The Pope & the Mufti: Holy Man & Unholy Mind

Four Holy Men by Albrecht Dürer

Religion can be a fetid affair; however some religions can be more offensively malodorous than others...

Travel with me back to the 12th of September 2006. 

Pope Benedict XVI, in a lecture at the University of Regensburg (Germany), quoted Manuel II Palaiologos, a Byzantine Emperor, who said in 1391:

“Show me just what Muhammad brought 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” 

Since the world, in 2006, was fighting in Afghanistan for 5 years and in Iraq for more than 3 years; the Holy Man’s quote represented somewhat a diplomatic predicament (even though most of the world agreed with it – ask the Nigerians) and it suscitated the anger of Islamic politicians and religious leaders who said that the pope’s words were an “insulting mischaracterization of Islam”.
The pope, of course, apologised stating that the comment he had quoted did not reflect his own views.

Now, come with me to the 9th of January 2012

Mufti Sheikh Muhammad Hussein (viewed as a moderate leader), in an address to the Palestinians, quoted a passage, in the Hadith, by Prophet Muhammad:

“The Jews will hide behind stones and trees. But the trees and the stones will call: oh Muslim, oh servant of God, there is a Jew hiding behind me, so come and kill him.” 

Since the world, out of convenience, decided to let the Muslims be for a while and, this quote targets the Jews the Western media didn’t even bother to divulge it; politicians didn’t care to denounce it; Christians were silent and the Catholic Church, probably in a PR move, ignored the whole thing for fear of being reminded of the Regensburg Lecture and, the Islamic political & religious leaders not only must have applauded it but they also opted by overlooking the fact that this clear incitement to violence is an "insulting mischaracterization of Islam".

The Mufti, of course, unapologetically stated that the Hadith calls for the killing of Jews not him; adding, “I can’t change the Hadith”.

It is easy to make a quick correlation between the two religious leaders: they both made controversial quotes with intent and, they both shrugged off the responsibility of having chosen those particular quotes. Yet, there is a huge difference between the two religious priests:

a) The Holy Man quoted a Political Comment based on the observations and experience with the followers of Muhammad. He did not quote the Judeo-Christian Bible.
b) The Unholy Mind quoted an Islamic Religious Text. Religion serves the purpose of controlling Men’s animalistic impulses; so, any text that encourages the opposite mirrors the nefarious nature of the religion it gave birth to.

What did Mufti Hussein prove with his racist quote? It simply proved that the subliminal message conveyed by Pope Benedict XVI about Islam, unfortunately, was 100% correct.