In a year’s time first there were the cartoons and then the Pope himself celebrating despondency to damage social harmony between Muslims and Christians across the globe. The global outcry over the audacious cartoons had only just died down when the pontiff himself, in all his holiness, has launched an attack against Islam. Who will benefit from this?

They very people Pope Benedict XVI has taken upon himself to condemn. If he was to condemn all violent movements in all religions then his common sense should have granted him caution not to mention the name of Islam alone. He ignored the dictum, ‘do not pronounce on subjects that you know nothing about.’

While delivering a speech, at Regensburg University he quoted a 14th Century Byzantine emperor as saying, “Show me just what the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) brought that 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.

The Pope also used the word Jehad, or holy war, saying violence was contrary to  God’s nature and to reason.

He wanted to have a good start saying “brusque” words about Islam to bring his message home to a select gathering of highly educated peoples; Truth needs no ornament. His citation of 14th Century Christian King Manual II Palaeologus reflects upon the paucity of Pope’s knowledge of Islam and its institutions.

How could a Holy man forget that all things said by emperors, Kings, rulers and other all powerful peoples on earth are not supposed to be truthful, right and legitimate? God unveils the Truth through revelations and inspirations of scholars with integrity, dignity and enlightenment.

Instead Pope Benedict quoted a King whose brother had deposed his father John V Palaeologus (1332-91), Byzantine emperor (1341-76, 1379- 91), who later regained the throne in 1379 with the aid of the Ottoman Turks and Venice. Later both internal dissension and extension of Ottoman control over the Balkans caused progressive decline in John’s power.

As he was unsuccessful in seeking Western aid, he was forced (1371) to acknowledge himself tributary to the Ottomans. Because of political rivalry and Turkish influence on the court later his nephew John VII deposed his grandfather again in 1390. John V fought back again in five months time and regained the control of the country.

Manual II must have been an accomplice in both events as later when he had succeeded the throne he nominated his nephew from 1399 to 1403 to serve him as regent while he was absent seeking support in the West against the Ottoman Empire.

In-court treacheries, political exigencies, foreign intervention and Turkish hegemony was what governed the life of the King whose observation Pope Benedict XVI was quoting as religious authority to his audience: religiosity would not have been more opportune. Despite the contrary claims of the Pope, Islam has a singular distinction of leading the world religions to set standards for seeking out the Truth.

One of the lessons of Karbala was, when grandson of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) sacrificed his own life along with the lives of 72 relatives, companions and children at the plain of Karbala in 60 AD, that rulers with questionable integrity did not have the authority to interpret Islam: Hold this rule fast and witness a half of Christian religiosity evaporating.

There are four aspects of the imbroglio that need our attention. The tone and phraseology of apology tendered by the office of the Pope makes it extremely doubtful whether the Pope had called for dialogue between religions in good faith: if it were so he should not have been so provocative in the first place and secondly he should not have questioned the understanding of his victims that he did not mean this or that. Rather the apology should have been explicit and unqualified showing genuine regret and contrition.

Secondly, the Pope has done this to Muslims in an audacious departure from the legacy of his predecessor John Paul II who lately had pleaded and worked hard for interfaith confidence building and had even visited mosques to bring two people belonging to the same Ibrahimic traditions of religion together.

It is understandable that Pope Benedict XVI is not expected to eulogise Islam as a belief system and an institution that has benefited humanity more than any other religion in the world, rather a lack of sympathy from him would have been in order, however, his outright condemnation of Islam and rejection of all the benefits that it has yielded to humanity bespeak gravely ill of his scholarship; a person who has been a professor of theology for so long. Acting OBL of 
Christianity will not take the church too far into the faith garden; rather such attitude will scare off the budding sympathisers of Catholic Church.

Thirdly, his acceding to the 14th century King’s remarks have magnified his complete ignorance of Islam as is quite obvious in his colleague Westerners. Islam is a religion for humanity and values human life so much as to declare “.. whoever slays a soul, unless it be for man slaughter or for mischief in the land, it is as though he slew all men; and whoever keeps it alive, it is as though he kept 
alive all men... “ 5:32.  

Fourthly, the Pope must have been carried away by his proselytising spirit to compromise his common sense to such an impudent level as to call in question the faith of over a billion peaceful people while authenticating the saying of a king whose own religious credentials and scholarships are open to question: truth does not gather authenticity from authority, it gets this from erudition, learning and integrity of a scholar.

Pope’s vitriol against Islam is not without its ramifications. He has already created a lot of bad blood among peaceful Christian- Islamic communities living together all across the globe. There has been condemnation from OIC, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Kuwait, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and scores of other Islamic countries. His November 2006 tour to Turkey is already in danger.

All Muslim communities in the lands of Islam and beyond are in agitation. Does the pontiff understand that a great disservice has been done to humanity in the name of ‘truth and peace.’?