Sunday, September 17, 2006
STATEMENT NOT VIEWED AS APOLOGY
The Australian’s Bill Leak:
Via walterplinge. February’s Motoon mayhem seems to have had a transformative effect on Bill. More on matters papal from Islamic Council of Victoria director Waleed Aly:
Let me get this straight. Pope Benedict XVI quotes the 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus asserting before a Persian Islamic scholar that the prophet Muhammad brought nothing new to the world except things “evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached”. Some Muslims clearly interpret Benedict to be quoting Manuel with approval, and take offence at the suggestion that Islam is inherently violent.
The response is to bomb five churches in the West Bank, and attack the door of another in Basra. In India, angry mobs burn effigies of Pope Benedict. In Somalia, Sheikh Abu Bakr Hassan Malin urges Muslims to “hunt down” the Pope and kill him, while an armed Iraqi group threatens to carry out attacks against Rome and the Vatican.
There. That’ll show them for calling us violent.
Meanwhile, at least one peaceful Islamic group isn’t convinced by the Vatican’s response:
"In Hamas we do not view the statement attributed to the Pope as an apology,” said Sami Abu Zuhri, spokesman for the militant group which controls the Palestinian government.
Hey, Sami? Once you’ve finished selecting candidates for next month’s suicide attacks, RebeccaH would like a word:
I’ve insulted Islam and Mohammed. Come and get me, jihadi trash.
UPDATE. The Archbishop of Athens and the Swiss Interior Minister support the Pope.
UPDATE II. Via LGF, take a look at these scenes outside Westminster Cathedral.
UPDATE III. Dinocrat surveys global views on terrorism and Islam. Are they somehow connected?