Yes, but it seems you cannot even quote something critical of someone else’s religion. Like as if the only reason you may reference anything is in endorsement. (BTW, our own more hardline Christians do tend to take that tack, too…)
I could understand if it were just the uneducated or the uninformed doing this, but the government of Morocco, which pulled their ambassador to the Vatican; the Prime Minister of Malaysia, who demanded retraction; the President of Turkey, who’s saying “We’ll see” about the Pope’s sheduled visit; these are not typical mob members. This is petty governmental action that will just stir things up.
I read the text of the speech. It had nothing to do with Islam and nothing in it to warrant the reaction it got. I wonder how the particular quote that’s causing trouble even got out to the people it’s bothering. It was an academic speech. Who misunderstood it so badly that they quoted that minor part of it? Or did someone just go looking through it for problems?
A lot of why “Muslims” seem to protest so much has probably to do with slanted media coverage, and widespread technology. 10 years ago, it was more difficult to get information aobut possible offensive words/actions into the muslim countries; today, there’s the internet and mobile phones.
Similar, every TV crew knows that pictures of protesting Muslims will sell. Will pictures of protesting fundie Christians in the US sell, too, or would they offend a large part of the US population, and therefore not be shown?
As for the govt. - leaving aside Turkey, which suprises me, I suspect that the rulers are going with the flow of their population, rather than against it, because it’s easier at the moment. When things have calmed down and the protests in the street stopped, then smart govt.s can talk behind the scenes and quietly bring things back to normal. But I think that if a govt. leader stood there and did nothing at that moment (or even opposed the protest by trying to put things into context), he would face the wrath of the crowds and the populists, too.
I do think the pope has to realise that, given the propensity of parts of the “Muslim world” to take things out of context and get pissed off at perceived slights, and overreact in effigy and church-burning, potentially murderous ways, he and his diplomatic advisers, should have the political cop-on to leave such subjects well alone.
Hell, in microcosm, look at the outrage of SDMB members whenever anyone makes any comparison of anything with Nazi Germany - even when that comparison might be vaguely valid. Some subjects are just verboten, however reasonable the reason for bringing them up.
Pragmatically, he has to realise that he’s an important religio-political figure now, and anything he says has a potential audience of about 6 billion, hotheads included. John Paul II realised this.
Clearly, since he’s issued a sort-of apology now, Il Papa now realises this too.
I seem to remember hearing a report on this at the time, on NPR. It wasn’t so much that there were “fake” cartoons, just that some of the cartoons that the cleric was hotting up the crowds with were unpublished; no-one had ever seen them, save for editors who recognized that they were unpublishable. How did he manage to get his hands on those, I wonder?
Ya’ know I wasd thinking the other day.
I’m 36yo and I CA NOT recall, even one time, when the media said something about Muslims then associated it with something good.
Maybe I’ve just been one extremely lucky mother fucker but (just about) every Muslim I’ve ever met IRL has been nothing less than nice.
It kinda makes me think the media is a MAJOR fucking prick for doing that. It also makes me think it’s kind of sad how we (non-Muslims) eat this crap up with a spoon.
Are you saying that the editors gave him those unpublished cartoons to deliberately start a riot?
An even better question is, 'Why are people so gullible?"
Sigh. I guess. He was speaking at a university though, where it’s customary to not water down everything to the level of Dr. Seuss, because you know your listeners can do better. I just wish the Muslim world would follow in the footsteps of their coreligionists who gave us the words “algebra”, “algorithm”, “alkali”, “zenith”, and “nadir”, and use the brains that Allah gave them, rather than smart people having to play to the gallery all the time. Hell, I wish the non-Muslim world would, too. I also wish my wife would give me a menage a quatre with Lucy Lawless and Sophie B. Hawkins for my birthday, because they know I’m man enough for all of them, so they don’t mind sharing. That wish is probably more realistic. :rolleyes: 
My sig has never been more appropriate.
Well… as jjimm noted the protesters got their apology. Somehow, I think this will be vaguely disappointing for them.
The other cartoons need not have been drawn by the same people.
Not in this context; that’s just dodging the question.
I’m not saying anything of the sort. Truth to tell, I wasn’t tacitly implying anything. I was honestly curious as to how they might have gotten ahold of unpublished cartoons.
That’s actually a full, personal apology rather than through a cardinal. Quite a big step.
I predict a lot of forlorn people across the Middle East selling Pope effigies at knock-down prices. Or maybe they’ll just carry on burning churches down. “Hey, we’re on a roll!”
Here you can see that they are still being a bunch of whiny little bitches.
I have a feeling that we are going to start seeing entire nations taking sides either for or against the Islamic faith all across the world within the next 10 years. WW3 within 11 years. Someday people are going to stop coddling these fucking clowns for fear of terrorist retaliation and just say “fuck it” and start clearing them out so the rest of us can progress in life instead of constantly dealing with the Islamic anchor tied around humanities ankle.
Islam is the religous cancer of this planet.
Indeed. I’d like to see these Muslims start getting all bent out of shape when one of their
OWN says something idiotic and/or imflammatory. The wackos won’t go away until the
mainstream Muslim world starts letting them know, in completely unequivocal language,
that they are NOT being true to Islam’s core tenets and are hence ruining the faith.
Ah, genocide. Are there any problems you can’t solve?
This is my largest point too. And I blame Bush as much as I blame the Muslim leaders: it’s his emphasis on the “us vs. them” thing that has the Muslim leaders choosing sides. His actions have created a situation where they feel that if they DO speak out, they’re taking the West’s side agains their own people.
Fucked up all around.
Funny, I could turn your twisted logic very easily against fundies. I would not as I do not believe in genocide as a solution, but what the fuck are you talking about here? How are you going to decide who to kill? Are you going to round them up or just carpet bomb vast areas? Nukes, Bio, Chem or just conventional?
Please re-read your own post and tell us what you are saying.
Jim
So the pope apologized?
Sorry, this ain’t no apology:
“I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address . . . which were considered offensive.”
Sorry for the reactions? The remarks were *considered * offensive? I call bullshit.