steampunk wrote:Interesting news from the religious side of things.
First, the Pope on Monday (from <a href='http://unspun.mithuro.com/content/view/319/36/' target='_blank'>here</a>):Uh-oh. That's fighting dirty. He didn't call Islam a religion of peace!Pope Benedict XVI today refused to declare Islam a religion of peace.
Asked by journalists whether Islam could be considered a religion of peace shortly before entering the church of Introd for a meeting with priests and deacons of Valle d'Aosta, the region of northwest Italy where he is spending a brief holiday, the pontiff refused reply positively.
"I would not like to use big words to apply generic labels," he replied. "It certainly contains elements that can favor peace, it also has other elements: we must always seek the best elements."
Second, from a leading Imam in Mecca, on the 15th of July, a week after the London Tube bombings (from <a href='http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD93905' target='_blank'>here</a>):I'm sure the Sheikh meant, ". . . Allah, punish the occupying Zionists and their supporters from among the corrupt infidels. Oh Allah, scatter and disperse them, and make an example of them. . ." in a very peaceful way.Sheikh Abd Al-Rahman Al-Sudayyis, imam of Islam's most holy mosque, Al-Haram in Mecca, holds one of the most prestigious posts in Sunni Islam. Following the terrorist attacks in London, Al-Sudayyis's controversial June 2004 visit to the U.K. for the opening of the London Muslim Centre has been headlined in the British media.
A month before his visit to London last year, Sheikh Al-Sudayyis had been barred from Canada, where he planned to give a series of lectures. The ban followed a report about his sermons by MEMRI that included Al-Sudayyis calling Jews "the scum of the earth" and "monkeys and pigs" who should be "annihilated." Other enemies of Islam were referred to by Sheikh Al-Sudayyis as "worshippers of the cross" and "idol worshipping Hindus" who must be fought.
In his Friday sermon of July 15, 2005, Sheikh Al-Sudayyis said: "Oh Allah, liberate our Al-Aqsa Mosque from the defilement of the occupying and brutal Zionists… Oh Allah, punish the occupying Zionists and their supporters from among the corrupt infidels. Oh Allah, scatter and disperse them, and make an example of them for those who take heed."
It should be noted that the website www.alminbar.net, which regularly posts Al-Sudayyis's sermons, edited out the above segment, as did the Saudi Gazette, which regularly reports on his sermons.
Funny when its not 30 million lines long...I actually read it.