Pope Benedict’s historic reference is to enlighten Muslims than enraging them

KurdishMedia, UK
Updated: 9/18/2006 5:29:01 AM GMT

9/20/2006 KurdishMedia.com – By Khasraw Saleh Koyi

For 14 centuries, Muslims’ way of thinking and believing has been
controlled by a number of unsubstantiated religious taboos, which
if broken the perpetrator gets punished for, including by cutting
off the limbs and beheading. These taboos are the product of mere
interpretations of various Quranic verses and prophet Muhammad’s
sayings ‘over a long time span’ by Islamic religious authorities of
different sects and motivations’.

Depicting prophet Muhammad and describing his character qualities
have been viewed as critical parts of these taboos. Last year’s
Danish cartoon episode, and the recent reference of Pope Benedict
that Muhammad condoned violent means to spread Islam religion are
solid evidence that even non-Muslims are expected to abide by Islamic
rules of not daring such taboos.

It is unfortunate that even at these highly modern times when human’s
free will, independent intellectual thinking, and liberal imagination
are proven to be responsible for all the scientific, technological
and artistic wonderful achievements that serve all humanity, there
are those who in the name of Muhammad and Allah continue to abide by
some obsolete and inhuman mentality which has and continues to cost
mankind huge numbers of lives and tremendous sufferings.

The Armenian genocide on the hands of Muslim Turks during the latest
years of the Ottoman Empire (which later on prompted the Jewish
holocaust by the Nazis); Muslim Arab campaign of ‘Quranic’ Anfal by
Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq in the late 1980s to genocide the
Kurds; The tragic event of 9/11 in the US as planned and executed by
Al-Qaeda; Continued suicide bombings and revenge killings that has
been consuming thousands of innocent lives and causing huge levels
of property devastations ‘every month’ in Iraq and Afghanistan are
all committed by fellow Muslims, in the name of Islam and its idols
such as Allah and prophet Mohammad. By any stretch of imagination of
any human being with minimum capacity for logical thinking and human
compassion, these acts are all considered to be hideously criminal
and anti any peaceful and viable spirituality.

It must be quite difficult for non-Muslims not to believe that such
violent acts by some Muslim groups does not receive the tacit approval
from the main stream of the Muslim world, especially in the absence of
any known condemnation by the Muslim masses, anywhere in the Islamic
countries. If the exercise of violence in the name of Islam is not part
of the religious conviction of the Muslims and it is exercised only by
a small percentage of fanatics who don’t represent the Islamic faith,
then why the majority of the Muslims accept to stand by and let such
fanatics discredit them and their religion?

Many simpleminded Muslims may interpret Pope Benedict’s expressed
intent as anti Islam. But the truth may be quite the opposite. Like
many logical individuals who are concerned about the latest tide of
Islamic violence and brutality in the name of their prophet and Allah,
the pope may have decided to point to a potential misgiving which can
only be understood and averted if it gets a worthwhile attention. He
may have intended to generate an inter-religious debate both to reveal
the good and the ugly in Islam religion.

Being a devoted Christian with a wealth of knowledge about spirituality
in historic and realistic terms, he is a man of goodwill and
determination to do mankind the best he can. He must be full aware
of the extent of the damage the rigid nature of the Islamic faith
has on the intellectual state of the average Muslims.

Being for tolerance and compassion to bring mankind closer together
in cooperation and understanding, it is in the core of the spiritual
faith of the Pope to identify and speak about the ills of mankind,
with violence of any nature being one of them.

Thanks to the reasonable and necessary levels of tolerance and
open-mindedness, the quality of human life in the Christian world is
much better than that of the Muslim world. While peace, acceptance,
fairness, kindness, cooperation and understanding form some of the core
virtues and disciplines in the lives of Christian societies, violence,
repression, vengeance, controlling of others lives and properties by
force, are the types of virtues and disciplines that are nurtured by
state and religious authorities in the Muslim countries with Turkey,
Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia being just a few notorious examples.

To those moderate Muslims who have earned their individual pride
from their logical and free thinking and analysis, it is time that
they use their words and pens to speak out of the truth as it can be
substantiated by rational thinking and behaviour than by primitive
religious moulding of their spirituality and believes.

There is just no way for false and fake believes to stand against the
might of the sum of mankind’s independent intellectual thinking and
reasoning. The sooner for the Muslims to recognise the weaknesses of
their religion, the better is the chance of their survival in harmony
with others and in pride and dignity. A religion is only as good as
being able to enlighten mankind to lead a peaceful, fulfilling and a
happy life. If not dealt with effectively, let there be no doubt that
the existing strain of primitive taboos in Islam religion continues
to rob off Muslims from exercising their humanity fully and honourably.