Pope Benedict stepped into the minefield of the global culture wars with his lecture at the University of Regensburg on Wednesday. The Vatican has the entire lecture up on its site in English and the original German. It is a brilliant lecture on the meaning of science and reason in the context of faith, and I cannot believe that Benedict in any way attempted to defame Islam. Nevertheless, he used an unfortunate historical anecdote to illustrate a point. Benedict cites a dialogue between the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam that occured in 1391as recorded by Professor Theodore Khoury (Münster):
"In the seventh conversation [text unclear] edited by Professor Khoury, the emperor touches on the theme of the holy war. The emperor must have known that surah 2, 256 reads: "There is no compulsion in religion".
According to the experts, this is one of the suras of the early period, when Mohammed was still powerless and under threat. But naturally the emperor also knew the instructions, developed later and recorded in the Qur’an, concerning holy war.
Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the "Book" and the "infidels", he addresses his interlocutor with a startling brusqueness on the central question about the relationship between religion and violence in general, saying: "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".
Benedict did not endorse this statement, he was simply recounting the dialogue as it had been recorded to illustrate the idea that faith cannot be coerced. Nevertheless, this statement has been seized upon by political leaders in Iran, Turkey and Pakistan (among others) in an dishonest effort to foment anti-Western discord. In Turkey, Benedict is being compared with Hitler, and his scheduled visit to Turkey may now be cancelled.
Perhaps Benedict could have used a different historical example to make his point: the history of the Roman Catholic Church is replete with examples of violent coercion. Unfortunately, the reaction of the Islamic world will only enhance the cause of the Islamophobes. The key statement in Benedict’s lecture – "Faith is born of the soul, not the body" – is something that all Christians and Muslims can agree on.
At a later point in the lecture, Benedict makes a statement that is perhaps more troubling for Muslims than the quote mentioned above that has caused the firestorm of controversy:
"But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality. Here Khoury quotes a work of the noted French Islamist R Arnaldez, who points out that Ibn Hazn went so far as to state that God is not bound even by his own word, and that nothing would oblige him to reveal the truth to us."
I do not know enough about Islam to comment on this provocative assertion by Benedict. I would like to hear arguments that might refute it.
