James Montana noted last week in "Mau-Mauing Pope Benedict XVI" that "anyone who can read will understand that Benedict was not endorsing" the inflammatory comments of Manuel II Paleologus. It is in fact clear to see that nowhere in the text of Benedict's speech does he overtly damn Islam. It begs the question, however: what does the pope actually think of Islam?
Luckily for us, we needn't go far to find the answer. Benedict, formerly known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has made his opinions of Islam abundantly clear during his career as both cardinal and pope. (For those who do not know, the duty of the Prefect of the CDF is to "promote and safeguard the doctrine on the faith and morals throughout the Catholic world.")
In a 2004 interview with French magazine Le Figaro, then Cardinal Ratzinger had the following to say about the relationship between Christianity and Islam: "Some Muslims see ... An unbridgeable opposition between the Western world-and its moral and religious relativism-and the Islamic world. ... This is one of the faces of Islam." But is it also one of the faces of Christianity?
Without offering his opinion on Christianity's role in this "confrontation of cultures," as he called it, Ratzinger offered his opinion on the question of Turkey joining the European Union: "The roots that have formed Europe, that have permitted the formation of this continent, are those of Christianity. Turkey has always represented another continent, in permanent contrast with Europe. There were the wars against the Byzantine Empire, the fall of Constantinople, the Balkan wars and the threat against Vienna and Austria. It would be an error to equate the two continents. Turkey is founded upon Islam. Thus the entry of Turkey into the EU would be anti-historical."
This shows nothing short of a startling lack of understanding of the cultural and political history of Europe. Never mind that the Ottoman Turks were always a minority in their own empire and that ethnic Greeks in Turkey outnumbered both ethnic Turks in Turkey and ethnic Greeks in Greece until the Young Turkish Revolution. Never mind that, until relatively recent history, Christian cultural roots were the exception and not the norm in Gaelic Ireland and Scotland, Nordic Scandinavia and Denmark, Islamic southern Spain, and overwhelmingly Jewish areas in Poland and many other Eastern European nations. Forget for a moment that the roots of Europe as a continent actually stem from pagan Greece and Rome. Ignore the fact that the Renaissance, the Gold Age of Europe, began in Italy when ancient philosophical and scientific texts -which the Europeans had lost but the Egyptians had preserved-were translated out of Arabic.
And what of the conflicts he mentions? The Fall of Constantinople to the Turks was in 1453. The "threat against Vienna and Austria" he draws upon either refers to the Siege of Vienna in 1529 or (less likely) the Battle of Vienna in 1683. The Balkan Wars, the only of the pope's examples rooted in modern history, ended in 1913; in this war, it was the Balkan League who were the aggressors and Turkey fighting on the defensive. In other words, since the last time that the Turks invaded a European country, European powers excluding Russia have invaded each other in excess of 45 times. (Don't believe me? Look it up.) It seems to me that either Benedict had a third-rate historical education or he simply does not want Europe to include Islam.
We might be tempted to forgive some of the pope's remarks that he made before being elected pope. The question remains: What opinions has he expressed since his election? One statement in particular stands out, which he made in private last year at Castelgondolfo. According to Father Joseph Fessio, who was invited to a "secretive meeting" with Benedict and other leading theologians, the pope expressed the opinion that "Islam cannot become compatible with democracy" because "it's against the very nature of the Quran, as it's understood by Muslims." On the other hand, the pope continued, the Christian Bible has "an inner logic ... Which permits it and requires it to be adapted and applied." Once again the pope ignores what the Christian world was like hundreds of years ago. (Islam, as a religion, is between six and seven hundred years younger than Christianity.)
At this point it's worth once again mentioning that Pope Benedict said this week that he has a "deep respect" for Islam.
If the pope has any respect for Islam it has yet to surface. Compare this to the late Pope John Paul II, who urged Muslims to "Live your faith abroad, too!" in 1980; hosted the interfaith World Day of Prayer for Peace (which 50,000 Muslims attended) in 1986; delivered a blessing in the Sudan in Arabic in 1993; kissed a copy of the Koran (which he received as a gift) in Baghdad in 1999; and who, in 2001, removed his shoes and entered the Great Mosque of Damascus, becoming the first pope to ever pray in a mosque.
The reaction to the pope's words last week were disproportionate to what he said, and no amount of anger or insult justifies violence, especially indiscriminate violence. But Benedict XVI's claims to be a friend of Islam are laughable, and quite frankly insulting the intellect of anyone who bothers to read the news.
Blanset is a senior majoring in European studies. He usually writes satire, but wasn't sure if he could be funny and simultaneously make the pope look bad in 1,000 words.