Benedict and Islam
The Islamic response to the Holy Father's address in Regensberg on September 12, 2006 has been totally blown out of proportion. Firstly, let's look at the line in dispute in the original German: "'Zeig mir doch, was Mohammed Neues gebracht hat, und da wirst du nur Schlechtes und Inhumanes finden wie dies, daß er vorgeschrieben hat, den Glauben, den er predigte, durch das Schwert zu verbreiten'" (read the original German version here). Now let's look at the English translation (again, from the Vatican itself): "'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'" (read the English version here).
Now let us pay close attention to the original German. The word "Schlechtes" is translated in the English translation as "evil." The problem with this is that "Schlechtes" translates into English as "bad." "Evil" in German is either "böse" or "übel" depending on the context. If you will carefully read the original German, you will not find either "böse" or "übel."
Be that as it may, even if the Holy Father did come out and explicitly say that Islam is evil, would that justify the Muslim reaction to him? Calling for his assassination, buring him in effigy, proclaiming that the Vatican is allied with America and Israel to destroy Islam, the murder of a nun in Somalia? I do not think so. The Muslims who are in the streets calling for the death of the Pope are the very ones who are proving that Islam is not the peaceful religion the secularists, modernists, and the Bush Administration would lead us to believe.
No comments:
Post a Comment