Author: Greg Kane
Publication: Irish Independent
Date: September 21, 2006
URL: http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=53&si=1691429&issue_id=14664&printer=1
I write in response to the recent over-reaction
by Islamic clerics to the now controversial speech made by Pope Benedict during
his visit to Bavaria.
I am an Irish citizen.
I suppose you could call me a lapsed Catholic.
Nevertheless, I am one who is interested in
understanding the beliefs of others, as it helps us to live and do business
with them.
My wife and I lived in the Middle East for
six years from 1999 to 2005 and, as part of my work, I have visited all of
the countries in the region with reasonable frequency.
I count many ordinary Muslims of both the
Shia and Sunni traditions among my friends.
I am well acquainted with several Muslim scholars,
one of whom has spent many years working on Christian-Muslim dialogue and
spent several years working on the subject in the Vatican.
Like many others, over the past five years
or so, I have been concerned by the question of "Islam and the sword"
and over the past few years I have conducted an informal survey among followers
of the Islamic and Christian faiths.
I can only request that you take my word for
it, but when I've asked a Christian which item from the "story of the
life of Jesus" he or she would like to have in his or her possession,
they usually respond with one of a variety of items, along the lines of "a
nail from the cross," "a thorn from the crown of thorns" and
so on.
When I have asked followers of the Islamic
tradition the same question, and, again, please take my word for it, I have
asked at least 50 ordinary Muslims this question, they have responded, without
exception with "The Sword of Mohammed."
One often hears Muslim clerics in the media
explaining how Islam is a religion of peace.
This may well be, but based on the, albeit
very informal data, which I have collected over the past three to four years,
the importance, which ordinary Muslims attach to a symbol of violence at the
core of their beliefs is quite telling.
On a final point, when Pope John Paul II was
shot by a Muslim, to the best of my knowledge there were no riots in the streets
of the western world.
No embassies of predominantly Muslim countries
in western states were torched.
No products of Muslim countries were boycotted.
Greg Kane,
Glasnevin,
Dublin 11