All this talk of the bible said this, the koran said that, these ancient texts said.........Hang on! These are all ancient texts written by blokes long dead. They have no relevance to today but they certainly cast a long shadow.
Why should modern people be fighting over what people said a thousand years ago or whenever, it doesn't matter . It is today that matters, not yesterday. Tomorrow isn't here yet.Let us all celebrate today, it is all we have got.

Irfan,

Thank you for the interesting article.

An issue tangential to the article but important is that the Pope made comments as part of a speech at a University. The comments publicised were by an ancient emperor quoted by the Pope.

He prefaced the comments with: "It was probably the emperor himself who set down this dialogue, during the siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402; and this would explain why his arguments are given in greater detail than the responses of the learned Persian." Thus he carefully avoided any suggestion that it was a fair exchange of ideas.

He also said the point he wanted to distil was marginal to the report. The overall quote was thus not cited for the history or fairness/credibility of the comments. He just wanted to distil one point to develop an argument of non-violence. He dismissed any notion that it was a balanced report of the debate and indicated that it was the view of a Greek Emperor when Constantinople was under seige. That is a strong clear message that the overall quote is rather biased and cannot be assumed accurate.

The Pope indicated it was an unbalanced commentary by an Emperor at war with Muslims. He has since said explicitly that it does not reflect his own comments. Would you like a copy of the speech he gave?

A translation into English of The Pope's address is available here

http://closedcafeteria.blogspot.com/2006/09/popes-address-in-mnchen.html

It seems to have been done by someone to whom the English language is not his native tongue as the idiom is a bit strange. That being said, it nevertheless it does allow us to read the text of his address rather than accepting hearsay from people who think they know what he said.

Great article and great logic, but I'd say that you are more an
exception rather then the rule, in the Islamic world, sadly.

Just a couple of days ago in the West Australain, respected Islamic
commentator Professor Samina Yasmeen was calling for self censorship
when it came to commenting about Islam, in case followers became
violent, given that many of them have low literacy rates.

Hello hello lol, given that Islam is highly political worldwide,
does she think that we should not discuss politics?

To make any kind of progress in this world, we need to be able to
freely debate anything. I respect peoples right to believe, that
doesent mean I have to respect what they believe.

Irfan,
I was desperately waiting for an article like this to come out. It's been so frustrating watching, hearing and reading news about the reactions to Pope Benedict's comments...frustrating because those rallying violently are reinforcing the bloody characteristics which they're protesting about.

Thanks again for the article, great stuff.

We hear so much rubbish about Al-Andalus being a hotbed of multifaith tolerance under the benign rule of emirs and caliphs until it was all ruined by Spanish Christians having the nerve to take back their own country.

What then does Irfan think of the puritanical Almohads of Spain who so viciously persecuted non-Muslims? Before they invaded Spain from their home in Morocco they offered Christians and Jews the choice of conversion or expulsion; in 1165, one Almohad ruler ordered that all Jews in the country convert on pain of death (forcing the Jewish rabbi, theologian, philosopher, and physician Maimonides to feign conversion to Islam before fleeing the country). He fled to Egypt where he started to practise Judaism again - only to be accused of "apostasy"! He then wrote in his Yemen Epistle about the degrading treatment and debasement of Jews at the hands of the Muslims.

Spanish Jews found a true refuge in a WESTERN country - tolerant Holland - unlike the second-class dhimmitude they found in the Ottoman Empire. Dhimmitude refers to the condition of institutionalised debasement of non-Muslims in Muslim lands where Christians and Jews ONLY may retain their faith if they pay a yearly tax, build no new churches and synagogues or repair old ones, wear distinctive clothing, and hold no position of authority over a Muslim. Is this a multifaith paradise?

The most tolerant cosmopolitan city of the world in the 8th and 9th century was Changan, the capital of China - full of Turks, Arabs, Iranians, Indians, Japanese, Koreans and Malays all practising Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Islam, Manichaeism, Buddhism of all schools. It certainly wasn't in Muslim-ruled Spain.