Sir: “Show me just what Muhammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” This quote from an obscure Byzantine Emperor, used by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in a major lecture at the University of Regensburg, highlights the widening gulf of incomprehension between Islamic tenets and the European version of Christianity. Fourteen centuries of this “evil and in-human” doctrine, however, allowed the Christians in pre- invasion Iraq and the pre-occupation Holy Land - not to mention the Copts of Egypt and Maronites of Lebanon - to live prosperous and fruitful lives.
All the while, the Pope’s forebears were putting to the sword the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Beirut (1099), organising inquisitions the length and breadth of Europe against other Abra-hamic faiths and his “secular” counterparts were enriching the languages of all world’s tribes with words like “pogrom” and “Holocaust”.
What was His Holiness’s motive in pouring oil on this smouldering Islamophobia with which the Bush-Blair war on terror has infected our politics, I ask myself and find no answer. Except that the virus of bigotry and prejudice makes no distinction between an Abu Hamza and a Cardinal Ratzinger in Pope’s robes. May Allah saves us all from such blind faith.
M A QAVI LONDON SE3
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