If I had a twenty dollar bill for every person who said something bad about Islam, I would be a rich woman. If I got angry everytime someone said something stupid or ignorant about Islam, I would have high blood pressure and panic attacks all the time.
Really, though, did you expect anything else from the Pope? Come on. Sorry, but he’s just no John Paul, ya know? Pope John Paul II had seen enough war and genocide to know that Benedict’s words are usually a precursor to such crimes. Now I don’t know about the loyalty of most Catholics to the Pope but I will say this. I come from a Catholic family and…I didn’t even know birth control was “haram” in Catholicism until I went to a Catholic college. Yep, a born-and-bred Catholic who took catechism classes knew nothing about the church’s stance on birth control. I would argue that many Catholics, especially in America, interpret the religion the way they want. That would explain why all the Catholics I knew were sexually active and using birth control.
So more than likely, if my mom and stepdad are at mass and the priest mentions this “thing,” and if they ask me how I feel…I just have to say that I don’t care. Because honestly, the Prophet (many blessings upon him) dealt with more abuse (physical and verbal) than what the Pope said. And you know what, he prayed for his enemies. He didn’t burn down their homes or shout or raise a ruckus. Was it offensive? Sure, but just as the cartoons, why should I give these people the benefit of seeing my anger? They don’t deserve our attention, much less our rage. They need guidance more than anything because a heart that doesn’t love the Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salaam) is bereft of many blessings.
Alhmadulillah, Ramadan is right around the corner. Hopefully, the protesting Muslims will open the seerah, read about his life, and it will soften their hearts. I think everytime some famous politican or religious leader says something stupid, we should invite Muslims and non-Muslims to the mosque to talk about it. Oh wait, that would be dawah and that’s something we’re supposed to do anyway. Aaaaaaaah, now I get it. 
Safa said,
September 17, 2006 at 6:35 am
I’d take just a dollar for every bad thing said, and still be worth billions. I have no idea what the Pope said….I’m gonna check around the net about it now……I’m so outta touch these days….sheesh…..interesting BLOG by the way……
DA said,
September 17, 2006 at 8:04 am
No doubt. I wrote a alittle about this today.
I wonder why more Muslims didn’t get upset that a member of the Hitler Youth was becoming pope in the first place?
aiman said,
September 17, 2006 at 1:15 pm
I agree with Juan Cole’s analysis on this:
“Some commentators have complained about Muslim sensibilities in this regard. But in my view, this sensitivity is a feature of postcolonialism. Muslims were colonized by Western powers, often for centuries, and all that period they were told that their religion was inferior and barbaric. They are independent now, though often they have gained independence only a couple of generations (less if you consider neocolonialism). As independent, they are finally liberated to protest when Westerners put them down.
“There is an analogy to African-Americans, who suffered hundreds of years of slavery and then a century of Jim Crow. They are understandably sensitive about white people putting them down, and every time one uses the “n” word, you can expect a strong reaction. In the remarks the pope quoted about Muhammad, he essentially did the equivalent of using the “n” word for Muslims. It is no mystery that people are protesting.
“This issue is not going to go away until the Pope comes out and clarifies and apologizes. All he has to do is quote Vatican II on Islam, which is still Catholic doctrine last I knew, and the whole issue would blow over. It will be a huge error if he sticks to his guns.”
Black Lion said,
September 17, 2006 at 2:03 pm
No, he should be forced to explain that he was merely telling what a previous Pope said, or we can insult him Fact is, there are scholars who say that to verbally abuse the Prophet (saws) is a capital crime, for which Ibn Taymiyyah immediately decapitated a Jew in a market place. Frankly, if Benedict was repeating it in agreement, I say someone please kill him just for saying it out loud. I’d do that to him if he insulted any of my parents or my sibling, so why not for my last Prophet? Now, if he was merely saying that a previous pope said this, then we can let that ride.
But even if we’re not personally angry, we must be ready to punsh those who slander our Prophet. Who so ever drew those cartoons against Muhammad should be shot throught the heart or decapitated, unless they want to become a Muslim, since slandering the innocent alone is causing enough fitnah, how much more so a Prophet?
Izzy Mo, your stance is still compassionate, though, and it would be nice if people didn’t take advantage of your compassion.
JD said,
September 17, 2006 at 2:49 pm
IM wrote: “I come from a Catholic family and…I didn’t even know birth control was ‘haram’ in Catholicism until I went to a Catholic college.”
I also come from a Catholic family, but I’m a little surprised you didn’t know that most birth control methods for Catholics are “haram” (coitus interruptus and the rhythm method, I believe, are the only two “halal” methods). I knew that by high school at the latest (and perhaps by middle school). (Some year I’ve got to write about the Catholic-Muslim connection per Geert Hofstede’s cultural analysis.)
“I would argue that many Catholics, especially in America, interpret the religion the way they want.”
