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Petra Marquardt-Bigman is a German/Israel citizen with a Ph.D. in contemporary history with a focus on European public opinion relating to the Middle East, Islamic Terrorism, the US and Israel.
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By Petra Marquardt-Bigman
September 17, 2006
Political correctness was clearly not on the Pope's mind when he decided that a speech he delivered last week in a German university would include a quote from a 14th-century Byzantine emperor who complained that the Prophet Muhammad had brought only evil and violence. But should we assume that the Pope would want to fan the flames of the "clash of civilizations"?
There can be little doubt that the Vatican anticipated Muslim reaction: protests, demonstrations, rage, denunciations -- and perhaps a "fatwa" still in the offing. If cartoons in an unknown Danish newspaper are enough to cause riots and rampage by raging Muslims around the world, a critical word about Islam by the Pope should have no less effect. Whatever the Pope intended to achieve, he must have thought it is worth the price. He is after all not a secluded saint who spends his days praying. He has a staff of sophisticated advisors, and the Vatican is a state with a political agenda. So it seems reasonable to assume that all the statements that express regret over any offense that might have been caused by the Pope's remarks were drafted together with the speech, and they were drafted carefully: so far, the Pope has not apologized, but only regretted that his remarks were interpreted as offensive, and he has expressed the hope that Muslims will come to understand the true meaning of his speech.
Even for non-Muslims it might be interesting to speculate what could be the "true meaning" of the Pope's statement. If the Pope's remarks were intended as an invitation to interfaith dialogue, he could have addressed the issue of "jihadism" critically and diplomatically by characterizing it -- as President Bush has repeatedly done -- as a perverted reading of Islam. He could even have noted that Christianity, too, had its dark times when it was used to justify the slaughter of the crusades, the atrocities of the inquisition, and the brutality of pogroms.
However, the fact that the Pope chose to quote an obscure 14th-century Byzantine emperor complaining about Islam's "evils" -- "such as his [Muhammad's] command to spread by the sword the faith he preached" -- seems to send a clear message primarily intended for a non-Muslim audience: jihadism was a problem already 600 years ago, it hasn't gone away, and it's not the policies of the West or America, and its (maybe) not even the "occupation".
Interestingly enough, the quote starts with the inquiry "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new", which could be interpreted as a challenge to the Islamic world to reform. However, it is more likely that the Pope intended to influence the debate about the European Constitution and issues like European identity, the problems of multicultural coexistence, and last, but by no means least, the question of Turkey's admission as a member of the European Union.
It is not insignificant that the speech was delivered in Germany, by a German born pope, in German, and that the German chancellor Angela Merkel -- the daughter of a Protestant pastor -- met Pope Benedict at the end of August at his summer residence near Rome. She declared afterwards that a new version of the previously failed European Constitution should include some reference to Europe's Christian heritage and values, which had been avoided in the earlier draft, in part due to Europe's secularism, but also out of concern about the reaction of religious minorities. Chancellor Merkel will have a chance to push for this change when Germany assumes the EU's rotating presidency next January.
Her stance has obvious implications for the debate about the desirability of accepting Turkey as a EU member state. Much of Europe (and the Pope) is opposed to granting Turkey EU-membership, and Turkey has been presented with a long to-do list of requirements before even accession talks can begin. The European debate on this issue focuses largely on internal European concerns, and it appears that Europeans care little for their chance to contribute to the strengthening of moderates in the Muslim world that they like to recommend to others so persistently.
If Europe is on course to reaffirm its Christian heritage and values, the Pope has certainly succeeded in getting Turkey to demonstrate that it has a different heritage: the Turkish reaction to the Pope's speech was one of the sharpest; interestingly enough, however, it was couched in "European" terms: a leading member of Prime Minister Erdogan's Islamic party denounced the Pope as being untouched by the spirit of reform in the Christian world and compared him to Hitler and Mussolini. A visit in Turkey planned by the Pope for November seems now conditioned on a papal apology to Muslims, and if the visit were to take place, the Pope could probably expect to be greeted by crowds of infuriated protesters.
While it is hard to imagine that the Vatican did not factor in the reaction of the Islamic world, it is perhaps equally hard to imagine that it was really prepared to trigger violent demonstrations, attacks on churches in Moslem areas, and whatever else may be in store. Benedict's speech was long, academic, and rendered in the worst tradition of unintelligible scholarly German -- it is not an easy task to read your way through to the offensive quote in the original text.
But that is perhaps the most depressing aspect of the whole incident: a Pope delivers a long and highly sophisticated speech entitled "Faith, Reason, and University -- Memories and Reflections" and somewhere there is a paragraph critical of "jihad", and that is enough to trigger furious protests, attacks on churches, and threats of suicide attacks.
The Pope mentioned in his speech several times the urgent need for a "dialogue of cultures", but a meaningful dialogue would seem difficult if one side cannot dare to utter any criticism, while the other side is naturally entitled to have a fit of violent rage whenever it perceives the slightest provocation. And, by the way, yet another provocation at the very end of the Pope's speech may have been overlooked so far -- a final quote of this islamophobic 14th century emperor Manuel II: "Not to act according to reason is against the essence of God".
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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