All Comments (16)

TO DANIEL ABDAL-HAYY MOORE

You wrote, "Transcending rivalries with compassion and forbearance would then be a spiritual step toward conscious tolerance that in fact all religious revelations by their prophets from the beginning of time have insisted on."

Jesus, Who is God-Incarnate, not merely a prophet, taught LOVE, not tolerance and there is a big, big difference.

You also wrote, "While the Church has its own agenda during this American visit, the Pope would also do well to extend its good will to the American Muslim community, putting aside any differences in its theological approach with non-Catholic believers."

Can you really not see what you are saying in this statement?

You are trying to tell the Pope how He should present his beliefs and if they don't agree with what you believe, then he should keep his mouth shut, is this what islam is about?

You are trying to tell others exactly what to say about what they believe and how they should shut up about their beliefs, is this what islam is about?

Is it a thing with "some" Muslims to try and tell others what to think and believe?

What you believe is fine, but no one should tell others what to believe and how to present their beliefs.

Is the god of islam so insecure, or does some of his followers feel that following the god of islam is so great that it should be forced on others, by coersing them either by violence, the legal system, nice sounding words or whatever else might come to mind?

I am a Catholic and I have met the Trinity and God is a Being of Pure Love.

The True, Living, Triune, Triumphant God is a searcher of hearts and minds, not of religious affiliations or lack thereof and it is important what you do and why you do it and what you know.

God gave us free will and it is ungodly to try and force ourselves on others in any way.

Take care, be ready, see you and the rest of humanity in the Kingdom.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

Victoria-

You hit it right on the head. When people develop enough courage and enough pride to be deserving of being American, they will use their brains and process the notion that each person should be accountable for his/her own actions and that we should relate to each other better as people.

But as long as there are a lot of impotent and ignorant people that scream "Yay 'Murrika!" and have babies with their sisters in the trailer parks, you will be hated because of a label placed on you. You will be accountable for the actions of others who are given the same label because inbreeders yell the loudest. Moderate and educated Americans like myself will view the actions of the individual, but we don't have those inbred genes that give that amazingly obnoxious loud voice to overcome and that makes this a confederacy of dunces.

Hi, Victoria, "(the only religion named for a concept instead of a person or region)"

Not so. Wicca, Paganism, Heathenry, Asatru, Taoism, Shinto, ...I think Baha'i, Voudoun, Santeria, Dreamtime, ...The list could go on, all named for concepts.

Victoria how many Hadiths have you read? Do you understand the doctrine of Abnegation as it is used by the vaious stripes of Muslim clerics to justify actions which no civilized person would tolerate for a minute?

dan78- im an american who converted to islam, and i can tell you most emphatically that i was subject to many acts of violence simply for that fact- and by christians- every one.

now, did i take that experience and curdle my thinking mind to imagine that their actions could be confused with the ideology of christians everywhere?

or did i realize- that there will be reactionary and violent people from every strata- including the non-religious- and use the experiences as an oppportunity to gauge my own reaction- worry about my OWN behavior-

i assure you it is the latter-

the contention some make(without dpeth) that islam is a religion that promulgates violence by it's very doctrine- only leads me to a deeper study of it- which leads me to the correct conclusion that islam is a religion of peace- contained within it's very name(the only religion named for a concept instead of a person or region)

it is the epitome of inclusivenes- and social justice is its identity-

anecdotal incidences do little to substantiate any claim- as there will always be an opposite anecdote that contradicts it-

instead of respecting religion- let us concentrate on respecting eahc other as individuals-
heres for more meaningful discourse.

"Could have created a violent reaction on the part of Muslims". One wonders WHY a conversion such as this should provoke such a reaction from any group, more than a conversion from the Republican party to the Democratic party or a shift in preference from Fords to Toyotas?

Could it be Islam simply promotes violent behavior (on a personal level) more than other religions? Many Christian westerners have converted to Islam, which has not provoked a violent reaction by Christians. The main problem is the exaggerated respect that religion is given, more so than any other area of life. Once we take off the kid gloves and get people accustomed to having their religious "no-fly" zone entered, we'll see some more meaningful discourse.

Mutual respect among religious zealots? What a bunch of BS. Neither Catholics nor Muslims will ever be tolerant of each other. Each has a god they think is better than the others. Listen to the Pope's pronouncements on even other Christians and read the Koran.

