I think Muslims are overreacting and again are shooting themselves in the foot. Whether the Pope was right or not about using the medieval quote, the violent reaction by Muslims only confirms the view tha Islam is an intolerant and violent religion. Muslims would do better if they protest against illiteracy, poverty, unemployment, mistreatment of women and terrorism in the name of religion.

Anyone who has witnessed the birth of one's child can tell you that yes indeed you create your own reality, the question is what do we wish to create for ourselves as reality on this planet, now and for our children's, and their children's future? Not just in this country, but the world as a whole, as an international vision.
Inherently, change is viewed with suspicion, as a threat to culture and ways of tradition and ethical belief systems. As it applies to developing countries in this nuclear age, the post-cold war aftermath presents a vast paradox that present no easy solutions, and has culminated in the reality of the war on terrorism as it exists today.

If there is one thing about people that's a given, it's that they can only change themselves. You can try to understand them, change their circumstances, try to point the roads to peace, but in the end, they must want it for themselves, knowing what the alternatives are.

Got to get folks to deal with their own ethical infants within their societies....the billion and a half Muslims who've rejected bin Laden's interpretation of , and call to Jihad , who've rejected IRI Mullah's terrorist supporting idiocy, WMD programs, and incitement of violence,along with threats to other nations... that billion and a half who love their children too, understand:

Terrorists, in their methodology have been killing innocent Muslims, In Iraq, London, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kashmir, USA, (9/11), Kenya, Lebanon, and a host of other nations in many attacks over the years.

These attacks against civilians...innocents, regardless of any so-called intended target or purpose, political or otherwise are in direct violation of the Islamic code of conduct of Jihad. The article linked will explain further:

http://tinyurl.com/l2fzf

According to three top scholars interviewed by the BBC News website, jihad can only be called in the following circumstances:

"-If a Muslim community comes under attack, then jihad becomes an obligation for all Muslims, male and female, in that community
-If that particular community feels it cannot fight off attackers on its own, then jihad becomes incumbent on Muslims living in nearby communities
-If a Muslim ruler of a country calls for jihad, then it is incumbent upon the Muslims living under that ruler to join the jihad. "

These attacks, and the terrorists...apostates of Islam who have perpetrated them, instigated and supported terrorism itself have placed Muslim communities at risk, both directly and indirectly, taking innocent life, and causing political unrest within the religion of Islam, and fear within the community of Islam. Fear both from the violence emenating from within segments of Islam, and the fear that the non-Muslim societies of the world will make blanket condemnation of Islam as a result of a small violent percentage of the global Muslim population's attempts to interpret Islam for their own political and power mongering ends, to which the word "harim" is a pale description.

The targeting of Mosques, the violent division attempted via terrorist acts between Sunni and Shiite sects of Islam, as well as the direct threat to the teachings of Islam, posed by those who support terrorism, also represent a threat to "the community" as a whole. The community is under attack from within.

It is self evident that all communities are being attacked, all peoples, all civilization. Jihad becomes incumbent on Muslims living in all communities to address the threat to it from within their own communities.

Muslim rulers of Afghanistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, and many others have joined the "war on terrorism" the global jihad against terrorists which includes as it's allies, and brothers in arms those nations that are not Muslim, but have significant Muslim populations within their sovereign boundaries.
These non-Muslim nations, recognizing the risk to all peoples in their lands, including Muslims, have called for solidarity in this fight from all Muslims of true heart and mind. Iraqis, Afghan and many Muslims are now engaged side by side with US and coalition forces in the global war on terrorism and in the global war of ideas, as expressed by many clerics and leaders opposed to the violent interpretation of Islam as expoused by the leadership of Iran and al quaida, Hisbollah, Hamas...and other terrorist entities and supporters.

Let there be no ambiguity in this logic. Let their be no hiding place, no sanctuary given, no sponsor of terror, no terrorist left to promote violence in the name of religion once this jihad against terror is justly called for by all Muslims of true faith, and finished. Then Islam can be truly called a "religion of peace" and coexist in harmony with the peoples of the world.

This American Bhuddist "infidel" has no side to be on in this personally, I'm just sick of being witness to it. Just as the Japanese Military Sho-gun mentality ursurped Bhuddist thinking prior to Pearl Harbor and WW2, so too the muslim umma may take a lesson from history of my faith and apply it to whatever future you seek for yourselves...and your children, and their children...coexistance? or the alternative expoused by the radical among you??? I see valid parallel to the leadership of Iran in their words and deeds to the Japanese of 75 years ago.

As an American, I view the attempts to create religious conflicts via terrorism, propaganda and extremism as a threat to our national interests and those of the world's community at large. We are the melting pot of the world, cultures and people...90 different nations lost contrymen on 9/11...it is a global fight, not simply against terrorism, but a fight to live in a sane world that will be worth raising a family in.
As a Human, I can only hope for an elevation of the level of consciousness within societies to deal with the fanatics within them in whatever effective methods neccessary to re-establish Islam as a religion of peace, at peace with all mankind. Fourteen hundred years after the birth of Crist, that religion went through it's "dark ages", and came out of it in "renasance". Fourteen hundred years after Mohhamed, Islam is now in the throws of it's own "dark age". The question of a "renasance of Islam" is moot, all things change...if you do not believe me, find me one person on Earth that believes it is flat.

