Jihad Enablers
The pope, the protesters & White Guilt.
By Jonah Goldberg
Before you can discuss the manifest seriousness of the latest controversy involving the pope, you have to acknowledge its hilarity. Pope Benedict XVI, in an austere philosophical address, invoked Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus, the 14th-century ruler who offered a harsh assessment of Islam. While the Koran says, “There is no compulsion in religion,” Manuel couldn’t help but notice that Muslims were setting up more franchises in his neighborhood than Starbucks — and they weren’t doing so by selling the best darn Mocha Frappuccinos on his side of the Bosphorus Straits.
“Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new,” Manuel complained sometime around the siege of Byzantium, “and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” Why Pope Benedict quoted Manuel is hotly debated. But one explicit reason was to enunciate the Church’s opposition to using faith to justify violence or intolerance.
And this is where the hilarity comes in. A Pakistani foreign-ministry spokeswoman responded: “Anyone who describes Islam as a religion as intolerant encourages violence.”
[snip]
This week, French President Jacques Chirac explained that everyone in the West must avoid everything that sparks tensions. In other words, we must forever be held hostage by the tactical outrage of a global mob. There’s nothing funny about that.
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