Desmond Tutu has the following advice for Mr. Gratzinger “Christians should not be hoity-toity as if speaking from an exalted superior position. We should be suitably humble knowing certain facts about the adherents of our faith”. “We should be hanging our heads in shame for the bloody wars of religion that have been waged in the name of the Prince of Peace; we should speak as those whose faith has produced those who were responsible for the Holocaust, who supported apartheid enthusiastically as consonant with the Christian scriptures, as those who have as fellow Christians the Ku Klux Klan, and those who have spewed forth so much homophobic hate, and those who thought God would be pleased if they killed doctors who performed abortions, who were driven by a religious zeal to let off the bombs of Oklahoma, who had a Christian President approve the use of weapons of mass destruction on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, remembering that it is Christians responsible for the atrocities in Northern Ireland and who were responsible for the genocide in Rwanda.”

Mr. Gratzinger still has to apologize to the Muslims for the Inquisition and for his own uncalled for Regensburg remarks against the Prophet Muhammad.

I think it is very refreshing to hear a man of faith speaking in defence of others: not only those who hold the exact tenants of his religeon, but those who have been mistreated in the name of radicalism.

He speaks very rationally and pointedly regarding humankind's use of religeon to further earthly agendas; agendas which can frankly have lasting and negative effects on the lives of others . . . and I have a great respect that he points that this Radicalism can be found in any religeon or mindset, including his own.

Radicalism in any form is ugly, and the source is narrowness of mind and the looking at those who hold moderate but different beliefs to be the "others" . . . alien and inhuman, instead of many fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters only hoping to live a happy life, free from violence and the use of politics---governmental or religious---to tear apart lives.

It would have been one thing if Timothy McVeigh had sent out a message saying