And so too will pass the belief in Sharia law that a woman is worth exactly half that of a man in an Iranian court of law, as well as the belief that is is incumbent on those of the Shiite 12'lver sect of Islam (including the leaders of Iran) to prepare the conditions apocalyptic return of the mahdi, who is then supposedly to save the world....or what's left of it.

Those of the Muslim faith, as well as those Iranians who read this have my great sympathy for the choice that you must now make as individuals, to preserve your nation and the umma itself from those who lead a great nation, religion and people over oblivion's cliff.

Kuttab speaks up for secular Muslims in this piece, not very loud, but we're the ones getting caught in between everyone else, between the Muslim, Christian, and Jewish fundies, we're getting it from all sides. So I appreciated we got a mention. Kuttab's writing comes from a consistent ethic of supporting rational, practical means to peace and shunning all violent groupthink extremism, and this is to be commended.

Hypatia
(a secular feminist Muslimah)

"If I were a Muslim, I would be angry too (but doubtfully violent) and I don't deny Palestinian suffrage"

No but the Israeli's do. Most
Palestinians are not allowed to vote. Even Israeil Arabs only were allowed to vote recently. They are still second class citizens.

Mr. Freedman, relax a little. Just because the word Israel appears, you assume it is an attack because it was written by an Arab.

I have noticed you on these posts before, namely Saul Singer's defense of Torture. In that one you took his stance, and viciously attacked anyone who you felt did not agree enough with his premise, even though it was wrong.

I am humbly requesting that you keep your spin and bias out of your comments, and just deal with the facts, not some perceived slight.

Mr. Kuttab has every right to write as he sees fit. And the comPost publishes it, so it can't be as bad as you claim.

I'm sure I will get a response telling me that Israel is perfect, and how dare I criticize it. Well, sir, I believe wholeheartedly that Israel has the right to exist in peace and security among her neighbors. I do not, however, believe that her current policies are contributing to either.

Neither does Mr. Kuttab.

Bill Mosby commented, "For the last few thousand years I'm sure that the behavior of people has been improved by the idea that to have a good afterlife one must please God in defined ways. The trouble now is that the many different religions with their different prescribed ways of pleasing God keep bumping up against one another with disastrous results."

Interestingly, there is actually a lot of agreement among the world religions about how to live one's life, if you look to their various sacred texts. The book Rise Above It by Ray and Star Silverman does just that, demonstrating the universality of the principles underlying the ten commandments in the book of Exodus.

The problem arises, I think, when religious leaders (and followers) become so focused on the truths of their faith that they jettison or deprecate the essential importance of being good and living a life of charity.

As Emanuel Swedenborg wrote, "All religion is of life, and the life of religion is to do good." Whenever we forget that, we plunge into dispute and recrimination, and, at times, into violence.

We don't do so well without religion either, as Hitler, Stalin and Mao have proven rather recently. The problem has more to do with intolerant adherence to a group ideology than with religion. Religion can be perfectly benign. I've never heard of the Baha'is or Quakers running riot or killing anyone.

I am curious where were the rioters when Lebanon and Gaza were being attacked? I don''t remember the same passion. Only when the cartoons and this kind of comment it seems that the Arab street gets worked up, or riled up by the repressive regimes. They can release the anger in these idiotic charades of free speech while the real issues of the repressive governments and the cruelity of the Israel's war against Lebanon and Gaza go under the radar.

Again religion becomes a distraction in what is a political conflict. As far as I am concerned a pox on all religions. Basically, a book of mythology, the Bible, is the fuse that started the conflict in the middle east. One group crosses itself, another bangs it's head on the wall and another on the ground and we are held hostage by their mythology. The mythology is then used to fuel political and economic motives. And we are held hostage and must honor the these religions. For what reason? So that in the meantime political interests can be free to manipulate. Wake up, Karl Marx was right. They are all on drugs and we are taking them seriously.

This piece is another instance of shameless hypocrisy on the part of Daoud Kuttab.
Notice he ends by attacking Israel and its Christian supporters. He always attacks Israel, no matter what the issue.
Notice what he does not do.Condemn the Palestinian violence or defend the small minority of Palestinian Christians. After all he is a more patriotic Palestinian nationalist than even Yassar Arafat was.
A veneer of rationality always precedes a hateful attack on Israel. This is Kuttab M.O.E.
A pretence of reasonableness with an underlying motif of obsessive Israel baiting.

hey FF, buy a comma.

