Tuesday, September 19, 2006

The Pope's Remarks

At first, I didn't think the reactions on the Pope's speech would be this bad. But well, I was wrong. One quote from a person living several centuries ago, not even your own words, and now you're compared to Mussolini and Hitler? Cool. It's easy to have the reputation of a mass genocider at this age.

What is more surprising (or perhaps not), was the reaction from Iran, Somalia, and Al-Qaeda spokesman in Iraq. The heavily violence-laden comments were exactly what the Pope was talking about. Violence and Religion are not compatible with each other. While I know that Islam is a peaceful religion, and some Moslems are appalled at these comments too, I cannot help but think about the effects of these kinds of response. Responding with violent threats and demonstration, bombing churches and burning statues are only making the situation worse. Islam is not a violent religion, if so, who are these people, who practice violence in the name of Islam? Violence is only going to make Islam as a whole to be misunderstood even more, and the western media is not helping at all.

Perhaps it's about time to start reading the pope's speech as it was intended, and not only the one quoted part.