REUTERS’ RUBBISH ON THE POPE BAPTISING A MUSLIM
[[Here's an article by REUTERS with my comments in brackets and in bold]]
By Phil Stewart
Tue Mar 25, 2:28 PM ET
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict’s baptism of an Italian Muslim over Easter weekend was not a hostile act against Islam, the Vatican’s newspaper wrote on Tuesday after the public conversion prompted criticism in the Muslim world.
In a surprise move, the pope baptized Egyptian-born Magdi Allam, a well-known journalist and outspoken critic of radical Islamism, at an Easter Vigil service in St Peter’s Basilica on Saturday evening that was broadcast around the globe. [Why should the Pope baptising anybody be a surprise move? He's Catholic. Did you forget?]
[Some] Muslim commentators said Allam’s hostile writings and his headline-grabbing baptism [If you write the story, it's not his fault!] strained relations between [Some] Muslims and the Catholic Church [Not on the Catholic side...] and cast shadows over a recently agreed dialogue between Catholicism [the Pope]and [some members of] Islam.
The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, apparently reacting to this criticism, wrote a front-page editorial arguing that Benedict’s gesture was an expression of religious freedom and certainly not directed against Islam.
“There is no hostile intention toward such an important religion as Islam,” editor-in-chief Gian Maria Vian wrote on Tuesday. “For many decades now, the Catholic Church has shown its willingness to engage and dialogue with the Muslim world, despite thousands of difficulties and obstacles.”
But critics of the baptism questioned why the pope chose to highlight the conversion of Allam, known in Italy for his attacks on Islam.[The Pope chooses those who present themselves to him. If there is an impossibly inordinate number, a variety is chosen to demonstrate the universality of the call of Christ. Is that evil? No.] Church experts on Islam [What a phrase! and who are they, anyway?] privately expressed concern [that would be right] that his message [The Sacrament?] could strain inter-faith relations.[Were they there?]
Writing in Sunday’s edition of the Milan daily Corriere della Sera, of which he is a deputy director, Allam said: “… the root of evil is innate in an Islam that is physiologically violent and historically conflictual.” [Pretty strong stuff. I agree. Indeed, those who have commented on this blog agree even while reacting emotionally against this. People should calm down and think! Let's have some real dialogue which does not shun the topic of violence.]
“DIFFICULTIES AND OBSTACLES”
Catholic-Muslim relations nosedived in 2006 after Benedict delivered a lecture in Regensburg, Germany, that implied he thought Islam was violent and irrational. [So, um, after many Muslims threw an irrational tantrum and killed a nun (of all people -- the cowards! shooting her multiple times) what we have today is a situation in which many important Muslim individuals want to dialogue with the Pope. I mean, what are you saying?]
Muslims around the world protested and the pope, who said he did not agree with the Byzantine emperor he had quoted[Have you taken the time to read the Pope's explanation?], sought to make amends by visiting the famous Blue Mosque in Istanbul and praying towards Mecca with its imam. [Well, now. There's an untruth. I mean. I saw it. The imam took the Holy Father off guard, but the Holy Father, with brilliance, calmly waited while THEY did THEIR thing. Your comment seems to be downright malicious.]
Earlier in March, the Vatican [The Pope] agreed with [some] Muslim leaders to establish a permanent, official dialogue to improve relations.
L’Osservatore Romano said the Vatican remained dedicated toward dialogue with Islam: “Difficulties and obstacles should not overshadow what there is in common and how much can come of the future.”
Aref Ali Nayed, a key figure in a group of over 200 Muslim scholars that launched the dialogue with the Vatican and other Christian churches, said on Monday the Vatican had turned the baptism into “a triumphalist tool for scoring points.” [People tend to say anything they want to say.]
“The whole spectacle… provokes genuine questions about the motives, intentions and plans of some of the pope’s advisers on Islam,” Nayed, who is director of the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in Amman, said in a statement. [And here's the whole of the wicked, terrible conspiracy: We Catholics want everyone to know the One Whom we love! ]
(Additional reporting by Tom Heneghan in Paris; Editing by Jon Boyle)
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INDEX: REUTERS/TRILOGY DIALOGUE
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