The Pope’s Speech

Australia has survived well following Pope Benedict's passing reference to Mohammed in his university address on the role of reason in religion.

I never expected violence here and fully expected Moslem leaders and commentators to have their say. This is their right. Some moderates such as Waleed Aly came to grips with the problem even if Sheik Hilali remained consistent and continued to play his usual game of personal criticism and completely avoiding the central issues in dispute &#0151 the relationship of violence to mainstream Islam and the Quran.

In Australia Catholics, and even archbishops, are well used to public criticism. This goes with the active presence of Christian principles in public life, and is one of the consequences of our precious rights to freedom of expression. Prime Minister Howard was correct to point out that "if Catholics rioted every time people attacked the Catholic Church, you would have riots on a very regular basis." If you don't like the heat you don't go into the kitchen.

Pope Benedict's passing references were different from the Danish cartoons, which were designed to offend and different again from the foul anti-Islamic insults of Van Gogh, who was murdered in Holland. The Pope's quotation was designed to make us think, but not to offend.

The Prime Minister urged us to put this problem behind us and move forward and we need these discussions and relationships to be more than empty words and diplomatic gestures. We should acknowledge where we are.

Non-believers in particular, who think that tolerance requires us to acknowledge that truth cannot be known with certainty, have to recognize that both Christians and Muslims make claims to religious truth. While there is important overlap, some elements of belief common to all Christians are incompatible with elements of belief common to all Muslims. The doctrines that God is Father, Son and Spirit (Trinity) and that Jesus is also divine (Incarnation) are two examples.

Such differences are no reason why we cannot respect one another, much less any reason why we should fight or subject anyone to slavery or second class citizenship.

Recently Catholics have brought two new elements to discussion on Islam. Pope Benedict has led the call for reciprocity, for the rights we acknowledge for minorities in the West to be extended also to the minorities in Muslim countries.

Christians have been suffering violence and deaths for years in countries ranging from Nigeria, through Sudan to Indonesia. The recent murder of an Italian nun in Somalia was not isolated. While these evils are not totally one-sided, years of silence have only seen them worsen. Now we need to speak such truths, prudently in charity, but regularly.

This is why the topic of violence is central. Is violence inconsistent with genuine Islam or is it justifiable, because for Muslims God's will is beyond human categories such as rationality and justice?

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