Comments like are being used by christian fanatics like Bush to kill thousands of muslims in Iraq and Afganistan. Every religion has bad and goods, It was christian religion who killed 200000 muslims in Bosnia, Those were christians who killed 60000000 people in WW2, those were Christians who killed 3000000 in Vietnam war. Zionist Pope can not show any example of any atrocities done at this level by muslims.

I knew, as always, Israel and the Jews will become the topic even when the Chief Sephardic Rabbi in Israel denounced Pope's remarks. Even the Pope mentioned the Jews in one of his conciliatory remarks to the Moslem world. This also reminds me of blaming the Jews and Zionists for the Danish and European cartoons and the Iranian government responding by publishing Holocaust cartoons.

If I were a Muslim, I would be angry too (but doubtfully violent) and I don't deny Palestinian suffrage.

But my reaction is to become more Zionist not less. For I feel justified in defending my family and faith in face of unprovoked attacks. We are forced to defend ourselves in wars of survival.

Someday we will have peace, but we are far from it.

Has anyone had another kind of thought about all of this conflict in the name of religion? A thought along the lines that religion as currently practiced has outlived its usefulness? For the last few thousand years I'm sure that the behavior of people has been improved by the idea that to have a good afterlife one must please God in defined ways. The trouble now is that the many different religions with their different prescribed ways of pleasing God keep bumping up against one another with disastrous results. Perhaps someday we will find a way past this state of affairs.

JoJo
I think I have all the criteria needed to establish my Zionist credentials -- including family in Israel and a son who served in the IDF. You are absolutely wrong about Mr. Kuttab's last paragraph. In my reading, it is not "a slam against Israel" and does not "undermine and contradict his reasonable previous paragraphs". Any person or organization that justifies violence of any kind using "Biblical [or Koranic] quotations" or a claim of a "God-given right" should be rightly condemned. The last paragraph seems in keeping with the entire tenor of the article. No doubt I would disagree with Mr. Kattub's politics, but I am in accord with his view that everyone needs "to confront these theological issues which are used to justify killings".

Kuttub had the makings of a decent article right up to the last paragraph. It seems that middle easterners, even from a comparatively sane country like Jordan, can't control their hatred driven anti-semitism. His last paragraph is a slam against Israel and goes to undermine and contradict his reasonable previous paragraphs. Too bad in that the rage bubbling just below the surface is so hard to control.
By way of correction, Jews lived in Israel for thousands of years, and their getting a small sliver, 0.1 percent, of the region hardly seems like plunder or colonialism. To deny this is to reinforce the faith based claim that Islam can't tolerate any who don't submit to Islamic rules. This latter is the main cause of conflict between Islam and others in Africa, in Central Asia, in Israel, in Pakistan, in western China, in Europe and just about any place else Islam and non-Islamic societies come into contact.

Dear Mr. Kuttub,

Thank you for your thoughtful remarks. As an American I find them helpful and am also relieved to hear the content of your commentary. Let me share a quote that I am sure you would appreciate. You are younger than I am and probably do not personally
remember the American/ Cuban missile crisis that occurred under President Kennedy. But I was a child and when we were in school we were trained to hide under our desks if there was a nuclear attack launched against us by the Russians, as if that would save our lives! But as a child I was scared to death. When the crisis was resolved, President Kennedy said " What kind of a peace do we seek? I am talking about a genuine peace. The kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, not a mere peace in our time, peace in all time. Our problems are man-made. Therefore, they can be solved by man. For in the final analysis our most basic link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's futures and we are all mortal."
Believe me when I tell you, all Americans wish for peace, as I am sure do all Palestinians. Your dialogue with regard to the pope's remarks was most helpful and I hope is an indication of how we, the people of the world, can discuss differences rationally so that our children have a decent future.

Joan

The violent reaction to the Pope's quoting a historical figure while essentially giving a lecture to theologians was, it is obvioius to all moderates, was quite irrational. This is the point of view of most peoples accustomed to freedom regardless of their religious persuasion.

It is this irrational reaction, not the Pope's statement that should draw attention and stimulate thoughtful conversation among thinking people around the world. The focus on the statement and conversations about its truth or relevance miss the point entirely. The point is not about what the Koran says or does not say. The point is that millions of Muslims around the world are angry enough to scream protests, make violent threats, kill and ...worse.

Muslim moderates should be asking themselves: "If we cannot bring the extremist elements of our societies under control, do we not eventually invite the mob mentality to take over?" and,

"Do I, as an educated person in the Muslim world have an obligation to oppose violence by my co-religionists?"

"How can our society marginilize extremists who pervert Islam?

"How can we improve the lot of the average Muslim man and woman?"

Blaming the Pope, Israel, the U.S. and others for the dilemma caused by decades of ignorance, poverty and oppression will not solve it, but merely make solving it take longer. As Anwar Sadat once said, "You can make no progress unless you change your mind."

Moderate and courageous leaders from the Muslim intelligentsia must emerge to lead their people back from the abyss... The longer it takes, the more we will all pay.