Posted on 09/19/2006 6:14:43 AM PDT by Dark Skies
We have all enjoyed tut-tutting about the Muslim cultural practice of dhimmitude, the notion that under Islam the infidel is a second-class citizen and must defer to the faithful at all times. No eating and drinking in front of the faithful during Ramadan, for example.
But it is clear from the events of the last week that dhimmitude is here right now.
I’d never had much time for Oriana Fallaci, the outrageous Italian interviewer and journalist, but appreciated her diatribes against Islam in the years since 9/11, and wrinkled my nose on learning that she was being sued for insulting the faith. But the head of the Italian journalists’ union marked her death last week by saying that she was a
“great, courageous and scrupulous journalist but also an intellectual whose most recent views were unacceptable and in many respects dangerous.”
What can you call that but dhimmitude?
Then there is the flap over the Pope’s remarks at the University of Regensburg. In a scholarly speech on September 12, 2006 that primarily defended the idea of Jesus Christ as the living God, Pope Benedict XVI raised the question that ought to be the central question that Christians ask of Muslims. What is with all this holy war stuff? He quoted the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus:
“Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats… To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death…”
The Christian God is a reasonable God, he asserts, the Word made flesh.
“But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent,”
independent of reason or anything else. Then he headed off into a learned apology for the Christian God, the union of the Hebrew prophetic tradition and the Hellenistic logos.
Since it is merely a couple of weeks since two Fox News staffers were kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam—without a peep of outrage from the moderate Muslim community—I’d say that it was the Pope’s duty to raise the question of jihad with the Muslim world. If the head of the Catholic Church won’t do it who will?
But the international media was united in condemning the Pope’s remarks as a gaffe, an insult to Islam. And now the Pope says he is sorry for the way people reacted, if not for what he said.
That was when the scales fell off my eyes. What’s all the fuss?
In fact, we have the same system here in the United States. Call it liberal dhimmitude. Every conservative lives under its oppressive yoke.
Disagree with the liberal line and you better expect to be attacked and humiliated. That’s how the system works.
The “progressive” left stirs up a conflict and blames the international middle class. Maybe it’s Marx blaming the bourgeoisie for the subsistence wages of the industrial working class. Maybe it’s Lenin claiming that every European is an imperialist. Maybe it’s liberals dividing black and white in the United States with racial quotas, or declaring upper-middle-class women the victim of the male of the species.
Now liberals are united in protecting Muslims from insult and tossing away our tradition of free speech. The only thing that matters is to make westerners—or Christians, or Americans—take the blame, to make them into dhimmi, second-class citizens afraid to stand up for the Christian God, the rule of law, and the bounty of the market.
If you read the Pope’s speech at Regensburg carefully you can appreciate the radicalism of the Christian message. The idea that God is a rational God, who invites us to discover His nature through an exploration of reason, is radical. It makes the claim that, in the end, we will find out that the universe makes sense.
It is the same claim that western science makes, that we can understand the universe by discovering its laws. Both Christianity and science are grounded in the same faith, that there are indeed laws that describe the universe.
But Islam and western postmodernism make a different claim. For them there is no “In the beginning was the Word,” the logos of reason.
There is only power: divine power or secular power.
The Chinese have a different take on the modern world. According to David Aikman in the book Jesus in Beijing, the Chinese have been wondering for generations what it is about the west that makes it so powerful. Now “Dr. Wu” of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences says that they have found us out.
“In the past twenty years, we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity. That is why the West has been so powerful.”
That is also what Pope Benedict XVI is saying in different words..
In contrast, Islam believes the Koran is uncreated. Nothing truly has a beginning or an end. The presence of God exists independent of human thought and his message is spread not through scholarly debates but through war. This is the essence of the Islamic world view.
"Show me just what Mohammed 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." -Manuel II Paleologus
The Pope has the divine right to say whatever he pleases. He didn't insult Islam, he was quoting someone forget who from the 14th century. He was stating a question brought up then. It wasn't even a statement it was a question. I would however go as far to say Islam is evil and Mohamed the spawn of Satan, it is an opion based on centuries of Muslim murder and mayhem.
The Righteousness of G-d versus the deceitfulness and greed of ole Scratch...and human beings are gathering at the opposite poles.
Gee, does Italy arrest Imams who speak ill of other religions? I think not. Hypocritical cowards.
Outstanding article!
Gee, does Italy arrest Imams who speak ill of other religions? I think not. Hypocritical cowards.
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Dhimmitude.
This has been happening quite frequently of late. Have you noticed? Just yesterday Rush read an editorial piece from the LA Times, written by a liberal who said that, when it comes to the war on Islamofacism, liberals have gone off the deep end.
Poll: Sinking Perceptions Of Islam
(IN) Although Americans believe they are better informed about Islam than they were five years ago, a new CBS News poll finds fewer than one in five say their impression of the religion is favorable. Forty-five percent of respondents said they have an unfavorable view of Islam, a rise from 36 percent in February. Americans today are also more likely than not to believe that Islam encourages violence, at least in comparison to other religions around the world. The poll finds 46 percent of Americans believe Islam encourages violence more than other religions, compared with 39 percent of Americans who felt that way two months ago. The last few months have seen escalating sectarian violence... http://www.thepath.fm/news/newsitem.cfm?id=17759
From Daniel Pipes --->>
Third reflection: The Muslim uproar has a goal — to prohibit criticism of Islam by Christians and thereby to impose Shariah norms on the West. Should Westerners accept this central tenet of Islamic law, others will surely follow. Retaining free speech about Islam, therefore, represents a critical defense against the imposition of an Islamic order.
WOW! Is that accurate or what? To wit: the attempt to silence Pope Benedict XVI.
Damn SOB's.
Your post #2 in this thread is magnificent. Thank you.
That's why they want the Pope to repeatedly apologize. Every time he does, he acknowledges that he fears Muslims more than God.
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And why they force conversions of infidels.
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