Of course they do. Many Catholics, IMO, treat Catholicism as a “cafeteria religion.”
altaf said,
September 17, 2006 at 7:42 pm
the previous pope was just as horrid — sure, he paid some lip service to Islam and Muslims — but as i’ve stated elsewhere “Muslim” is not a tribal identity… and so we don’t just look at how “we” are treated, and ignore everything else… John Paul, was terrible in his cold war mentality that resulted in hundreds of thousands being killed in Central and South America (courtesy Ron. Reagan) — i did a lot of work with refugees from those areas – and this is something i know first hand.
Benedict is just carrying on this “cold war” tradition – except, that this time around – the “terrorists” are Muslims, not Central Americans — that is why we are taking note. Not because anything has really changed in Rome.
i’m gonna have to do a blog entry on ihsan discussing this further, but meanwhile:
“John Paul was profoundly political, always on the side of the powerful in Latin America and in Spain. He never touched on the political causes of poverty, he marginalized and ostracized the mass religious movements in Latin America that called for major social reforms in favor of the poor, and (with Cardinal Ratzinger, the guardian of the Church orthodoxy) he condemned such movements, ordering their leading figures Gustavo Gutierrez, Leonardo Boff, Jon Sobrino, and others to remain silent. Bishop Romero wrote in his personal notes that, when he denounced the brutal repression carried out by the fascist dictatorship in El Salvador, the Pope reprimanded him for not being sufficiently balanced in his criticisms of the Salvadorian dictatorship, whom John Paul referred to as the legitimate government of El Salvador.”
http://www.counterpunch.org/navarro04082005.html
C L O S E R » Blog Archive » The Blessed Balance Between Reason and Religion - part 3: Politics of Reason, Rage and Religion said,
September 17, 2006 at 11:27 pm
[...] By now the Pope, in person, more or less expressed his regrets and the Vatican has tried to explain his comments. The reactions, among Muslim leaders, are mixed some welcoming the statement, others saying it is not enough, and again others are displeased because of his retractions, while others could not care less. An important issue at stake here is of course the relationship between religion and violence. It would be mistake to think that Islam, or any other religion, is inherently violent. It would be also a mistake to think that Islam, or any other religion, is inherently non-violent. First of all religions don’t act. Second a religion is not the same as it followers. One might call this cultural relativism or even moral relativism, but I do not think that it is the case. On the contrary actually, it opens up our view to both the light side as well the dark side of a religion and its devotees. [...]
Indigo Jo Blogs said,
September 17, 2006 at 11:27 pm
Pope criticises, Anjem embarrasses
It’s depressing to see Muslims once again resorting to violence in response, no doubt, to rumours about what the Pope may or may not have said in his speech at Regensburg last week (extracts at the BBC’s website, with a…
AnonyMouse said,
September 18, 2006 at 1:35 am
As-salaamu ‘alaikum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatu,
Yeah, I wrote a post about this issue, too… I mean, PEOPLE! Screaming, shouting, frothing at the mouth, attacking churches, etc. – they aren’t going to help our cause one bit. We’re harming ourselves more than ever by reacting in this manner, ‘cuz it just gives the crazies more excuses to say, ‘See! Islam is a religion of violence! Muslims are evil!’
We need to keep our cool, ignore these loonies, and work on being the best Muslims we can be. And make du’aa. Lots of it. That’s the best thing we can do. So do it!
DA said,
September 18, 2006 at 6:17 am
Blaklion, do you have ANY idea how insane you sound? We need to kill people who insult the prophet? Why, then, did the prophet himself not do this? A few scholars think it’s permissable…So what? I can find a scholar who would endorse ANY position. I believe Ibn Taymiyyah would do that, as he was both hateful and insane, but this is hardly proof of anything Muslims should do here and now.
God help us, no wonder people think we’re crazy terrorists who hate freedom; some of us really are.
izzymo said,
September 18, 2006 at 7:04 am
Wooo!
I gotta catch up on these comments
Salaam alaikum,
Safa: Thanks for visiting. Yeah, we would be some rich sisters, would we?
I wouldn’t worry about searching it since it’s just more silly dunya. Then again, that would make me silly for writing about it.
DA: Hitler youth dude?! Well, that explains EVERYTHING. Oh, for your box, I’m trying something new and cool. I hope you like it when you get it.
Aiman: You can always depend on Juan Cole to add intelligent insight into these matters. I wish we could just throw off the colonial yoke and get to the business of changing ourselves and our condition.
Black Lion: I guess I don’t know how to respond. I don’t know enough about Ibn Taymiyah so I’m gonna leave that alone. But because there are no real Islamic courts in any land that could punish a person for slander, the Pope or anyone else could not be harmed. Even if such courts existed, if the person who made the insult lives in a country governed by other laws, s/he could not be punished. Why kill him? It would be like the martyrs of Corboda where Christians purposely slandered the Prophet (alayhi salatu wa salaam, God forbid) for the sake of being martyred. Isn’t that just playing into their hands? Believe it or not, there are many people who would love to be abused or mistreated by us so that our enemies can have canon fodder. I’m all for calling a spade a spade but I’m not up for making him into some martyr for free-speech like Salman Rushdie.
