Viewers Grapple with the Beliefs of Other Faith Traditions



Dear Catholic Exchange:

I think you owe an apology to all Catholic Exchange subscribers for allowing such a slanderous article as appears on today's webpage by Dennis

Prager.

It seems no one can have a critical opinion these days about the Palastinian/Jewish policy of our country without being labeled an anti-semitic.

If you can't show a balanced viewpoint, you ought to keep silent; especially regarding a faithful Catholic like Patrick Buchanan whose many critical views about Israel's policies in the Mideast are shared by the Pope himself.

Please respond.

Robert Conrad

Dear Mr. Conrad,

Thank you for your feedback. We owe no apology for how the outspoken and controversial Patrick Buchanan may have come off in an opinion piece. Neither have we taken an official position on this issue; we've merely run a commentary by one of our columnists who happens to be Jewish.

Here is a contrary viewpoint we ran in the same space the following week:

The Promised Land? by James Fitzpatrick

So as you can see, we do make a point of balancing our editorials.

In JMJ,

Tom Allen

Editor, CE



Editor's Note: To contact Catholic Exchange, please refer to our Contact Us page.

Please note that all email submitted to Catholic Exchange or its authors (regarding articles published at CE) become the property of Catholic Exchange and may be published in this space. Published letters may be edited for length and clarity. Names and cities of letter writers may also be published. Email addresses of viewers will not normally be published.



Dear Catholic Exchange:

I am having a problem understanding why the Islamic extremists/fundamentalists are so hell-bent on suicide/martrydom. Doesn't the Koran believe in and teach the sanctity of life?? I must conclude that if taking innocent lives is part of their teaching than it must be Satanic and of the Devil.

Larry

Dear Larry:

I'm afraid things aren't that simple. First of all, Islam (like all religions except the Catholic Faith) is not a magisterial faith. There's no council or Pope to define what all Muslims believe. Just different schools of thought with different readings of the Koran. Not all Muslims endorse suicide bombers, just as not all Christians endorse people who shoot abortionists. (Though it must be acknowledged that one is far more likely to find Osama bin Laden treated as a folk hero in the Islamic world than one is to find James Kopp treated as a folk hero by Christians.)

As to Islam itself, it is a human invention which borrows a great deal from pre-existing Judaism and Christianity. Muslims, for instance, revere the Blessed Virgin and honor Abraham. This is hardly Satanic. Similarly, Muslims share a great deal in common with the moral beliefs of Jews and Christians. It was with Muslims that the Holy Father allied to thwart the efforts of pro-abortionists at the 1994 Cairo Conference. Insofar as they agree with the teaching of the Church, Muslims are to be commended.

But because Islam is not a magisterial faith, and because it is based on the merely human idea of a 7th Century man, it reflects and forms the basis, not only for great civilizations such as the Ottoman Empire, but for rich fanatics who emphasize certain passages from the Koran which justify violence against the infidel. It's not the only possible reading of the Koran (which is why Islam is not monolithically in favor of suicide bombing and so forth. But it is certainly *a* possible (and quite popular) reading.

Our task as Catholics is to encourage whatever is good in Islam, in the hope that God will lead its adherents to Jesus Christ. It is also to fight against those elements in Islam which are contrary to Catholic Faith and human dignity. But simply writing the whole thing off as Satanic is too simple. Nothing human is purely satanic or purely angelic.

Mark Shea

Senior Content Editor

Catholic Exchange

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Dear Catholic Exchange:

A very good article. I read a Rabbi (well-known, but unfortunately I don't remember his name) who said that Christians should understand that when the Jews are attacked (for being Jewish) that the real target is Christianity. Our Lord came from the Jews. It's a divide and conquer strategy. Some people don't care whether you're Jewish, Christian, or Muslim – they've made it their business to destroy God. They can't do that, but they don't find the secondary goal of killing people's souls a second prize. That hurts God, too.

E. Gormley

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