‘The Vatican on Friday urged Muslims to reject violence, work with Christians for peace and to teach their young to love and respect all people and not become “cultural or religious blocs opposed to one another.”‘
Given that most Muslims do those things about as much as most of the rest of us, isn’t that kind of insulting. Wouldn’t it make more sense to issue that call to all people, including all Christians and especially given who’s giving it, all Catholics?
Of course if we judged all Muslims by Iraq where the abject failure to plan of the Republican administration has allowed bad people to make life hellish and turn Muslims against themselves in a civil war our soldiers are trying to referee, it would be natural to issue such a call. But over most of the Muslim world these things, thank goodness, are not happening.
And it’s certainly not just a Muslim trait to occasionally not love or respect people of other cultures or religions. Just listen to right wing radio for a few mornings to see that.
“Tauran, the Vatican’s foreign affairs chief from 1990 to 2003, has pledged to back the moderate forces within Islam to improve dialogue and help defeat extremist groups that encourage terrorism.”
This would be a good thing if they can manage to do it eptly.

And how long will I tbe until Benny16 or one of his minions either dilutes this statement or simply says something completley contradictory? Old Ben has not proven himself to be very open to dialog with anyone else, except to scold them for not being Roman Catholic. He takes his defense of his faith in a very offensive way. But I have to give Tauran credit for giving this his best shot. I hope he is as stubborn as his namesake.

His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, I believe is a sincere and concerned leader of the Catholic Church. His proposal, however, is not going to happen unless Almighty God performs a modern day miracle. The evidence is clear, Muslims will eternally be opposed to Christianity. It is instilled in the tenets of the religion itself. Catholics and Protestant Christians will always be viewed as infidels and pagan.

Ugh. Puke. One must BE the change they wish to see in the world before they ask it of others. Pope Benidict has no right to ask Muslims, most of which are quite peaceful, than the merciless has for asking to have mercy. I am not putting down the Catholic religion in any way, I think there are some great leaders in that religion, such as the late John Paul the II. But when belonging to a religion that caused how many holy wars, has yet to apologize to those they repressed, and burned untold numbers at the stake, they have NO RIGHT to ask a VERY peaceful group of people to be passive. There are zealots that represent their religion poorly in Islam, just like in Paganism, or Catholism, or Evangelical Christianity, and the list goes on.

audubon1946
And reversing the statement “Catholics and Protestant Christians will always be viewed as infidels and pagan” to Muslims will always be viewed as infidels and pagan to the Catholics and Protestant Christians. Think about it…Never has there been wonderful relations between the parties. Lots of “rightous” wars have been fought to convert those infidel Muslims and MAKE them the “correct and right” religion…Catholic or Christian.
Ben is a sincere and concerned leader of the Catholic Church? He hasn’t proven that to many folks. He has taken the church back to the dark ages and his relationship with the non-Catholic religions in the world are miserable.

Sister and Brother infidels and pagans, let us turn and salute the Holy See – noevil, Hearnoevil, Speaknoevil. I suggest a full moon with a side of raspberries. We’ll simply say audubon1946 sent us.
Meanwhile, lets try and work through our similarities and let the rest of the world know that simplistic namecalling and pointless proclamations are little more than the scent of geysers erupting.
No, that’s too harsh. We do need to work from our strengths and allow our differences to make us distinct, and celebrate that. If anyone else wants to join the parade – awesome. But if they choose to sit at home and miss the fun – ah well – I have a feeling theparade may last quite a while if we can all work together.

Cardinal Tauran’s statement is very timely.
Islam in Arabic does not mean peace but submission. If Muslims say they are a religion of peace this is the time to prove it.
What is sad is the fact that Islamic Fundamentalists have used these teachings to justify their actions. To them, Jihad is not a one-time event. It is a continuing operation until the entire world is converted to Islam.
“Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, … nor acknowledge the Religion of Truth, from among the People of the Book [Jews and Christians]” (Sura 9:29).
Of course, there are many Muslims who do not subscribe to the literal interpretation of the Quran. I have known many Muslims and I know the majority of Muslims just want peace and the well being of their families.
What Islam needs right now is a reform movement. There are many teachings of Islam which are no longer relevant in our day and age. Religious intolerance is one. Women’s rights are another.

“What Islam needs right now is a reform movement. There are many teachings of Islam which are no longer relevant in our day and age. Religious intolerance is one. Women’s rights are another.”
Absolutely true. And though the need is less immediate, the same is true of Christianity and Judaism. Those bad teachings are still in their holy books and some people still adhere to them.

I agree with nnmns. Christian and Jewish fundamentalists are just as guilty. The war in Iraq is being fueled by Islamic and Christian fundamentalists.
Religious fundamentalism has no place in our civilization today. We all worship the same God. We just call Him by different names. It is time we all worked for peace.

It’s been 500 years since we’ve had a really good Reformation. I say, let’s reform the whole bunch of ‘em. I’d prefer we hold off on the burning martyrs – too many of them already. But I bet we can get some rollicking good arguments going – and who knows where it will all wind up.
Borrowing the incarceration idea from one of the other discussions, I suggest that every religion and denomination send a binding delegation to the Antarctic – where if a speaker goes to long they simply open the doors. It is a wonder what freezing cold can do to shorten a discussion. Just to be merciful they can stay as long as the sun shines – which if it is like the Arctic, they will have a few months of constant jabber, with decreasing points of discussion until June – whenthe whole thing has to come to a single vote.
Probably won’t work, but it sounds like fun. Wile the delegates and blathering on and on and on, the rest of the world cand go on and ge tthings done without undue harassment from religious radicals and factional fanatics.
Any volunteers?

Just a point of clarification: Many people may not know from the article that Ramadan doesn’t end until mid-October. Why did the Vatican’s top official in charge of relations with Muslims release a text marking a month-long holiday two weeks early?