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Jewish World Review
Sept. 21, 2006
/ 28 Elul 5766
The missing Muslim outcry
By
Jeff Jacoby
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
As she lay dying in a Mogadishu hospital, Sister Leonella forgave her
killers. She had lived in Africa for almost four decades and could speak
fluent Somali, but her last words were murmured in Italian, her mother
tongue. "Perdono, perdono," she whispered. I forgive, I forgive.
She was 65 and had devoted her life to the care of sick mothers and
children. She was on her way to meet three other nuns for lunch on
Sunday when two gunmen shot her several times in the back. "Her slaying
was not a random attack," the Associated Press reported. It "raised
concerns" that she was the latest victim of "growing Islamic radicalism
in the country."
Raised concerns? Sister Leonella was gunned down less than two days
after a prominent Somali cleric had called on Muslims to kill Pope
Benedict XVI for his remarks about Islam in a scholarly lecture last
week.
"We urge you, Muslims, wherever you are to hunt down the pope for his
barbaric statements," Sheik Abubukar Hassan Malin had exhorted
worshippers during evening prayers at a Mogadishu mosque. "Whoever
offends our prophet Mohammed should be killed on the spot by the nearest
Muslim." Sister Leonella was not the pope, but she was presumably close
enough for purposes of the local jihadis.
If it weren't so sickening, it would be farcical: A line in the pope's
speech suggests that Islam has a dark history of violence, and offended
Muslims vent their displeasure by howling for his death, firebombing
churches, and attacking innocent Christians. One of the points Benedict
made in his speech at the University of Regensburg was that religious
faith untethered by reason can lead to savagery. The mobs denouncing him
could hardly have done a better job of proving him right.
In his lecture, Benedict quoted the late Byzantine emperor Manuel II,
who had condemned Islam's militancy with these words: "Show me just what
Mohammed 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."
In the ensuing uproar, British Muslims demonstrated outside Westminster
Cathedral with signs reading "Pope go to Hell" and "Islam will conquer
Rome," while the head of the Society of Muslim Lawyers declared that the
pope must be "subject to capital punishment." In Iraq, the radical
Mujahideen's Army vowed to "smash the crosses in the house of the dog
from Rome" and the Mujahideen Shura Council swore to "continue our jihad
and never stop until God avails us to chop your necks." Arsonists in the
West Bank set churches on fire, and a group calling itself "The Sword of
Islam" opened fire on a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza and issued a
warning: "If the pope does not appear on TV and apologize for his
comments, we will blow up all of Gaza's churches."
In fact, the pope did apologize, more than once. He emphasized that the
words he had quoted "do not in any way express my personal thought" and
said he was "deeply sorry" that Muslims had taken offense. Whether the
studied frenzy will now subside remains to be seen. But it is only a
matter of time until the next one erupts.
This time it was a 14th-century quote from a Byzantine ruler that set
off or rather, was exploited by Islamist firebrands to ignite the
international demonstrations, death threats, and violence. Earlier this
year it was cartoons about Mohammed in a Danish newspaper. Last year it
was a Newsweek report, later retracted, that a Koran had been desecrated
by a US interrogator in Guantanamo. Before that it was Jerry Falwell's
comment on "60 Minutes" that Mohammed was a "terrorist." Back in 1989 it
was the publication of Salman Rushdie's satirical novel, The Satanic
Verses.
In every case, the pretext for the Muslim rage was the claim that Islam
had been insulted. Freedom of speech was irrelevant: While the rioters
and those inciting them routinely insult Christianity, Judaism, and
other religions, they demand that no one be allowed to denigrate Islam
or its prophet. It is a staggering double standard, and too many in the
West seem willing to go along with it. Witness the editorials in US
newspapers this week scolding the pope for his speech. Recall the State
Department's condemnation of the Danish cartoons last winter.
Of course nobody's faith should be gratuitously affronted. But the real
insult to Islam is not a line from a papal speech or a cartoon about
Mohammed. It is the violence, terror, and bloodshed that Islamist
fanatics unleash in the name of their religion and the unwillingness
of most of the world's Muslims to say or do anything to stop them.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Jeff Jacoby is a Boston Globe columnist. Comment by clicking here.
Jeff Jacoby Archives
© 2006, Boston Globe
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