Harvest of Hindus as Converts By Pavithran
Harvest No.2: Pope Benedict XVI’s Speech On Islamic Terrorism
Late Pope Paul John II had advocated the massive campaign to convert Hindus into Christianity during his visit to India on the 9th November 1999 – the eve of Deepavali Festival and the present Pope Benedict XVI had chosen 12th September 2006 – the worst day of 9/11 for U.S. - one day after the terror attack of Twin Towers in New York to speak at West Germany about Islamic terrorism perhaps to harvest Muslims as converts. But his speech had immediately evoked widespread revolt throughout the Muslim world, which made Pope to tender regret and then even he had to apologize for his speech.
Pope would not speak oft hand and his speech would have normally been gone through various stages with his experts and advisories who were supposed to approve the same. Yet, Pope had to retrace his words and forced to tender an apology, which is very rare.
It is universally held that there is no violence approved by any religious sects. It is therefore unholy to term terrorism as Hindu Terrorism or Christianity Terrorism or Islamic Terrorism. A terrorist, immediately on becoming one, loses his religious tag and has to be dealt with severely as per the law without any fear or favor.
The present Pope was a Professor of theology in the 1970s at Regensburg University, West Germany. He had visited the University on September 12, 2006 and had chosen to speak on “Faith, Reason and the University”.
In that speech, the Pope had quoted from a dialogue believed to have taken place in 1931 between Emperor of the Byzantine Manuel II Palaiologos and a Persian scholar. The dialogue was recorded in a book by Manuel II (Dialogue 7 of Twenty-six Dialogues with a Persian).
"The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," the Pope said and then the Pope had quoted the dialogue which runs thus: "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
In his book, Manuel II then continues, saying, "God is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death…”. The above passage had not been quoted by Pope, but, extracted to know the mind of the emperor about his views on religion and violence.
Many Muslims were offended by what was perceived as a denigration of Muhammad, and many reacted violently.
The Pope had explained that these were only quotes and that these were someone else’s words and not his opinion. Still the muslim world was not satisfied.
Then, Pope Benedict expressed his regret for any offense his words had given: "The Holy Father is very sorry that some passages of his speech may have sounded offensive to the sensibilities of Muslim believers," said Vatican Secretary in a statement. Only then, the muslim world had accepted his regret and apology.
Pope's attempts to show to the world that the Christianity is tolerant compared to other religions had bomeranged. It is unlikely that proselytism of muslims to christianity will ever succeed.
Conversions of religions are not to be propogated as a movement as being practised by christian missionaries duly funded by churches. Voluntary conversions on convictions are not taboo, but, exploitation of economic disabilities should be curbed with a view to maintain harmonious atmosphere amongst various religious faiths.
Late Pope Paul John II had advocated the massive campaign to convert Hindus into Christianity during his visit to India on the 9th November 1999 – the eve of Deepavali Festival and the present Pope Benedict XVI had chosen 12th September 2006 – the worst day of 9/11 for U.S. - one day after the terror attack of Twin Towers in New York to speak at West Germany about Islamic terrorism perhaps to harvest Muslims as converts. But his speech had immediately evoked widespread revolt throughout the Muslim world, which made Pope to tender regret and then even he had to apologize for his speech.
Pope would not speak oft hand and his speech would have normally been gone through various stages with his experts and advisories who were supposed to approve the same. Yet, Pope had to retrace his words and forced to tender an apology, which is very rare.
It is universally held that there is no violence approved by any religious sects. It is therefore unholy to term terrorism as Hindu Terrorism or Christianity Terrorism or Islamic Terrorism. A terrorist, immediately on becoming one, loses his religious tag and has to be dealt with severely as per the law without any fear or favor.
The present Pope was a Professor of theology in the 1970s at Regensburg University, West Germany. He had visited the University on September 12, 2006 and had chosen to speak on “Faith, Reason and the University”.
In that speech, the Pope had quoted from a dialogue believed to have taken place in 1931 between Emperor of the Byzantine Manuel II Palaiologos and a Persian scholar. The dialogue was recorded in a book by Manuel II (Dialogue 7 of Twenty-six Dialogues with a Persian).
"The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," the Pope said and then the Pope had quoted the dialogue which runs thus: "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
In his book, Manuel II then continues, saying, "God is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death…”. The above passage had not been quoted by Pope, but, extracted to know the mind of the emperor about his views on religion and violence.
Many Muslims were offended by what was perceived as a denigration of Muhammad, and many reacted violently.
The Pope had explained that these were only quotes and that these were someone else’s words and not his opinion. Still the muslim world was not satisfied.
Then, Pope Benedict expressed his regret for any offense his words had given: "The Holy Father is very sorry that some passages of his speech may have sounded offensive to the sensibilities of Muslim believers," said Vatican Secretary in a statement. Only then, the muslim world had accepted his regret and apology.
Pope's attempts to show to the world that the Christianity is tolerant compared to other religions had bomeranged. It is unlikely that proselytism of muslims to christianity will ever succeed.
Conversions of religions are not to be propogated as a movement as being practised by christian missionaries duly funded by churches. Voluntary conversions on convictions are not taboo, but, exploitation of economic disabilities should be curbed with a view to maintain harmonious atmosphere amongst various religious faiths.
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