Sunday, September 17, 2006
TALIBAN FEELINGS HURT
Words fail:
Afghanistan’s Taliban on Saturday demanded Pope Benedict XVI to apologise for remarks linking Islam with violence.
Via TFM. One assumes the Taliban will also demand an apology for this blatant linking of Islam with violence:
A hardline cleric linked to Somalia’s powerful Islamist movement has called for Muslims to “hunt down” and kill Pope Benedict XVI for his controversial comments about Islam ...
“Whoever offends our Prophet Mohammed should be killed on the spot by the nearest Muslim,” [Sheikh Abubukar Hassan] Malin, a prominent cleric in the Somali capital, told worshippers at a mosque in southern Mogadishu.
UPDATE. The Sword of Islam wants an apology, too:
We want to make it clear that if the pope does not appear on TV and apologize for his comments, we will blow up all of Gaza’s churches.
UPDATE II. The—ahem—Islamic Salafist Boy Scout Battalion joins the list of apology-demanders:
This group threatens to kill all Christians in Iraq if the Pope does not apologize in three days in front of the whole world to Mohammed.
UPDATE III. The New York Times:
He needs to offer a deep and persuasive apology, demonstrating that words can also heal.
It’s unclear how many people the Times will kill if their demand isn’t met.
UPDATE IV. David Warren:
The BBC appears to have been quickest off the mark, to send around the world in many languages, including Arabic, Turkish, Farsi, Urdu, and Malay, word that the Pope had insulted the Prophet of Islam, during an address in Bavaria.
He had not, of course.
Read the whole thing. Also recommended: Father Raymond J. de Souza in the National Post. The Pope’s entire speech is here.
UPDATE V. Rod Liddle:
You can bet your life that by the time you read this, some Catholic priest toiling away in a godforsaken, dusty hellhole — Sudan, perhaps, or Turkey — will have been smacked about a bit, or had his church burnt down or been arrested without charge. The Pope should have been aware that Islam always reacts to western allegations that it is not a peaceful religion by mass outbreaks of vituperation, denunciation and acts of jihadic violence.
That this is a paradox seems not to be even remotely recognised by many Muslims.
UPDATE VI. The Pope isn’t backing down.