Just in case you missed it...

WARING: I wrote the following post late at night after reading the article mentioned below. It is a bit raw and probably too cynical. I would certainly welcome your feedback. If you are too easily offended, please stop reading now. Otherwise, read at your own risk! You have been warned!


On Friday, Pope Benedict the XVI was accused of making racist and inflammatory comments during a speech he gave at a German university of Tuesday. During this speech he quoted from a text of a conversation between a Byzantine Emperor and an Islam scholar written in the 14th c. You can find the full article here. The text he quoted says this, "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." Since Friday, he has been castigated by nearly every Muslim nation in world. In large, the criticism tends towards ad hominem attacks referring to the Pope's ignorance with one leader likening the Pontif to Hitler and Mussolini. They say that the comments are a mis-characterization of Islam and it is untruthful to portray it as an "intolerant" and "violent" religion. I would like to address this in 3 ways. First, I would like to put out an anecdotal rebuttal. Knowing that this is not necessarily the strongest argument, I will bolster this with a secondary historical approach. Finally, I will let the Islamist speak for themselves.

#1 I know of a person (Western European) who is currently living in Iraq and have received regular emails in which he recounts the situation as it looks on the ground in Iraq. It is a very eye opening witness. There is a large amount of news that never even makes it into the press. We only see the really awful stuff, and even that is through the lens of Western media, which may or may not have its own agenda. Through the diaries of this person, I can see there are both accurate and inaccurate portrayals of Islam and that not all Muslims represent true Islam. However, I do know that recently an Islamic cleric has urged all Muslims to kill at least one American before Ramadan. It is very difficult for me to imagine Father Flanagan standing before the congregation during Sunday mass urging his flock to bag a Muslim for Jesus this Christmas season. Additionally, how many men, women, and children have been brutally murdered in terrorist/suicide attacks by Jews and Christians in the last decade? When is the last time you saw the headline splashed across the front page "Christian Militant Group Hijacks Plane Killing 285 Passengers", not to mention the thousands killed in the 9/11 attacks? Nowhere, in my limited understanding of the Bible, does it promise a heavenly reward and a martyrs death if you kill yourself while murdering others.

#2 In the Koran, there is the following passage, "When Quraysh became insolent towards God and rejected His gracious purpose, accused His prophet of lying, and ill treated and exiled those who served Him and proclaimed His unity, believed in His prophet and held fast to His religion, He gave permission to His apostle to fight and to protect himself against those who wronged them and treated them badly......(Sura 22.39-41) This is not the only place in the Koran that justifies a "Holy War" or "Jihad". At this point I must admit that in the Old Testament times, God did command many things for His people regarding war and the displacement of those who had occupied the Holy Land. And certainly there is a purpose in establishing His position as the one God, the almighty. But the new covenant established in Jesus Christ has abolished the old ways by fulfilling the Law. God's people were never to remain in bloody combat for all their days, but it was the spiritual war in which Christ has ultimately given us victory. Such can not be said about Islam. Unfortunately, due to my current location and lack of reference material, I am unable to fully develop this point. There is significantly more to be said. You can read more here. This article would seem to corroborate most of what I know about Islam through various articles and an excellent "Geography of the Middle East" taught by a professor who was very sympathetic to the Muslim cause.

But just in case I am wrong in my first two points, which I must admit is entirely possible (more so with the 2nd than the 1st), I will let the Muslims answer in their own words.

#3 These quotes are taken directly from a September 15 AP article. Emphasis is added by me.

"Anyone who describes Islam as a religion as intolerant encourages violence" Tasnim Aslam, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman

How, if the typical Muslim response is not one of violence but rather of level-headed engagment, could the Pope possibly be encouraging violence?

"In Cairo, Egypt, about 100 demonstrators gathered in an anti-Vatican protest outside the al-Azhar mosque, chanting 'Oh Crusaders, oh cowards! Down with the pope!'"

In what way should we take the statement "Down with the pope"? Do they mean "down" in the sense that he should step down from his position as pope because of his apparent bent towards bigotry? Or do they mean "down" in the you-had-better-check-the-bullet-proof-glass-on-the-pope-mobile sense? Can past actions predict future behavior? If so, I would be leaning towards the latter of these two suggestions.

"'The pope has thrown gasoline onto the fire ... in a world where the risk of a clash between religions is high,' said Haluk Koc, deputy head of the Republican People's Party, as a small group of protesters left a black wreath in front of the Vatican's embassy in Ankara.

What is the meaning and symbol of a black wreath? The last time a Turkish group laid a black wreath was during the Danish cartoon fiasco. These protestors chanted "Europe, do not test our patience."

I only wonder whose patience is really being tested.

The last place you would think to look.

We have all of us lost/misplaced something and looked tirelessly to find it for hours, sometimes days, on end. We retrace our steps, replaying every move we made only to later find it after resigning ourselves to the fact that it is lost. More often than not, we find it in the most unlikely of places (your wallet is in the freezer, a missing key is in your winter coat). Well, somewhere over the past few years I seem to have misplaced my patriotism.

Having served 4 years in the United States Marine Corps, you would assume that I would tend to be predisposed to a keen sense of patriotism. Nevertheless, I have witnessed a steady decline of any previous patriotic leanings. As to the root cause, I can not testify. I will spare you a lengthy diatribe about the threat of liberalism and its systematic fraying of the fabric that binds Americans together. To be honest, I don't know that I could even accurately articulate such an argument, let alone confirm such a theory. But I can confirm I had somehow misplaced these feelings.

Ironically, I have once again felt the surge of patriotism and the tingle on the back of my neck when I catch a glimpse of Old Glory. Perhaps I am mistaking familiarity with patriotism, but I would not suspect such. I believe my feelings are genuine and true. What has prompted this resurgence? I think it is watching the intense feelings of pride and patriotism held by nearly all Koreans. Feelings that motivate millions of Koreans, young and old, to watch the World Cup soccer matches at 3:00 A.M., with thousands of them congregating at City Hall. It is the collective identity with which Koreans identify themselves. The pride shown in all things Korean, from kimchi, to cars, to dental floss. There is hardly an area of Korean life that is excluded from this pride. Observing this, I have to ask myself "Why can't I take the same pride in all things American?" And so now, I do.

Flying 7,000 miles around the world to find something I lost somewhere I would have never thought to look. And I wasn't even looking.

Apology/Apologia

As my wife has reminded me on many occasions, I have not blogged anything for several weeks. So I have chosen to break this blog into two parts: 1) apology 2) apologia

1) APOLOGY: I am sorry for not writing more frequently.

Now that we have that out of the way...

2) APOLOGIA: There is a problem that is endemic to my personality. If you have read my description you know that I am an "aspiring academic". The truth is that I think most of us have the ability to be an academic, but few of us have the discipline that is required. My struggle is less against my mind than it is against my flesh. Ultimately, I suffer from a perpetual malaise that tends to manifest itself as laziness. Not laziness in a physical sense, I think I am generally viewed as a hard worker and am not afraid to do the heavy lifting when it comes to it. It is more of an intellectual laziness. My intellectual pursuits are a bit like my middle school track career. I began as a distance guy running the mile, was then moved to the 400m with the sprinters, but finally found a small measure of success in the 800m. I seem always to be stuck in the middle distance group. Not fast enough for the sprinters and too easily winded for the long haul.

If only I could find the right training regimen...

P.S. Ironically, the spell check for blogger doesn't like the words "blog" or "blogged". That gives a whole new meaning to "denying thyself"!