Opinion

Burning Effigies Is Not the Answer

By Zaheer Jan
Bedminster , New Jersey

The thesis of Pope Benedict XVI’s address at the University of Regensburg in Germany was: The courage to engage the whole breadth of reason, and not the denial of its grandeur - this is the program with which a theology grounded in Biblical faith enters into the debates of our time”. The Pope went further by quoting Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus who had said to an educated Persian scholar, "Not to act reasonably, not to act with logos, is contrary to the nature of God", during the siege of Constantinople in 1391, when talking on the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both.

The Pope’s relevance of bringing the Qur’an and what the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus had said so long ago, is baffling and escapes reason. Was his intention to incite the Christians or was it to incite the Muslims or was it to incite both? Only he knows the answer. That the points were made when the Pope was gracing a university on the soil of a Bible reading, Christian country, whose entire citizenry not that long ago, was complicit in the mass massacre of six million Jews: men, women and children of all ages, is telling.

It is obvious that the Pope has not had the benefit of reading the Qur’an. Had he read the Qur’an he would not be quoting “the erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus”. Rather, he would be quoting from the Qur’an or not quoting it al all. It is a shame that the words of the Persian interlocutor, were for some reason, not printed. Let me try to fill that lacuna in the hope of educating the Pope and hopefully his flock.

Amongst the several things that the Qur’an encourages us humans to do is to challenge us to have “the courage to engage the whole breadth of reason, and not the denial of its grandeur…..”. The Qur’an needles us again and again, "Don't you even think"? Thus forcing human beings to use their mind, to reason and through reason derive faith and the glory of God, the Creator of all universes (Rub-ul-aalameen). This glorious book revealed more than 1400 years ago narrates theories that are being propounded by modern day scientists, astronomers and physicists. Suras revealed centuries before Pope Benedict XVI made his appearance on this planet. Let me quote some of them to illustrate my point:

"There shall be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from error: whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah hath grasped the most trustworthy Handhold, that never breaks. And Allah heareth and knoweth all things (2:256)”.

"Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together (as one unit of creation), that all universe was a cloud until it congealed, before We clove it asunder? Will they not believe"? (The Big Bang theory). "We made from water every living thing (21:30 and 40:11)” (the theory of Evolution). "It is He who created the night and the day, and the Sun and the Moon: all (the celestial bodies) swim along, each in its rounded course (21:33)”. More than 800 years before Copernicus, (1473-1543) and 900 hundred years before Galileo (1564-1642) talked about the planets orbiting the sun. They, both were threatened with excommunication from the Church for uttering this heresy.

"Those who believe (in the Qur’an), those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Sabians, Christians, Magians and Polytheists - Allah will judge between them on the Day of judgment: for Allah is witness to all things (22:17)”. So don’t you, O! Muslims, become judges of them.

And, Pope Benedict XVI talks about faith and reason? The Qur’an leads us to faith by employing reason. The first university of the world, Al-Azhar founded in 950 C.E. used reason, logos, to make humans understand the universe and from there led them to faith and God.

To give the lie to Benedict’s quoting of the erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus as he addresses his interlocutor, “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”: Has not the Pope Benedict heard of “the infamous Spanish inquisition of 1481. A curse that engulfed entire Europe ? When every Jew and Marrano (Jew who had converted to Christianity) was hunted down and given four choices by the Catholic Church: confess, convert, leave or be massacred. At the urging of Spain's Grand Inquisitor Torquemada, on March 1492 Queen Isabella (of Spain) had signed an edict that read: "We have resolved to banish all Jews and Marranos of both sexes beyond the borders of our realm forever . . . We therefore decree herewith that all Jews and Marranos dwelling within the confines of Our dominion - without distinction of sex or age - must leave Our royal possessions and seigniories. . .no later than the end of July of the present year and that they shall not venture to enter them again under any pretext whatsoever..*" How else do the wielder of swords express themselves on the innocents?

Has Pope Benedict XVI not heard of Cortez? The man who laid Mexico ’s Aztec civilization and religion to waste and forcibly replaced it with Catholic Christianity, sending back to the then Pope unaccountable amount of gold? Has not the Pope heard of Francisco Pizarro who meted out a similar fate to the Inca Empire and civilization of South America, enriching the Holy Church in return?

I will conclude by producing a quote from Time Magazine of April 16, 2001 which might illustrate for His Holiness the kind of people that evolved as a result of the teachings of the Qur’an and of Mohammad: "Islam's great Caliph Omar Ibn Al Khatab gave Islam's teachings a practical shape by showing justice and manifesting respect for other faiths. When Caliph Omar conquered Jerusalem from Christian Byzantines in 638, he insisted that the three faiths of Abraham coexist. He refused to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher when he was escorted around the city by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch. Had he done so, he explained, the Muslims would have wanted to build a mosque there to commemorate the first Islamic prayer in Jerusalem . The Jews found their new Muslim rulers far more congenial than the Byzantines. The Christians had never allowed the Jews to reside permanently in the city, whereas Omar invited 70 Jewish families back. The Byzantines had left the Temple Mount in ruins and had even begun to use the Temple Mount as a garbage dump. Omar, according to a variety of accounts, was horrified to see this desecration. He helped clear it with his own hands, reconstructed the platform and built a simple wooden mosque on the Southern end, site of the al-Aqsa Mosque today".

Burning effigies of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI or condemning his speech is NOT the answer. Ignorance doesn’t have to be outgunned by greater ignorance. Dialogue is the answer. It is through understanding or the lack thereof of the other’s position that progress is possible. I urge the Muslims of the world to bottle their passions; open their minds as the Holy Qur’an urges them again and again to do, if Islam is to be respected in the world again.

*The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain by Valeriu Marcu. Published by The Viking Press, New York

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