ANALYSIS – BOTH SIDES FEEL THREATS IN POPE-ISLAM ROW
By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

Reuters
The Star Online
Malaysia Star, Malaysia
September 17, 2006

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – One of the most basic human instincts is to defend
oneself when threatened. It’s a gut feeling that triggers vigorous
reactions, often far stronger than those seen when calm prevails.

The crisis over Pope Benedict’s remarks about Islam seems to play
this pattern out on a global scale, Muslim and Christian analysts
say. Only a few words suffice to turn a comment into an insult and
conjure up an "Islam versus the West" conflict.

The uproar comes just months before the visit of the world’s most
prominent Christian leader to Muslim Turkey. It is not yet sure if
his expressed regrets can save it from being scrapped.

The crisis — like recent controversies over the Danish cartoons of
the Prophet Mohammad or the death sentence for an Afghan convert to
Christianity — reveals a deeper gulf between two world views that
only a sustained dialogue can overcome, the analysts say.

"Both sides feel threatened and insulted," said Mustafa Akyol, an
Istanbul commentator on Muslim affairs.

"Muslims see this as part of a whole campaign, in the same line as
the Afghan and Iraq wars and Abu Ghraib," he said.

"In the West, they think they’re under attack by ‘jihad’ and an
intolerant Muslim religion."

The term "jihad", which is broader than the "holy war" interpretation
given it in the West, is at the heart of this crisis. Benedict said
in a lecture last week that a "holy war" was unreasonable and he
implied Islam was inherently violent.

Leaders throughout the Muslim world denounced this as a bid to paint
all Islamic believers as terrorists.

Palestinian gunmen firebombed churches in the West Bank in protest.

PAPAL WAR ON RELATIVISM

While the West feels threatened by the deadly Islamist attacks in
New York, London, Madrid and other cities in recent years, Benedict
has a particular reason to feel besieged.

The German-born Pope sees the once-Christian West being undermined
by a relativism that is "deaf to God" and morality.

The most dynamic faith in Europe now is Islam, a trend that troubles
him. The Vatican often asks why Muslim states restrict the rights
of their Christian minorities while Muslims in the West can build
mosques and openly spread their faith.

This is a minefield because Christianity and Islam, the world’s two
largest religions, both profoundly believe they are right and the
other is wrong about God and the world.

John Wilkins, former editor of the London Catholic weekly The Tablet,
said a sensitive dialogue was the only way for both sides to live
with each other without giving up their beliefs.

But Benedict has confused this necessary pluralism with the relativism
he opposes and makes statements that look provocative because they
do not seem to invite a dialogue.

"This Pope hasn’t really accepted pluralism," said Wilkins. "He
confuses it with relativism.

"A real pluralist approach would not make statements but ask
questions. He could say ‘Yes, we were violent in the past and we have
repented for this. Can you do the same?’

"Or he could ask if the Muslims saw anything positive in what the
Church was doing," Wilkins said.

CHRISTIAN VIEWS IN MUSLIM LAND

Christian leaders in Turkey, the only secular state in the Muslim world
and one that straddles Europe and the Middle East, saw misunderstanding
prevailing on both sides.

"Deep down, Muslims here see the Pope’s visit as a symbol of an effort
to re-Christianise Turkey," said Father Francois Yakan in Istanbul,
the former Byzantine Christian capital conquered by the Muslim Ottoman
Turks in 1453.

"This controversy has started out just like the cartoon crisis," said
the patriarchal vicar of the Chaldean Catholic Church, who was born
in eastern Turkey and speaks Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ.

The Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul Mesrob II, head of another church
linked to the Vatican, told visiting Paris-based religion journalists
that Benedict spoke like the professor he once was rather than as a
Pope who must weigh his words carefully.

"The Pope doesn’t have to present his excuses, but I think he should
explain his thinking," he said.

Akyol said only small minorities on either side actually wanted a
clash, but the reasonable dialogue needed to understand each other
requires a calm he cannot now see.

"People here tell me I’m wasting my time," said Akyol, who describes
himself as a moderate Muslim. "They say the Westerners have made up
their mind. We’re the new enemy after communism and they only want
to take Muslim oil."

"Unless we calm down, it will only get worse," he said.