Yusuf Smith said,
September 18, 2006 at 7:09 am
As-Salaamu ‘alaikum,
The laws on executing people who insult the Prophet (sall’ Allahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) are for real, but they apply to the Islamic state and do not give any licence for people to carry out vigilante actions, much less attack churches or innocent ordinary Catholics. It has to be proved that what was said actually vituperates the Prophet (sall’ Allahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) or, with malicious intent, detracts from his status, and is not merely based on a misunderstanding (you can read the laws in detail in Qadi Iyad’s Shifa’ which was translated into English by Aisha Bewley). You would have to put it to a serious scholar (not a rabble-rousing idiot) whether the Pope’s words would merit any punishment, but my guess is that it would not. I also suspect that many of the Muslims who resorted to violence had only heard bits of the speech and nowhere near the whole thing.
izzymo said,
September 18, 2006 at 7:17 am
JD: What can I say? My parents said it was okay, my friends said it was okay so I assumed it was okay with the Church. My parish really emphasized the evil of abortion but that’s about it. And considering what went on at Catholic schools in NOLA (like St. Mary’s girls being referred to as holy whores), there is that cafeteria approach to it.
Altaf: Oh, yeah, he was horrible when it came to LA. How could I forget that? Didn’t he have some beef with Oscar Romero?
Closer: Response is above
Indigo: Thank you for your post, Yusuf
Anonymouse: Ameen! As you stated, where is the rage over Darfur or Afghanistan? But cartoons and words…oh, yeah, let’s hit the streets. @@
under|progress said,
September 18, 2006 at 8:01 am
Popegate and the Muslim response
Aisha E: Let’s put a pin in this. If we want apologies, let’s demand them from the people responsible for the deaths of Muslim children and the impoverishment of Muslim nations. Not from old men clearly looking to pick fights
thabet said,
September 18, 2006 at 8:03 am
assalamu `alaykum
Black Lion’s comments in #4 are part of the problem. (S?)He has not bothered to read anything merely assuming what has or has not been said. He wasn’t even quoting a “previous pope”, but a Byzatine emperor from a different strand of Christianity (whose empire happened to be under attack from Muslims; so he was hardly filled with love for Islam). If people, Muslims, with access to various news reports cannot be bothered to read whatever was said (good or bad), then is it any wonder that someone in the middle of Somalia has decided to shoot anything resembling Christianity or others with less time on their hands (since if we’re reading blogs, we have lots of time on our hands) have attacked a churches in response.
wasalam
UmmZaid said,
September 18, 2006 at 5:06 pm
Salaam ‘Alaikum
I agree with Izzy. Muslims don’t scream, shout, cry, or storm the streets when the woman next door is being beaten or they are tearing down the historical sites of Makkah and Madinah for malls and parking lots. It’s ridiculous and a shame for the Ummah what they did in Palestine. (note: I am TOTALLY disconnected from the news, except what I am hearing here and there about it)
Irrelevant Opinions » Le fureur du jour said,
November 9, 2006 at 6:04 am
[...] When You Just Don’t Care Enough | Izzy Mo’s Blog [...]
jericho said,
June 6, 2008 at 2:40 am
I dont know what gives….can the ppl of the world just love each other or are we so full of hatred that war and death/murder of gods ppl the only awnser?
I would just love to live in peace with my fellow ppl on this planet of differant beliefs but obviously…that will never happen because of ppl who read the bible wrong or the koran wrong…if u opened up ur eyes and looked at the big picture?….All religions point to the same thing…A loving god who takes care of us and wants the best for all of us. The only thing thats wrong here is attitudes for years that have led us to this. The jamacians and Bob Marley have said 1 thing…and that is (i know ur gonna bring up the jlp and scratch) 1LOVE!…and thats the truth ppl! 1love! If our world is ever gonna be anything…it has to be 1LOVE!
jericho said,
June 6, 2008 at 2:56 am
ad-amendum to what i said: I believe in all ppl and thier choice…the catholic church would love to keep us in the dark ages where they had the most power….so would christianity…and every other religion….the prophet mohammed was a man of vision who saw the chains of any religion besides that of the one true god broken…the law of god…allah…that is…we are all equal and of 1 ppl…and life is ours to choose…we choose to live how we want…but it what is awaits us after…thats our choice…..still…if we could all do 1 love and believe in our hearts of a greater power that will be there for us when we leave this earth…love will be there….politics are worthless when it comes to belief…..politicians will have no place …becuz god is the ruling power….and god gave us all 1 love