The wave of anger sweeping across the Muslim communities all over the world, including in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and other parts of India, over a recent speech of Pope Benedict XVI, shows no signs of abating despite apologies from the Pope. He has sought to apologise in what he probably thought was a dignified manner, but those angered by his remarks seem to want nothing less than an abject apology from him. Demands have also been made for a retraction of his speech.
The angry demonstrations, which have come on the eve of the first anniversary of the publication of the Danish cartoons (September 30) caricaturising the Holy Prophet of Islam, which justifiably angered the Muslims all over the world earlier this year, have been sought to be exploited by organisations such as Al Qaeda and the other members of the International Islamic Front (IIF) and the Hizbut Tahrir (HT) to further widen the already worrisome divide between the Muslims and non-Muslims. Al Qaeda and the IIF, which have always been projecting the US-led war against international jihadi terrorism as a religious war against Islam being waged by the modern version of the Crusaders, have been projecting the Pope's ill-advised remarks as one more piece of evidence in corroboration of their claim regarding a global conspiracy of the Crusaders and the Jewish people against Islam.
While the demonstrations have by and large remained peaceful, there have been some reports of attacks on churches in the Palestinian territory. More seriously, there has been an alleged murder of a Catholic nun in Somalia and physical threats against the Pope and the Vatican have reportedly been held out in web sites associated with Al Qaeda and pro-Al Qaeda elements.
Whereas the demonstrations over the Danish cartoons picked up momentum nearly three months after their publication and there was some evidence of a centralised orchestration, the current demonstrations against the Pope's speech seem to have been immediate andspontaneous. While there is no evidence of external incitement at the beginning of the demonstrations, one could sense an attempt to keep the demonstrations going till the first anniversary of the publication of the Danish cartoons so that the twoevents—the publication of the cartoons and the Pope's speech—could be projected as part of the same conspiracy and crusade against Islam.
Security agencies all over the world, and particularly in Denmark and other Western countries, were already worried over the possibility of violent incidents coinciding with the first anniversary of the cartoons and their worries would be doubled as a result of the current anger over the Pope's speech. This would underline the need for a greater security alert than originally envisaged all over the world.
The fresh Muslim anger has been caused by the opening para of a speech delivered by Pope Benedict XVI on September 12, 2006, when he read out a prepared speech on"Faith, Reason and the University — Memories and Reflections" at the University of Regensburg in Germany, where he was previously a professor of theology. What has shocked the Muslims is his quotation of a remark reportedly made by a Byzantine Emperor in 1391 during a conversation with an unnamed Persian scholar. That remark sought to give the impression that the Byzantine Emperor tended to identify Islam with violence. The Pope's reference to that remark, which was totally unnecessary in his speech, has been interpreted by Muslim religious leaders as indicating that the Pope too agreed with the negative manner in which the former Emperor projected Islam.
While Vatican spokesmen and the Pope himself have denied that the Pope's use of the quotation indicated that he agreed with it, this has not carried conviction with the agitating leaders of the Muslimcommunities. They legitimately ask: If the Pope did not agree with the quotation, what was the need for citing it? Or, why he did not make it clear in the speech itself that he did not agree with it. The present denials of the Vatican and the Pope are seen by the Muslims as an afterthought in view of the Muslim anger.
At a time when there was already a worrisome divide between the Muslims and the non-Muslims and there was a likelihood of the revival of the feelings of hurt in the Muslim communities over the Danishh cartoons, it was totally unwise on the part of the Pope and his speech-writers in the Vatican,if any, to have shown insensitivity to the feelings of Muslims by including this quotation in his speech.
President Bush and many other Western leaders also often make negative remarks about Islam, but their remarks do not evoke the same kind of anger because they are political leaders. Their remarks are ignored by the Muslim leaders. The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church and an important religious leader. His remarks, when negative, acquire a kind ofsignificance which the remarks of political leaders do not have. They are, often incorrectly, seen as representing the views of the Christian religion as awhole—or at least of the Catholic church.
It is not in the interest of any religious community or the international community as a whole that the existing divide between different communities be further widened. Concerted attempts should be made by leaders of the Muslim and Christian communities to put this incident behind us and to prevent any attempts by Al Qaeda, the IIF and other extremist or terrorist elements to exploit this incident for their own nefariouspurposes.
Advertisement
B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently Director, Institute For Topical Studies,Chennai