These religions are two of Satan's great tools in the world keeping people divided, hating and killing each other. Abraham should be real proud of what he wrought. Maybe he was the original Satan.

Asim, Asim, Asim,

Without doubt the Catholic Church is wallowing in the muck but Islam shares an equal wallowing in the muck. As a reminder, the flaws/muck of Islam:

1. Belief in "pretty/ugly wingie thingies".

2. Belief that an hallucinating, illiterate Arab did actually talk to the "pretty Gabriel" in the hot "Gabe" cave and therein received the warmongering and anti-female words and resultant laws now listed in the koran.

3. That Sunnis are superior to Shiites in all aspects of life. And Shiites think the same way about Sunnis.

4. That Islam is perfect and the koran inherently condones no sin even though the 24/7, 800 year-old blood feud between Sunnis and Shiites gives significant credence that greed, hate, suicides, assassinations, maiming, and murder are condoned by the koran. Male Islamics to include imams and clerics having multiple wives also gives significant credence to the sins of rape, adultery, lust and polygamy. The condoned treatment of these wives gives credence that the koran allows the sins of hatred, anger and greed.

I looked around several times in your article to criticize, but couldn't find something to disagree about.
Keep up the good work....

Muslim relations with everyone would probably be better if they weren't practicing suicide bombing and other atrocities, mudering people like Danny Pearl, etc.

Just a suggestion

Muslim relations with everyone would probably be better if they weren't practicing suicide bombing and other atrocities, mudering people like Danny Pearl, etc.

Just a suggestion

"The televised baptism of a Muslim convert to Catholicism during the recent Easter Service was also a serious and potentially volatile event that may have been construed as a deliberate slight by the Pope and could have created a violent reaction on the part of Muslims (thank God it did not)."

The issue here is choice. Muslims around the world chose to avoid violent reaction, which is good (and should be expected of everyone.)

Muslim relations with everyone would probably be better if they weren't practicing suicide bombing and other atrocities, mudering people like Danny Pearl, etc.

Just a suggestion.

The problem is that the wider behaviour of Muslim society doesn't reflect this respect. If a Catholic converts to Islam, Catholics are confused. The family might be in some circumstances hurt or angry. But they would never suggest torture or killing for retaliation. You don't see the Pope calling for jail or torture for Muslims who distribute Koranic texts in Ireland, Italy or other predominantly Catholic nations. When a prostitute performs a strip tease to the tune Ave Maria, or a "performance artist" submerges a crucifix in a jar of urine, the Catholic Leadership didn't call for Holy War. Catholics didn't set fire to the proverbial Danish Embassy. If Muslims want mutual respect, they're going to have to take a step towards the middle ground, instead of demanding everyone else step towards them.

Moore wrote: "The televised baptism of a Muslim convert to Catholicism during the recent Easter Service was also a serious and potentially volatile event that may have been construed as a deliberate slight by the Pope and could have created a violent reaction on the part of Muslims..."

And you wonder why we cannot get along! A Muslim exercises his freedom to switch religions and Muslims consider it a "deliberate SLIGHT by the pope". Apostasy is something that no other religion has, and in Islam it can carry the death penalty. I'm sorry, but when the religion becomes more important than the individual, the religion stops serving, and needs to change or disappear.

Just where do Muslims get off judging the religious beliefs of other Muslims or non-Muslims for that matter? Before we learn to live together, Muslims need to learn to live in their own lands with non-Muslims, the ones still left, and also learn to live with one another, since the major killer of Muslims is other Muslims.

Daniel,
the pope should apologize for the atrocities and horrors of the Crusaders and the Inquisition-instead he hands Muslims one insult after another.

Considering the sorry state of the catholic church of loosing considerable ground to Islam and its shameful sex scandles, and like Bush,the pope thinks it very fashionable to attack and insult Muslims time and again;thousands of people around the globe in Africa as in America embrace Islam every day without fanfare-yet the pope chose to bapatise a person who was never a Muslim in the first place-for no purpose except to intimidate and insult Muslims.Islam only wants quality belivers any way and the 1.5 billion Muslims will not miss the israeli spy who converted to catholicism.

Your message is great and will resonate positively in the minds of many-Except the that of the pope-he is an Islam hater.