If, as Turkey's senior Islamic official, Ali Bardakoglu, told the pope on his arrival, Islam is a religion of "vast tolerance" that rejects all violence and terror and "assumes that killing an innocent person is a heavy crime and sin," it is singularly extravagant of the Turkish government to assign an army of 15,000 security men to one frail old priest. How many divisions does it take to protect the pope?
If, as Mr. Bardakoglu also lectured the pope, it is "Islamophobic" to say that Islam "was spread over the world by the sword," why is it that almost all the major conflicts in the world today occur on the fault lines between Islam and other faiths? Even in Turkey, the most secular of Muslim countries, persecution has reduced the proportion of non-Muslims in the population from a majority in Byzantine times to less than 1% today. It is still a crime in Turkey to refer to the Armenian genocide. And it is still dangerous to be an observant Christian or Jew. Synagogues in Istanbul were attacked by Islamist terrorists in 1985 and 2003, killing scores and wounding hundreds of Turkey's tiny Jewish minority.
Islam is a religion of peace, and those who say otherwise had better watch their backs.
(Via Amy.)
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Another issue is the fact that Christians for some time now have been dealing publicly with the fact that a great deal of violence has been committed in the name of their religion. Just as there are no greater critics of America than (some) Americans, there are no greater critics of the actions of Christians than other Christians. Christians have publicly and explicitly acknowedged their violent past and its consequences.
Where are the voices of Muslims publicly acknowledging their violent past?>
The author is not making a comparison. He is noting Islam's tendency to violence without reference to Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, etc. See?
As the author is Western, the conparison/contrast is implicit.
No one makes a statement in a vaccuum.>
He called it "Islam's bloody borders."
Rod, snookums - borders have 2 sides.>
The implication has more to do with Islam's theology than it's relationship with other religions.>
Rod, snookums - borders have 2 sides.
Sure, but Islam always seems to be on one side of the border or the other.
Unless I haven't been paying attention and have missed all the coverage of that rampant Buddhist-Shinto violence.>
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